Tag Archives: canada
Public Health Spending and Pandemic Preparedness
As the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada begins to peak, there have several discussions and perspectives offered on how prepared Canada was for this pandemic as well as whether we moved quickly enough to address the situation. Obviously, the situation has improved markedly given that there is now time for these retrospectives […]
Covid-19, Italy and Lessons for Canada
by Thomas Barbiero, Ryerson University and Livio Di Matteo, Lakehead University As Italo-Canadese and members of the large Italian diaspora throughout the world, we have found the COVID-19 situation in Italy truly heart-wrenching. As we write, Italy is the hardest hit country outside of China with over 60,000 confirmed cases and over 6,000 deaths. The […]
NAFTA – The “Worst” Trade Deal Ever
With time on my hands over the last week of the holiday season, I spent a bit more time than usual surfing news channels and watched a press conference by U.S. President Donald Trump in which among other things he again reiterated how the United States had been hard done by NAFTA and that it […]
Becoming Sustainable: The Six Stages of Provincial-Territorial Government Health Spending
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has released its 22nd annual edition of National Health Expenditure Trends covering the period 1975 to 2018 and the basic highlights are as follows: Total health expenditure is expected to reach $253.5 billion or $6,839 per Canadian in 2018. In 2018, total health expenditure is expected to rise […]
Australian Economic Growth in Longer Term Perspective
A recent issue of The Economist highlighted the stellar economic performance of Australia – or as it was termed, “The Wonder Down Under” – arguing its economy is most arguably the most successful in the rich world. Australia has apparently not seen a recession for 27 years, seen its median income has grown four times […]
Grain Transshipment at the Lakehead: A Canada Day Celebration
“Two towns stand on the shores of the Lake less than a mile apart. What Lloyd’s is to shipping, or the College of Surgeons to medicine, that they are to the Wheat.” Rudyard Kipling, Letters of Travel Just in time for July 1st, there was a short ceremony and plaque unveiling today at the Western […]
Natural Resources, Living Standards and Inequality
Kevin Milligan had an op-ed in the Globe and Mail a few days ago drawing the link between natural resource development, middle class incomes and inequality. The point essentially was: “Without income derived from the resource boom, Canadian inequality and the well-being of the Canadian middle class would be much worse than we’ve experienced.” The […]
The Balance of the Federation: Canada 1870 to 2016
My contribution to Maclean’s 2018 Chartapalooza was a plot of the federal government’s share of total government expenditure in Canada since 1870. The chart showed that until World War I, with the exception of period marked by the building of the federally subsidized CPR, the federal share of total government spending in Canada was approximately […]
So What Happens in the Next Recession?
I’m not a macro economist by any stretch of the imagination and yet I cannot help wondering what is going to happen in terms of policy response the next time Canada goes into a downturn. It is not a question of whether there will be another recession, only when. By policy response, I am of […]
Provincial Government Health Spending: The Force Awakens?
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) recently released its 2017 edition of its National Health Expenditure Trends and its worth a trip to its website for the downloadable data on all things related to health spending. I've been on an advisory group to the CIHI with respect to its national health expenditures for a […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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