风萧萧_Frank
以文会友
Jake Fuss 宣布发布《联邦繁荣蓝图》
查看杰克·福斯的图片链接 杰克·福斯
弗雷泽研究所财政研究主任
加拿大目前面临着严峻的财政和经济挑战，因此，我很高兴今天宣布发布《联邦繁荣蓝图》。
在过去一年左右的时间里，我和我的同事撰写了20篇文章，提出了一些经过深思熟虑的解决方案，以帮助减税、降低支出、平衡预算、建造更多住房、解决移民问题、改革医疗保健、修改或废除碳税、减少监管、消除内部贸易壁垒以及开放竞争。
通过采纳这些政策解决方案，下一届政府（无论其政治立场如何）都可以改善加拿大人民的繁荣和生活水平。
联邦繁荣蓝图 Feb 25 2025
Jock Finlayson 和 Lawrence Schembri 系列编辑
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/federal-blueprint-for-prosperity.pdf
目录
重振加拿大繁荣：联邦政策改革路线图
Jock Finlayson 和 Lawrence Schembri，联合编辑
1. 理解加拿大财政和经济挑战的本质
Jake Fuss 和 Jason Clemens
第一部分：控制联邦支出
2. 加拿大在实现北约国防支出目标方面面临的挑战
Grady Munro 和 Jake Fuss
3. 支出限制的案例：联邦政府如何平衡预算
Jake Fuss 和 Grady Munro
4.确定通过削减政府支出实现的潜在节支
Jake Fuss 和 Grady Munro
5. 政府人员增长给联邦财政带来压力
Ben Eisen 和 Milagros Palacios
第二部分：减税与恢复预算平衡
6. 通过联邦个人所得税改革促进经济增长
Jake Fuss 和 Milagros Palacios
7. 加拿大的新财政框架
Jake Fuss 和 Grady Munro
8. 联邦个人所得税减免：不列颠哥伦比亚省的经验教训
Jake Fuss、Grady Munro 和 Gordon Campbell
9. 通过改革企业税制提升加拿大竞争力
Trevor Tombe
第三部分：更明智的法规和环境政策
10. 改革联邦政府的碳税计划
Ross Mc Kitrick 和 Elmira Aliakbari
11. 加拿大的碳税政策已无可挽救
Kenneth P. Green
12. 加拿大实现2026年和2030年温室气体减排目标进展评估
Ross Mc Kitrick
13. 渥太华对采掘业的监管冲击及其对投资的影响
Kenneth P. Green
14. 加拿大的监管负担过重
Kenneth P. Green ii 联邦繁荣蓝图
第四部分：住房、移民、医疗保健、新闻业、竞争和贸易方面的改进
15. 提高住房可负担性的联邦改革
Josef Filipowicz 和 Steve Lafleur
16. 指导移民政策的见解
Jock Finlayson 和 Steven Globerman
17. 是时候改革《加拿大健康法》了
Nadeem埃斯梅尔
18. 联邦政府对新闻业的支持
莉迪亚·米尔扬
19. 加拿大仍需开放竞争
文森特·格洛索
20. 加拿大内部自由贸易日益迫切
史蒂文·格洛伯曼
重振加拿大繁荣：联邦政策改革路线图
乔克·芬莱森和劳伦斯·斯肯布里，联合编辑
近十年来，加拿大一直面临着巨大的财政和经济挑战。结果，加拿大人正经历着负担能力危机和生活水平停滞不前。这些结果并非特鲁多政府在2015年首次当选时向加拿大人民承诺的。现任联邦政府对经济采取的积极干预主义方针，违背了过去20年来取得的成功共识。
由于联邦政府的规模和影响力大幅扩张，政府失去了对财政的控制——经常性地偏离了自身的财政护栏。它还破坏了加拿大一流的移民政策，导致前所未有的、无计划的人口增长和住房负担能力危机。这些错误的政策直接导致了商业投资的崩溃，以及劳动生产率和人均GDP增长低迷。如果加拿大要恢复财政和经济健康，渥太华必须实施根本性的政策改革。
本系列文章旨在为必要的联邦政策改革提供路线图，以使加拿大经济重回正轨，走向更加繁荣和更高的生活水平。本系列的20篇文章探讨了加拿大当前面临的挑战，并提出了合理可行的解决方案。在一篇导言概述文章之后，其余文章分为四个部分，重点关注政府支出、税收、环境政策和法规，以及包括住房、移民和贸易在内的其他政策。
导言
报告指出，在特鲁多政府任期内，联邦政府支出大幅增加、税收增加、持续赤字、商业投资暴跌以及人均经济增长疲软。由此产生的财政赤字导致联邦债务飙升，并预示着未来数年债务偿还成本将大幅上升。这些错误的政策阻碍并挤占了私人投资和经济活动，导致生产力和收入增长疲软，加拿大家庭生活水平停滞不前。
尽管加拿大经济面临这些挑战，但我们有理由保持乐观，因为克雷蒂安政府在20世纪90年代也面临过许多同样的挑战。通过采取更为审慎的政府支出、平衡预算、削减债务和具有竞争力的税率，克雷蒂安政府——很大程度上是马丁政府和哈珀政府效仿的——为加拿大二十年的繁荣发展铺平了道路，加拿大的表现普遍优于其他经合组织国家。本系列第一部分的文章重点探讨如何以最佳方式限制或削减联邦政府支出，并实现预算平衡。文章提出了削减八项具体举措支出的建议，以及取消企业补贴和缩减政府工作人员规模的建议。与此同时，联邦政府必须制定一项计划，使加拿大能够履行其向北约承诺的、占GDP 2% 的国防开支承诺。
