1,721,006 research outputs found
A Social Insurance Model for Pharmacare: Ontario's Options for a More Sustainable, Cost-Effective Drug Program
Full text linkWith annual spending of about $4.5 billion dollars in 2010, Canada’s largest drug plan – the Ontario Drug Program (ODB) – will become harder to afford as the babyboomers age and workforce growth slows. A business-as-usual approach to funding the plan, which provides publicly funded drug benefits to every Ontario resident aged 65 an older, presents a bleak prospect and amounts to wilfully passing on an exorbitant bill to future generations. Ontario, like all jurisdictions, faces tough challenges at the intersection of fiscal and health policy. Partial prefunding and benefit-payment reform of the ODB would put a key health program on a stronger and more sustainable footing.The Health Papers, Ontario Drug Program (ODB), Province of Ontario
Holding Canada's Cities to Account: an Assessment of Municipal Fiscal Management
Full text linkCities are the most visible level of government for most Canadians, providing services such as waste collection, policing and transit. Yet their budgets are the most opaque of any level of government. Municipalities generally use accounting in their budgets that does not match what they use in their financial reports. Peering through the messy numbers reveals that most cities routinely miss budget targets by large amounts. Councillors and taxpayers who seek to hold these municipal governments to account face a daunting task. Amid the mixed record, however, are some municipalities with clearer numbers and better records for spending control. That fact, along with improvements that have occurred at the federal and provincial levels in recent years, shows that progress is possible. The authors suggest five basic reforms would create clearer, more consistent budgets and would bring the financial management of Canada’s municipalities into line with their fiscal impact and their importance in Canadians’ lives.Fiscal & Tax Competitiveness, Governance and Public Institutions, Urban Issues Series, Canadian municipalities, fiscal management, municipal budgets
Will C-36 Undermine CPP "9.9"? Benefit Enhancement and the Sustainability of the Canada Pension Plan
Full text linkThe Canada Pension Plan, like all pension plans and social-security programs, is under constant tension. On one side are current and hopeful beneficiaries, who typically want richer payouts. On the other are younger actual or potential contributors, who typically want lower or at least sustainable contribution rates. The CPP’s history reflects this tension: the repeated benefit enrichment, rising costs and growing unfunded liabilities that marked the 1970s and 1980s preceded reforms in the 1990s that trimmed benefits, ramped up contributions, and aimed to pre-fund enough of the program to hold its contribution rate at 9.9 percent.governance and public institutions, pension funding
Equipping Ourselves in Tough times: Canada's Improved Business Investment Performance
Full text linkAfter trailing the average performance of G7 countries for 15 years, Canada’s relative business investment performance stands out in a promising light for 2009 and 2010. Amid the recession, new capital spending on tools for workers, in the form of machinery, equipment or buildings, has held up better in Canada than in many other countries, and particularly the United States. Investment per worker in Canada for 2010 should surpass that in other G7 and OECD countries.economic growth and innovation, business investment, capital investment
The Costs of Inflexible Indexing: Avoiding the Adverse Fiscal Impacts of Lower Inflation
Full text linkA lively debate is underway about replacing Canada’s 2 percent inflation target with a target for lower inflation or a target for the price level itself when Canada’s inflation-control arrangement expires at the end of 2011. Either change could reduce uncertainty about changes in the value of money over time, and potentially stabilize the economy as well. But such policies may involve costs; a long-standing concern is that rises versus falls in the price level may have different or asymmetrical impacts on the economy.monetary policy, Consumer Price Index (CPI), Bank of Canada, inflation control
Freeing up Food: The Ongoing Cost, and Potential Reform, of Supply Management
Full text linkGovernment-mandated cartels in eggs, dairy and poultry products impose high costs on consumers and harm Canada’s standing in international trade. The authors offer compelling evidence of the high costs to Canadian consumers and limited benefits to farmers arising from the supply management system. The study recommends phasing out Canada’s controversial supply management system through sales of new quota for the production and sale of these products.Governance and Public Institutions, Canadian agriculture, supply management policy, agricultural production quotas
Unbalanced Books: How to Improve Toronto’s Fiscal Accountability
Full text linkAs Toronto gears up for a municipal election this fall, the city's poor record on fiscal accountability promises to be a central issue. As the sixth largest government in Canada, with a budget of over $11 billion annually, Toronto city hall should have its finances under better control. A 10-year comparison of planned spending changes announced in budgets with actual results reported after year-end reveals large deviations between planned and actual spending that are routine. To increase transparency and accountability, Toronto should consolidate its now separate capital and operating budgets, move to a uniform accounting basis for its budgets and year-end results, and provide multi-year budgets. City government should adhere more closely to the budgets Council votes every year.Governance and Public Institutions, Toronto, fiscal accountability
Give Canadian Workers the Tools to do the Job! Why Canada Needs More Robust Capital Investment
Full text linkCanadian investment policy
Faster, Younger, Richer? The Fond Hope and Sobering Reality of Immigration's Impact on Canada's Demographic and Economic Future
Full text linkMore and younger immigrants cannot, on their own, offset the impact of low past fertility on Canadian workforce growth, old-age dependency, and incomes per person. Later retirement, higher fertility, and faster productivity growth are more powerful tools to ease the stress of demographic change on Canadian living standards.economic growth and innovation, immigration, demographics, aging
Off the Mark: Canada's 2008 Fiscal Accountability Ranking (also available in French)
Full text linkEvery year, legislators in Canada vote for budgets that set out targets for the coming fiscal year. But every year, governments tend to spend more than they promise at budget time. The result: accountability between legislators and voters breaks down. Canadians should demand better.fiscal policy, public accounts, Canadian federal, provincial and territorial governments fiscal accountability rankings
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