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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…

The Study In Brief The surge of inflation as economies recovered from the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 took central bankers and most other observers by surprise. Canada was no exception. Year-over-year CPI inflation rose from -0.4 percent at its nadir in May 2020, to a peak of 8.1 percent in June 2022 before finishing 2022 at 6.3 percent. In this E-Brief, we start with a short overview of…

‘Tis the season for giving, and as the year ends, many Canadians are planning substantial donations. However, they should consider maximizing those donations in 2023 while full tax relief for charitable giving is still guaranteed. The federal government has yet to table its legislation for reforming the alternative minimum tax (AMT), but if it sticks to its commitments laid out in the 2023 budget…

Since the release of the Alberta Pension Plan report, I’ve read with interest the steady stream of commentary and opinion and, while there have been some thoughtful pieces, much of it has been ill-informed and misleading. Doubt has been cast on the credibility of the firm that researched and delivered the report. Questions have been raised about the relevance of the formula used to calculate…

Severe forest fires, floods and other extreme weather events have hit many Canadian regions hard, with climate change the probable cause. These severe events have destroyed housing, commercial property and infrastructure with a lengthy recovery period ahead. Insured and uninsured losses will be in the billions, in addition to the cost of repairing public infrastructure. Lives have been lost in…

Following passage of the Ford government’s Bill 60, Ontario’s ministry of health now has the option to contract out to independent clinics the provision of certain kinds of health-care services normally provided in hospitals. Its opponents have cast the bill as favouring “privatization” and as a threat to the Canadian model of public health care. An emotionally charged…