第二部分的文章探讨了全面改革以及降低个人所得税和企业所得税的方案。降低税率和简化税制将有助于恢复加拿大的税收竞争力，并促进投资、创新和经济增长。如果减税和改革与支出削减和项目改革相结合，则可以在几年内实现预算平衡，同时实现预算平衡。
第三部分的文章概述了如何减轻加拿大的监管负担，思考联邦碳税的未来，并评估了加拿大当前减排目标的影响。这些文章中提出的改革将提升加拿大的商业竞争力，并促进私营部门的投资、就业和产出，尤其是在关键的自然资源领域。
第四部分的文章探讨了其他对加拿大长期经济福祉同样重要的政策领域的改进，包括住房、新闻业、移民、医疗保健、竞争和贸易。这组文章的主要重点是减少政策驱动的扭曲和障碍，以鼓励这些领域的竞争和私营部门的更多参与。
这些文章中提出的政策改革为联邦政府提供了路线图，使加拿大走上更加繁荣的经济、良好的就业和所有加拿大人生活水平不断提高的轨道。
理解加拿大财政和经济挑战的本质
杰克·福斯和杰森·克莱门斯
特鲁多政府于2015年首次当选，其部分原因在于其新的政府政策方针，该方针承诺通过短期赤字支出（三年内总计251亿加元）、降低大多数加拿大人（高收入者除外）的税收以及更积极的经济发展方式，为加拿大人带来更大的繁荣（LPC，2015）。这一新的政策方向与过去20年的共识形成鲜明对比（Clemens和Palacios，2017）。其结果是加拿大财政状况显著恶化，经济停滞，商业投资暴跌。如果加拿大想要恢复财政和经济健康，渥太华必须实施根本性的政策改革。
政府支出、税收和债务
特鲁多政府大幅增加了支出，用于资助新项目和增加现有项目的资金。联邦支出（不包括利息成本）从2014-15年度（特鲁多政府上任前一年）的2563亿美元增至2022-23年度的4482亿美元（增幅74.9%）（加拿大，2023a），预计2023-24年度将达到4530亿美元（加拿大，2023b）。毫不奇怪，与新冠疫情相关的支出导致了2019-20年度至2021-22年度支出的增长。但在2022-23年度及之后，没有与新冠疫情相关的支出。
联邦政府通过增税和大幅增加借贷来为这些支出增长提供资金。2016年，联邦政府将对企业家、专业人士和企业主征收的最高个人所得税税率从29%提高到33%。因此，目前八个省份的最高个人所得税率（联邦和省级）已超过50%（其余省份仅略低于50%）。到2022年，加拿大的个人所得税率在38个经合组织国家中排名第五。这对加拿大吸引和留住企业家、投资者、技术专业人士以及企业主的能力构成了严峻的竞争挑战。
以及企业。
特鲁多政府在降低中等个人所得税率的同时，也取消了多项税收抵免。这两项政策变化意味着86%的中等收入家庭现在缴纳更高的个人所得税（Palacios等人，2022年）。如果分析中还包括加拿大养老金计划缴费率的提高，那么几乎所有加拿大人现在都要缴纳更高的税款。
特鲁多政府还通过借款来为其新的支出提供资金。图1对比了2016-17年度至2022-23年度特鲁多政府原计划的赤字与实际赤字（不包括新冠相关支出）。由于政府无力控制支出增长，实际借款额每年（2021-22年度除外）都超过原计划的借款额，而且往往幅度很大。
接连不断的赤字意味着联邦债务（以总债务衡量）已膨胀至1.9万亿加元（2022-23年度），预计到2027/28年度将达到2.4万亿加元，这导致利息成本急剧增长。在2014-15年度至2023-24年度期间，利息成本增长了53.2%（经通胀调整后），预计2023-24年度将达到465亿加元。利息成本消耗了大量收入，这些收入无法用于政府服务或减税。简而言之，特鲁多政府的政策变化导致政府支出、税收和借款大幅增加。不幸的是，这些政策变化并没有带来更强劲、更有活力的经济。
经济增长乏力，商业投资暴跌
衡量生活水平的最广泛指标是人均GDP，它计算的是特定年份经济体生产的所有商品和服务的总价值（经人口调整）。如图2所示，2016年至2019年（新冠疫情前），人均GDP（经通胀调整后）增长率仅为0.9%。一项研究表明，在加拿大历史上五个经济衰退前的时期中，特鲁多时期（同样是2016年至2019年）的经济增长最为疲软（Clemens、Palacios和Veldhuis，2021）。另一项研究发现，2013年至2022年，加拿大的人均GDP增长率是自20世纪30年代以来最低的（Cross，2023）。2022年的人均GDP（经通胀调整后）仍未从疫情造成的损失中恢复，基本停滞在2018年的水平（见图2）。
鉴于现行政策，未来前景不容乐观。经合组织预测，2020年至2030年以及2030年至2060年，加拿大的人均GDP增长率将在32个发达经济体中最低（经合组织，2021）。预计到2060年，爱沙尼亚、韩国和新西兰等国家将超越加拿大，实现更高的生活水平。最近的一项分析显示，加拿大经济增长危机的部分原因是商业投资下降，而商业投资对于提高生活水平至关重要，因为它为工人提供工具和技术，以生产更多更高质量的商品和服务。这反过来又能促进创新，提高生产力（Cross，2023）。商业投资下降的原因显而易见，包括监管壁垒，尤其是与能源和采矿业相关的监管壁垒（Globerman和Emes，2021），以及政府赤字（这意味着未来税收增加，从而抑制当前的投资）。自2014年以来，加拿大企业投资（经通胀调整后，不包括住宅建筑）每年下降1.8%。
