Tag Archives: budget
The Long Restructuring of Ontario’s Health Spending
Ontario’s hospital sector has made a submission to the provincial finance committee making the case that overcrowding has become so serious that there is a need for more funding. They are seeking a 4.55 percent increase in operating funds for the 2018-19 fiscal year in their pre budget submission. According to numbers calculated from data […]
The Federal Deficit: A Long Term View
In honour of the 2015 Federal Budget and the balancing of the budget, why not a retrospective on Canadian federal government deficits since 1867. In the period from 1867 to 2014, the Federal government has run a deficit in 108 out of 148 years or 73 percent of the time. In nominal terms, the federal […]
Fiscal Ships
“We're two ships that pass in the night, And we smile when we say it's alright We're still here, It's just that we're out of sight Like those ships that pass in the night” Barry Manilow Next week is a double-header of sorts for economists interested in Canadian public finance – a Federal budget on […]
Ontario Finances Not Quite On Target This Year
As Ontario moves into budget season, it is instructive to take a quick look at the finances to date as revealed in the most recent Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review which was presented November 2014. Ontario’s aim then as no doubt now was to have the budget balanced by 2017-18. According to the Review, […]
Another Portent of a Looming Federal Election
It turns out that that Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver is reported as saying that “the government can shrink the national debt by growing the economy and ‘without actually paying off any debt’.” At the same time, as part of pre–budgetary consultations with the finance committee, the Conference Board of Canada, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation […]
Inheritance
Well, Ontario has a new finance minister – Charles Sousa – and according to the Toronto Star: “Charles Sousa, the two-term Mississauga South MPP who finished fifth in last month’s leadership race, will succeed the retiring Finance Minister Dwight Duncan at the treasury. An affable former Royal Bank executive, Sousa inherits a $11.9-billion deficit that […]
Ontario’s 2012 Budget: Bending the Spending Curve
Well the Ontario budget is out and despite all the talk of 30 percent across-the-board budget cutting in the wake of the Drummond Report, it forecasts more a deceleration of spending growth rather than steep cuts.
Why Dalton McGuinty Desperately Needs a U.S. Economic Recovery
Recent reports suggest that the federal government may be seeing some improvements on the deficit front due to increases in revenue. However, no such luck seems to be gracing Ontario. Indeed, the Drummond’s report forecast of continued lackluster revenue growth for Ontario due to its weak economy has placed Ontario’s government in a bind.
Are Panic and Posturing Good Ways to Reduce the Deficit?
The Ontario government’s final approach to deficit reduction has begun with selected leaks of economist Don Drummond’s “first draft” of his review via media interviews designed to combine deficit reduction with high drama. A column by Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star titled “Brace for a firestorm across Ontario” outlines cuts as high as […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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