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C.D. Howe Institute

The C.D. Howe Institute is an independent not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to raise living standards by fostering economically sound public policies. Widely considered to be Canada's most influential think tank, the Institute is a trusted source of essential policy intelligence, distinguished by research that is nonpartisan, evidence-based and subject to definitive expert review.

Most Recent Articles by C.D. Howe Institute:

C.D. Howe Institute Pans Canadian Governments’ Opaque Budgets

October 24, 2023 – Canadian senior governments’ budgets are too opaque, says a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. While Alberta and Saskatchewan garnered grades in the A range in its latest annual report card, both the federal government, and Newfoundland and Labrador barely earned Cs.

- Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Canada and its Provinces Fall Short When it Comes to Seniors’ Care

September 21 - Canada and its provinces, specifically Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, can do more to improve access to seniors’ care and overall equity in the health system, a new E-Brief from the C.D Howe Institute shows.

In "Shortcomings in Seniors’ Care: How Canada Ranks Compared to its Peers and the Paths to Improvement,” authors Rosalie Wyonch and Tingting Zhang use data from the Commonwealth Fund, a major US Foundation, to better understand how Canada’s health system is doing in relation to seniors’ care, and what areas can be improved. They found that Canada currently ranks 8th out of 11 developed countries.

- Thursday, September 21, 2023

Bank of Canada Losses Could Top $8 Billion

Bank of Canada Losses Could Top $8 BillionCumulative losses at the Bank of Canada could reach between $3.6 billion and $8.8 billion over the next two to three years, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Reversal of Fortunes: Rising Interest Rates and Losses at the Bank of Canada,” authors Trevor Tombe and Yu (Sonja) Chen examine the state of central bank’s finances, how it got into a loss position and how big those losses could be. The Bank is currently responding to high inflation by increasing its policy interest rate. Having expanded its balance sheet by buying government bonds and increasing its liabilities to the financial institutions it bought them from, the Bank now faces growing interest expenses and multi-billion-dollar losses.
- Friday, January 13, 2023

Wake Up Cities, Your Budgets are Late (Again)

Wake Up Cities, Your Budgets are Late (Again) From: William B.P. Robson and Nick Dahir To: Canadian Taxpayers Date: January 5, 2023 Re: Wake Up Cities, Your Budgets are Late (Again) The festive season should be a time to look back on work well done. In far too many Canadian cities, however, one key task remained incomplete. Canadian municipalities outside Nova Scotia run on a calendar year. They should have presented – and ideally, their councils should have approved – their 2023 budgets by now. If January 1 comes and goes with no budget, a city is taxing and spending without proper scrutiny and approval from elected representatives and voters. That is an affront to democracy.
- Saturday, January 7, 2023

CANADA FACES A SERIOUS SHORTAGE IN DIGITAL AND STEM SKILLS

Canada faces a serious shortage in employees with digital and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills amid a tight labour market and rising demand for digital-oriented jobs. To address this, Canada needs to increase its supply of people with digital skills by developing and attracting talent as well as investing in reskilling and upskilling its workforce, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute.
- Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Business Tax Burdens by Major City: 2016 Report Card

Calgary is increasingly lagging behind Saskatoon, which has the most competitive overall business tax environment among the largest cities in each Canadian province, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute report. In “Business Tax Burdens in Canada’s Major Cities: The 2016 Report Card,” authors Adam Found and Peter Tomlinson rate the largest cities in each province for their business tax competitiveness using a comprehensive measurement tool.
- Tuesday, December 13, 2016

How to Break Up the Logjam over Pharmacare

An expanded federal role in financing pharmacare would set the stage for wider coverage and greater cooperation in drug pricing, states a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Feasible Pharmacare in the Federation: A Proposal to Break the Gridlock,” authors Åke Blomqvist and Colin Busby propose a politically affordable way forward to start addressing the runaway drug prices paid by Canadians.
- Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Pension Funds and Retirement Savers Face a Future of Lower Investment Returns

Pension funds and retirement savers face a future of lower investment returns, states a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “One Percent? For Real? Insights from Modern Growth Theory about Future Investment Returns,” authors Steve Ambler and Craig Alexander project a 1 percent rate of real return for risk free investments like Treasury bills, forming an anchor for the returns on other financial assets, including bonds and equities.
- Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Canada’s Uneven Economic Growth: What Policymakers Should Do

Toronto, – Economic growth from technological innovation tends to spring up in unpredictable places, creating winners and losers, states a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Mushrooms and Yeast: The Implications of Technological Progress for Canada’s Economic Growth,” author Peter Howitt finds that rather than focusing on supporting specific industries, governments should encourage and harness economic growth through a process of “creative destruction.”
- Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Expand Limit on Covered Bonds, but Know the Risks