根据2023年的一项研究（Hill and Emes，2023），2014年至2021年期间，人均企业投资（经通胀调整后，不包括住宅建筑）减少了3,676加元（至14,687加元），而美国则增加了3,418加元（至26,751加元）。换句话说，2014年，加拿大企业在美国每投资1美元，人均企业投资就为79美分。到2021年，这一投资水平已降至人均仅为55美分。此外，外国人在加拿大的投资额有所减少，而加拿大人在国外的投资额则有所增加。 2008年，这两个水平大致相当——加拿大的外国直接投资（FDI）为657亿美元，而加拿大人在国外的投资为846亿美元。然而，2015年开始出现显著变化；到2022年，FDI（646亿美元）明显低于加拿大人在国外的投资（1023亿美元）。最后，尽管加拿大的劳动力市场一直展现出强劲的韧性，但劳动力市场数据掩盖了一些令人担忧的趋势。例如，在2020年2月（疫情爆发之时）至2023年6月期间，私营部门的就业创造（净值）相当疲软，仅为3.3%，而政府部门的就业增长率则为11.8%（Eisen、Ryan和Palacios，2023年）。换句话说，疫情过后私营部门的复苏和增长并不像预期那么强劲。
结论和前进之路
然而，我们有理由保持乐观，因为加拿大面临的许多挑战都是联邦政府自身造成的。20世纪90年代，克雷蒂安自由党面临的许多挑战与我们今天面临的挑战相同（Veldhuis、Clemens和Palacios，2011）。通过将重点转向更审慎的政府支出、平衡预算、削减债务和具有竞争力的税率，克雷蒂安自由党——很大程度上被哈珀保守党效仿——为加拿大二十年的繁荣奠定了基础，当时加拿大在经济增长、创造就业机会和商业投资方面的表现均优于其他经合组织国家。为了帮助当今的加拿大人实现更大的繁荣，联邦政府可以向克雷蒂安自由党和哈珀保守党学习。本系列的其余部分将探讨一些政策方案，这些方案可以通过修复联邦财政、提高税收竞争力和降低经济壁垒来提高加拿大人的生活水平。这些改革可以通过创造良好的就业机会来帮助建立一个更加繁荣的国家，从而提高加拿大人的收入。
Jake FussDirector of Fiscal Studies at The Fraser Institute
Over the last year or so, my colleagues and I have written 20 essays that provide thoughtful solutions to help reduce taxes, lower spending, balance budgets, build more homes, fix immigration, reform health care, change or scrap the carbon tax, reduce regulations, remove internal trade barriers, and open up competition.
By adopting these policy solutions, the next government (regardless of political stripe) can improve prosperity and living standards for Canadians.
https://lnkd.in/gYsbuavw
Federal Blueprint for Prosperity
Jock Finlayson and Lawrence Schembri Series Editors
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/federal-blueprint-for-prosperity.pdf
Table of Contents
Restoring Canadian Prosperity: A Roadmap for Federal Policy Reform
Jock Finlayson and Lawrence Schembri, co-editors
1. Understanding the Nature of Canada’s Fiscal and Economic Challenges
Jake Fuss and Jason Clemens
Section 1: Getting Federal Spending Under Control
2. Canada's Challenge in Meeting NATO’s Defence Spending Target
Grady Munro and Jake Fuss
3. A Case for Spending Restraint: How the Federal Government Can Balance the Budget
Jake Fuss and Grady Munro
