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From: Glen Hodgson and Diana Smallridge To: Reconciliation observers Date: January 17, 2024 Re: Unlocking Indigenous financing: are loan guarantees the answer? The federal government’s recent Fall Economic Statement included a commitment to establish a loan guarantee program to foster Indigenous equity ownership in major natural resource sector projects. This offers clear…

From: Glen Hodgson and Diana Smallridge  To: Reconciliation watchers Date: March 20, 2024 Re: The Best Indigenous Financing Gap Solution? An Indigenous Development Bank Access to financing is critical if the Indigenous economy is to make meaningful progress on sustained economic development as a basis for reconciliation. There are significant market gaps in…

The Study in Brief With the significant decline in single-employer defined-benefit (DB) pension plans in the private sector, it’s important to understand other alternatives. One such alternative is the target-benefit plan.  The regulation of target-benefit plans (TBPs) in all provinces across Canada can be made more straightforward and effective using lessons learned from real-life…

From: Rosalie Wyonch  To: Healthcare observers Date: March 18, 2024 Re: The Lingering Pharmacare Questions The Liberals and NDP have reached a deal on pharmacare, but there are many challenges to overcome. It will take years to implement and many questions remain unanswered.  Canada is the only developed country with universal insurance for hospital and physician…

Wouldn’t it be great if more government infrastructure were built faster and cheaper? The Ontario government certainly thinks so and is creating the Ontario Infrastructure Bank (OIB) to get that done. Unfortunately, inadequate funding is not the problem plaguing infrastructure investment. The province never comes close to spending the money it allocates to infrastructure. In 2022-23 alone, it…

The federal government recently finalized regulations for its “zero-emissions vehicle” mandate. The mandate requires sellers of light vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks) to sell a rising minimum of zero-emissions vehicles — basically, electric vehicles or EVs — every year, culminating with 100 per cent EVs in 2035, just 11 years from now. Reasonable forecasts of production and sales…