Although few outside of financial circles have heard of covered bonds, they have emerged as an important and efficient funding channel for Canadian mortgage lending, according to a new report released today from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “How to Make the World Safe for (and from) Covered Bonds,” author Finn Poschmann addresses the fact that covered bond issuance in Canada has a regulatory limit of 4 percent of bank assets, a rate that is lower than in most advanced economies, and explores the case for expanding that limit.
- Thursday, August 20, 2015

How Small Businesses Can Get a Better Deal Out Of FTAs

Toronto, – The high costs of complying with Rules of Origin (ROO) requirements mean that small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) often find it cheaper and more efficient to pay customs duties instead of producing the paperwork that would allow them access to preferential, often zero tariffs under trade agreements, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute.
- Thursday, August 6, 2015

How to Fix Canada’s Unemployed Doctor Problem

Toronto, – Canadian healthcare is facing a paradox: recently graduated specialist physicians struggle to find work, even as Canadians report long wait times for their services, says a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Doctors without Hospitals: What to do about Specialists Who Can’t Find Work,” authors Åke Blomqvist, Colin Busby, Aaron Jacobs, and William Falk find that if policymakers do not shift course, the problem could worsen, resulting in a significant underutilization of resources, and even outmigration of Canadian-trained specialists.
- Thursday, February 5, 2015

Program Providing a Pathway out of Poverty for Disadvantaged Youth

Pathways to Education, an educational support program for disadvantaged students, has had a significant effect on high-school graduation and postsecondary enrolment, finds a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In "Evaluating Student Performance in Pathways to Education," authors Philip Oreopoulos, Robert S. Brown, and Adam Lavecchia, find encouraging results, so far, for Pathways sites in Toronto.
- Thursday, January 22, 2015

Alberta, Ontario Lead in Innovation Ranking

Alberta and Ontario are leading the pack in innovation as measured by patents filed per capita, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Measuring Innovation in Canada: The Tale Told by Patent Applications,” authors Robbie Brydon, Nicholas Chesterley, Benjamin Dachis and Aaron Jacobs show for the first time which provinces and which sectors are leading or lagging in Canadian-led innovation for the Canadian market.
- Friday, November 28, 2014

Canada Needs A Faster, Better Payments System

Canada needs a better and faster payments system, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “A Speedier and More Efficient Payments System for Canada,” author Mati Dubrovinsky finds that the Canadian economy would benefit from an upgraded payments system that creates lower financial risk, lower payment-processing costs for businesses and, as a consequence, makes Canadian businesses more competitive globally.
- Thursday, November 20, 2014

Time to Reform Telecommunication and Broadcast Policy for the Digital Age

The legislative, regulatory and institutional framework governing the Canadian telecommunications and broadcast sectors is outdated to the point of dysfunction, and requires a fundamental overhaul. This is the consensus view of the C.D. Howe Institute’s Competition Policy Council, which held its eighth meeting on October 23, 2014.
- Wednesday, November 5, 2014

How to Kick-Start Target Benefit Pension Plans for Federally Regulated Employees

Despite having been available for decades, target benefit pension plans (TBPs) will continue to be resisted by federally regulated employers unless a legal flaw is fixed, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Target Benefit Plans: Improving Access for Federally Regulated Employees,” author Randy Bauslaugh finds that TBPs are rarely adopted by federally regulated private-sector employers because federal pension law casts doubt over the ability of employers to limit their financial exposure, a key attribute of TBPs for employers.
- Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Government Budget Overruns Cast Doubt on Reports of Sustainable Healthcare Spending

Canadians should hold off on declaring a slowdown in government healthcare spending to sustainable growth rates, says a C.D. Howe Institute report released today. In “Bending Canada’s Healthcare Cost Curve: Watch Not What Governments Say, But What They Do,” author William B.P. Robson finds that reports of slower growth in healthcare spending have been repeatedly wrong-footed by chronic budget overshoots. So recent estimates that healthcare spending is no longer growing faster than the economy may also prove optimistic.
- Thursday, October 2, 2014

Why the CRTC Should Pass on Pick & Pay TV

A proposal by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to mandate “pick-and-pay” television offerings for Canadians is deeply misguided, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Let the Market Decide: The Case Against Mandatory Pick-and-Pay,” authors Lawson Hunter, Edward Iacobucci and Michael Trebilcock find that mandating consumers to be able to subscribe to pay and specialty services on a service-by-service basis would be a slippery slope to still more regulation, and would become irrelevant at best in the ongoing telecom revolution.
- Friday, September 26, 2014

Why Governments Are Wrong to Overlook Enhancing RRSPs

Government policymakers should not overlook enhancing RRSPs as a way to boost retirement savings by Canadians, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “The Overlooked Option for Boosting Retirement Savings: Higher Limits for RRSPs,” author Alexandre Laurin finds that those who most need private saving to meet their retirement income goals use RRSPs more extensively than widely believed.
- Thursday, September 11, 2014

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