4. Identifying Potential Savings From Specific Reductions to Government Spending
Jake Fuss and Grady Munro
5. Growing Government Workforce Puts Pressure on Federal Finances
Ben Eisen and Milagros Palacios
Section 2: Reducing Taxes and Returning to Balanced Budgets
6. Enhancing Economic Growth Through Federal Personal Income Tax Reform
Jake Fuss and Milagros Palacios
7. A New Fiscal Framework for Canada
Jake Fuss and Grady Munro
8. Federal Personal Income Tax Relief: Lessons from British Columbia
Jake Fuss, Grady Munro, and Gordon Campbell
9. Boosting Canada's Competitiveness by Reforming Business Taxation
Trevor Tombe
Section 3: Smarter Regulations and Environmental Policies
10. Reforming the Federal Government's Carbon Tax Plan
Ross Mc Kitrick and Elmira Aliakbari
11. Canada's Carbon Tax Is Beyond Policy Redemption
Kenneth P. Green
12. An Evaluation of Canada's Progress Towards Meeting the 2026 and 2030 GHG Emission Reduction Targets
Ross Mc Kitrick
13. Ottawa's Regulatory Assault on the Extraction Sector and Its Impact on Investment
Kenneth P. Green
14. Canada's Regulatory Overburden
Kenneth P. Green ii Federal Blueprint for Prosperity
Section 4: Improvements to Housing, Immigration, Health Care, Journalism, Competition, and Trade
15. Federal Reforms to Improve Housing Affordability
Josef Filipowicz and Steve Lafleur
16. Insights to Guide Immigration Policy
Jock Finlayson and Steven Globerman
17. Time to Reform the Canada Health Act
Nadeem Esmail
18. Federal Support for Journalism
Lydia Miljan
19. Canada Still Needs to Open Up to Competition
Vincent Geloso
20. The Growing Imperative for Internal Free Trade in Canada
Steven Globerman
Restoring Canadian Prosperity: A Roadmap for Federal Policy Reform
Jock Finlayson and Lawrence Schembri, co-editors
Canada faces enormous fiscal and economic challenges after almost a decade of misguided policy and poor economic performance. As a consequence, Canadians are experiencing an affordability crisis and stagnating living standards. These outcomes are not what the Trudeau government promised Canadians when it was first elected in 2015. The current federal government’s active interventionist approach to the economy went against the successful consensus of the past 20 years.
