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Canada’s governments recently came to broad agreement on renewing federal-provincial health transfers. Ottawa asked the provinces and territories to modernize Canadians’ access to their electronic health information with “standardized health data and digital tools.” Bilateral negotiation will define the details of these digital aspirations. Canadians should pay attention: their health…

By Christopher Ragan There has been much confusion amid the discussion about budget deficits in the federal election campaign. These numbers mean almost nothing unless they are expressed relative to our national income. Once these numbers are better understood, it becomes clear that small budget deficits for the next few years, used to finance productive investments, would be good for the…

Published in the Globe & Mail on January 7, 2014 By Christopher Ragan I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but when writing a regular column, it is helpful to make a plan, and what’s a plan if not a resolution? The topic for a column should satisfy two conditions. First, the topic should be worth discussing, and hopefully one on which the author can add some clarity to the…

Published in the Edmonton Journal on March 14, 2012 By David Percy As the pace of development increases on the Mackenzie River Basin in northern Alberta and British Columbia, so does the urgency of negotiations about sharing the water of the northward flowing rivers. Past experience on eastward flowing rivers shows that a co-operative approach led the prairie provinces to a basic agreement on…

Toronto, July 28 – While the Bank of Canada expects the Canadian economy to return to full employment by the middle of 2012, its critics have stressed the need to raise interest rates to a “neutral” value by then to keep inflation stable. But defining this neutral level, normally associated with full employment, is a bit of a smoke and mirrors game, according to a report from the C.D. Howe…

Last week’s announcement that former Pan Am Games chief Saad Rafi will run the proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan makes it sound ready to go. It is not. Until Ontarians get some basic information about how the scheme is supposed to work, the ORPP is more notion than actual plan. The provincial government has released some specs. The contribution rate: Employers and employees…