Small business has a well-deserved reputation as the engine of job growth and a key contributor to innovation. Over the 10 years ending in 2015, SMEs accounted for about 95% of private sector net job creation. What is less well recognized, however, is that most of the job creation comes from a small number of […]

The Beatles’ well known lyrics in “Hello Goodbye” pretty much portray the state of the nation in matters of energy and environment: You say “Yes”, I say “No” You say “Stop” and I say “Go, go, go” – Oh no. It is not supposed to be easy to run a country. Many Canadians say “yes” […]

During the last ten years, clean energies in Mexico have been growing. Setting aside hydroelectricity, electricity generated from wind, solar and biomass, went from around 400 GWh in 2007, up to more than 13,000 GWh in 2016. Such a spectacular growth has been the result of regulation and policy developed during this time and described […]

The purpose of this blog post is to provide an estimate of the costs of different levels of carbon taxes on Canadian households, as a follow-up from testimony to the Senate Committee on February 16, 2017.2 Costs to Canadians as a result of carbon taxes will come in two forms, direct and indirect costs. Direct […]

There may be method in the apparent madness of Mr. Trump’s trade policy pronouncements with their simplistic mercantilist differentiation between good and bad trading partners. The populist rhetoric certainly plays to the president’s electoral base, but underlying it is a longstanding American preference for dealing with trading partners bilaterally where possible. The reason is that, […]

Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to appear before your Committee on this very important issue. It is a privilege to speak to you today. Canada faces a challenge in reducing emissions and simultaneously protecting the quality of life and economic growth that we enjoy. Adaptation to and mitigation of climate change is a […]

About five years ago Herb Emery and I published a research paper on the decline of Canadian economics.  The paper analyzed the journal publications of academic economists at Canadian universities and found that explicit analysis or recognition of Canadian issues was in decline, especially for those hired since 1990.  As the incentives to conduct theoretical […]

The federal government gives up about $30 billion in revenue through tax-based spending programs. This cost is split approximately one-third for measures promoting economic development and two-thirds for measures with a social objective. A tough but fair review of these measures could easily come up with about $6 billion in savings. As discussed in last […]

The federal government is in the midst of reviewing tax expenditures, assessing them against their fairness, efficiency and cost. It is a daunting task: The federal government identifies about 250 measures as tax expenditures, expected to cost about $140 billion in 2017. The task can be greatly simplified, however, by putting tax expenditures into three […]