The government lost control of its finances—regularly missing its own fiscal guardrails—by greatly expanding the size and reach of the federal government. It also undermined Canada’s best-in-class immigration policy, leading to unprecedented and unplanned population growth and a housing affordability crisis. These misguided policies directly contributed to a collapse in business investment, as well as poor labour productivity and GDP per capita growth. If Canada is to restore its fiscal and economic health, Ottawa must enact fundamental policy reforms.
The purpose of this essay series is to offer a roadmap for the federal policy reforms necessary to put the Canadian economy back on track towards greater prosperity and higher living standards. The 20 essays in the series identify the country’s ongoing challenges and advance reasonable and practical solutions. After an introductory overview essay, the remaining essays are grouped into four sections focusing on government spending, taxation, environmental policies and regulation, and other policies including housing, immigration, and trade.
The introductory essay documents the sizable increase in federal government spending, higher taxes, persistent deficits, collapsing business investment and weak per capita growth during the tenure of the Trudeau government. The resulting string of fiscal deficits has caused the federal debt to soar, pointing to significantly higher debt-servicing costs for years to come. These misguided policies have discouraged and crowded out private investment and economic activity, leading to weak productivity and income growth and stagnating living standards for Canadian households.
Despite these challenges facing the Canadian economy, there is reason for optimism, however, since the Chrétien government in the 1990s faced many of the same challenges. By adopting more prudent government spending, balanced budgets, debt reduction and competitive tax rates, the Chrétien government—followed in large measure by the Martin and Harper governments—paved the way for two decades of prosperity as Canada generally outperformed other OECD countries. The essays in Section 1 of this series focus on how best to restrain or reduce federal government spending and move towards a balanced budget. Suggestions are provided to reduce spending on eight specific initiatives, as well as to eliminate business subsidies and scale back the size of the government workforce. At the same time, the federal government will have to enact a plan for Canada to meet its NATO defense-spending commitment of two percent of GDP.
Section 2 essays consider options for comprehensive reforms and reductions to personal income and corporate income taxes. Lowering tax rates and simplifying the tax system would help restore Canadian tax competitiveness and promote investment, innovation, and economic growth. Tax reductions and reforms can be achieved while returning to a balanced budget within a few years if they are accompanied by spending reductions and program reforms.
Essays in Section 3 outline how to reduce Canada’s regulatory burden, consider the future of the federal carbon tax, and assess the implications of Canada’s current emission reduction targets. The reforms suggested in these essays will improve business competitiveness and boost private sector investment, employment and output in Canada, especially in the critical natural resource sector.
Essays in Section 4 examine improvements in other policy areas that are also important to Canada’s long-term economic well-being, including housing, journalism, immigration, health care, competition, and trade. The main focus of this group of essays is on reducing policy-driven distortions and barriers to encourage greater competition and more private sector participation in these sectors.
The policy reforms proposed in these essays provide a roadmap for the federal government to put Canada on a trajectory of greater economic prosperity, good jobs, and rising living standards for all Canadians.
Understanding the Nature of Canada's Fiscal and Economic Challenges
Jake Fuss and Jason Clemens
The Trudeau government was first elected in 2015 based in part on a new approach to government policy, which promised greater prosperity for Canadians based on short-term deficit spending (totaling $25.1 billion over three years), lower taxes for most Canadians (except higher-income earners), and a more active approach to economic development (LPC, 2015). This new policy direction stood in stark contrast to the consensus of the previous 20 years (Clemens and Palacios, 2017). The result has been a marked deterioration in the country’s finances, economic stagnation, and a collapse in business investment. If Canada is to restore its fiscal and economic health, Ottawa must enact fundamental policy reform.
