Tag Archives: fiscal federalism
Fiscal Federalism: A Cross-Border Comparison
As a federal country, one of Canada’s hallmarks is a well-developed system of intergovernmental transfers. Indeed, we often remark that Canadian provinces are dependent on federal transfers for large chunks of their spending and there is some debate over whether Canada’s provinces should engage in more own-source revenue effort rather than plead for more transfers. […]
Fiscal Clout and Federation Redesign
The Parliamentary Budget Office has issued a very pleasing report on federal fiscal sustainability but the flip side is that the provinces and territories are now not fiscally sustainable because of their rising health costs and the federal fiscal gap created by the change in the Canada Health Transfer escalator. According to Andrew Coyne, the […]
The Challenges of Mark Carney’s European “Mission Civilisatrice”
In his farewell address to Canada before assuming the reins of the Bank of England, Mark Carney argues that Canada works because of the strength of the Canadian federation when it comes to its institutional framework and its four critical advantages of responsible fiscal policy, sound monetary policy, a single and resilient financial system and […]
The Balance of the Federation
The Canadian Federation is an institutional arrangement whereby the constituent units are able to both cooperate and compete with jurisdictions that are both separate and coordinate. The debate over the respective roles of the federal and provincial governments has taken various forms over time with views that emphasize the centrality of the federal government along […]
Transfer Dependency’s New Friends
Well, I decided to finish off my postings on provincial revenues and go to the Federal Fiscal Reference Tables which provide a federal transfer revenue variable for each province from 1987/87 to 2009/10 as well as provincial revenues. I have a plot of nominal per capita transfer revenues and not surprisingly it shows an upward […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Recent Comments