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The Study In Brief In Canada, most government cash benefit payments require recipients to file a tax return. Individuals who fail to participate in the tax system, often the most vulnerable in society, may forgo important government benefits (or even entitlements to government services when such services are tied to tax return information). The September 2020 Speech from the Throne committed the…

The Study In Brief Due to rapid digitalization across the economy and an aging population, Canada faces digital and STEM skills shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic has also intensified the need for digital and STEM skills and contributed to the existing shortages. These skills shortages can hurt businesses and affect economic growth. To respond, Canada needs to increase its supply of people with…

The Study in Brief As a primary pillar of Canada’s social safety net, Employment Insurance (EI) has proven itself to be slow to react to downturns, weakening its ability to automatically stabilize the economy. It has also gone off track from its original main goal: to provide insurance against unpredictable job losses. EI should be modernized with an eye to making it a more effective counter-…

The Study In Brief The 2022 federal budget launched consultations on the implementation of new proposed rules for a Global Minimum Tax of 15 percent, which was endorsed in principle by members of the OECD and G20 in 2021. In simple terms, the tax rules would apply to multinational enterprises (MNEs) with annual consolidated revenues generally of EUR 750 million. However, none of this is simple.…

The Study In Brief Canadian and global climate change ambitions are generally associated with a goal of reducing reliance on fossil fuels as a mechanism to reduce carbon emissions. Within this context, the Canadian oil sands have been characterized as “too expensive” to maintain production if global crude oil demand falls, a view that appears regularly in the media and even in government reports…

The Study In Brief With rising inflation top-of-mind for Canadians, a major question is: Can we predict its future? This Commentary shows that growth in the money supply is a useful predictor of inflation, and examines why and when. Since the early 1990s, the Bank of Canada has pursued a successful inflation-targeting strategy. With inflation, and inflation expectations, safely anchored…