Government spending, taxes, and debt
The Trudeau government has markedly increased spending to finance both new programs and increases in existing programs. Federal spending (excluding interest costs) increased from $256.3 billion in 2014–15 (the year before the Trudeau government took office) to $448.2 billion in 2022–23 (an increase of 74.9 percent) (Canada, 2023a) and a projected $453.0 billion in 2023–24 (Canada, 2023b). Not surprisingly, COVID-related spending contributed to increases in 2019–20 to 2021–22. But in 2022–23 and thereafter, there is no COVID-related spending.
The federal government has used tax increases and large increases in borrowing to finance these spending increases. In 2016, the federal government increased the top personal income tax rate imposed on entrepreneurs, professionals, and business owners from 29 percent to 33 percent. Consequently, the combined top personal income tax rate (federal and provincial) now exceeds 50 percent in eight provinces (with the remaining provinces only slightly below 50 percent) and in 2022 Canada had the fifth highest tax rate out of 38 OECD countries. This represents a serious competitive challenge for Canada’s ability to attract and retain entrepreneurs, investors, skilled professionals, and businesses.
And while the Trudeau government reduced the middle personal income tax rate, it also eliminated several tax credits. The combination of the two policy changes means that 86 percent of middle-income families now pay higher personal income taxes (Palacios et al., 2022). If the analysis also includes increases to the Canada Pension Plan contribution rate, almost all Canadians now pay higher taxes.
The Trudeau government also borrowed to finance its new spending. Figure 1 contrasts the originally planned deficits with the actual deficits incurred by the Trudeau government (excluding COVID-related spending) from 2016–17 to 2022–23. The actual borrowing exceeds the originally planned borrowing every year (except 2021–22), often by significant margins, due to the government’s inability to control spending growth.
The string of deficits means federal debt (measured as gross debt) has ballooned to $1.9 trillion (2022–23) and is projected to reach $2.4 trillion by 2027/28, fueling a dramatic growth in interest costs, which have grown by 53.2 percent (inflation-adjusted) between 2014–15 and 2023–24 and will reach a projected $46.5 billion in 2023–24. Interest costs now consume substantial revenue that is then unavailable for government services or tax reduction. Simply put, Trudeau government policy changes have produced large increases in government spending, taxes, and borrowing. Unfortunately, these policy changes have not resulted in a more robust and vibrant economy.
Weak economic growth and collapsing business investment
The broadest measure of living standards is GDP per person, which calculates the total value of all goods and services produced in the economy in a given year (adjusted by the population). As illustrated in Figure 2, between 2016 and 2019(pre-COVID), growth in per-person GDP (inflation-adjusted) was an anemic 0.9 percent. According to one study, among the last five pre-recession periods in Canadian history, the Trudeau period (again, 2016 to 2019) recorded the weakest economic growth (Clemens, Palacios, and Veldhuis, 2021). Another study found that Canada’s per-person GDP growth from 2013 to 2022 was the weakest on record since the 1930s (Cross, 2023). And per-person GDP in 2022 (inflation-adjusted) had still not recovered from the pandemic losses and was basically stagnant at 2018 levels (see figure 2).
Prospects for the future, given current policies, are not encouraging. The OECD projects that Canada will record the lowest rate of per-person GDP growth among 32 advanced economies from 2020 to 2030 and from 2030 to 2060 (OECD, 2021).Countries such as Estonia, South Korea, and New Zealand are expected to vault past Canada and achieve higher living standards by 2060. According to a recent analysis, Canada’s economic growth crisis is due in part to the decline in business investment, which is critical to increasing living standards because it equips workers with tools and technologies to produce more higherquality goods and services. This, in turn, fuels innovation and improved productivity (Cross, 2023). There are obvious explanations for the decline in business investment including regulatory barriers, particularly related to the energy and mining sectors (Globerman and Emes, 2021), and government deficits, which imply tax increases in the future, dampening investment today. Business investment (inflation-adjusted), excluding residential construction, has declined by 1.8 percent annually since 2014.
According to a 2023 study (Hill and Emes, 2023), between 2014 and 2021, business investment per worker (inflation-adjusted, excluding residential construction) decreased by $3,676 (to $14,687) compared to growth of $3,418 (to $26,751) in the United States. Put differently, in 2014, Canadian businesses invested 79 cents per worker for every dollar invested in the United States. By 2021, that level of investment had declined to just 55 cents per worker. Moreover, the amount of investment in Canada by foreigners has decreased while the amount of investment by Canadians outside of the country has increased. In 2008, the two levels were roughly comparable—$65.7 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in Canada vs. $84.6 billion in investment by Canadians outside of the country. However, a sizeable change began in 2015; by 2022, the amount of FDI ($64.6 billion) was significantly smaller than the amount of investment by Canadians outside the country ($102.3 billion). Finally, while Canada’s labour market has consistently demonstrated its strength and resilience, the labour market numbers hide some concerning trends. For example, between February 2020 (when the pandemic began) and June 2023, private-sector job creation (net) was fairly weak at 3.3 percent compared to 11.8 percent job growth in the government sector (Eisen, Ryan, and Palacios, 2023). In other words, the recovery and growth in the private sector following the pandemic has not been as strong as expected.
Conclusion: The Path Forward
There is reason for optimism, however, since many of Canada’s challenges are of the federal government’s own making. The Chrétien Liberals in the 1990s faced many of the same challenges that we do today (Veldhuis, Clemens, and Palacios, 2011). By shifting the focus to more prudent government spending, balanced budgets, debt reduction, and competitive tax rates, the Chrétien Liberals—followed in large measure by the Harper Tories—paved the way for two decades of prosperity when Canada outperformed other OECD countries on economic growth, job-creation, and business investment. To help foster greater prosperity for Canadians today, the federal government can learn from the Chrétien Liberals, and the Harper Tories. The rest of this series identifies policy options that can increase living standards for Canadians by repairing federal finances, improving tax competitiveness, and lowering economic barriers. These reforms could help build a more prosperous country through the creation of good jobs which would lead to rising incomes for Canadians.
Commentary and study
Identifying Potential Savings from Specific Reductions in Federal Government Spending
Federal government could save $10.7 billion this fiscal year by eliminating eight ineffective spending programs
Federal Personal Income Tax Relief: Lessons from British Columbia
Federal government should emulate BC’s Campbell government; cut personal income tax rates by 25% and balance the budget
Insights to Guide Immigration Policy
Federal government should prioritize immigrants with STEM qualifications and language skills
Growing Government Workforce Puts Pressure on Federal Finances
Hiring by the federal government in excess of population growth cost taxpayers $7.5 billion in 2022/23
The Growing Imperative to Create a More Integrated Internal Economy in Canada
No matter who wins the U.S. presidential election, Canada should prioritize freer interprovincial trade and labour mobility
Boosting Canada's Competitiveness by Reforming Business Taxation
Reforming Canada’s business taxes could improve investment crisis and raise living standards
Bold policy reform can fix Canada’s economic problems
Appeared in the Hub
A New Federal Fiscal Framework for Canada
Federal government could balance budget and reduce tax rates with 2.3% spending reduction over two years
Ottawa’s Regulatory Assault on the Extraction Sector and Its Impact on Investment
Excessive regulatory burden on oil and gas sector has driven business investment down 52.1 per cent over past 10 years
An Evaluation of Canada's Progress Towards Meeting 2026 and 2030 GHG Emission Reduction Targets
Ottawa unlikely to hit 2026 or 2030 emission reduction targets due to technological limitations, population growth, and rising incomes
Federal Support for Journalism
Government subsidies to legacy media prevent evolution of the industry, discourage innovation
Canada Stills Needs To Open Up To Competition
More than 30% of Canadian economy protected from foreign competition, increasing prices for consumers
Canada's Regulatory Overburden
National regulatory reform would encourage investment, promote economic growth, and lower costs for Canadians
Time to Reform the Canada Health Act
Reforming the Canada Health Act key to provinces providing better universal health care to patients
Federal government should cut taxes in upcoming budget to spur economic growth
Appeared in the Toronto Sun
