Canadians must rediscover the need to link government spending with revenues
The rapid expansion of government in Canada over the past decade produced an unintended experiment in the role of the state in our lives. The pandemic in particular liberated governments to expand programs, spending and interventions in a manner unprecedented outside of wartime. As Canadians get a front-row look at life in a society defined…
Governments must begin to address their own roles in keeping housing prices high
The recent rise in interest rates has dampened demand for home sales in Canada. The hike, inevitable given how historically low rates have been, has taken some of the froth off housing prices. However, given how high home prices still are in Canada, a useful question to ask is what governments can do to reverse…
The Canadian Dairy Commission is morally and ethically compromised. It needs to distance itself from the dairy sector immediately
Every year, the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC), a branch of the federal government, hires external consultants to assess the cost of producing milk on the farm. The CDC has never released any data about costing and has recommended farm milk price increases most years, eventually impacting retail prices and Canadian families. Since February, dairy product…
The prospects of a global economic slowdown are beginning to hit oil demand
The much-awaited ministerial meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, including Russia, in the expanded OPEC+, opted to increase its September output by just 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Despite the urgings of U.S. President Joe Biden to open Saudi Arabia’s crude oil taps during his visit there, the announced output…
But they should
When it comes to scrapping the Trudeau government’s carbon tax, the hardest decision Conservative leadership hopefuls have to make is whether they would scrap it before or after lunch on their first day if elected prime minister. The bigger question is whether a Conservative government would scrap the impending second carbon tax. All candidates are…
Chickpeas are nutritional powerhouses for consumers who don’t necessarily opt for animal proteins
Since the start of the pandemic, we have heard about shortages countless times. Most sections of the grocery store have been hit by tightening supplies for one reason or another. But the latest headlines we are seeing are about chickpeas. Many analysts are expecting chickpea inventories to drop significantly in months to come. For westerners,…
It’s time to tell the federal government they’re cut off
If you thought the taxes you paid on your favourite case of beer or bottle of wine or liquor were high today, the Trudeau government is now saying, “Hold my beer!” Imagine hearing two bartenders whispering about running up your bill. That would probably lead to an animated conversation if not incite some sort of…
The Bank has one job: to keep inflation around two per cent. It failed
It feels odd to explain this basic principle, but apparently, it’s not obvious to everyone: bonuses and pay raises are for doing a good job. While the Bank of Canada was sowing the seeds of today’s high inflation during the early days of the pandemic, it was also padding its employees’ pockets with bonuses and…
Food inflation in Canada may have already peaked
Once again, the numbers coming out of Statistics Canada were discouraging. The food inflation rate in the country was 8.8 per cent in June, which is still higher than the general inflation rate. Everyone is affected by higher food prices. Americans learned last week that food inflation at the grocery store was 12.4 per cent,…
Controlling inflation with interest rates can work, but at a terrible cost
Summer heat isn’t the only thing making Canadians sweat this summer; abnormally high inflation and rising interest rates are putting the heat on many Canadians. We’ve gone from 0 per cent inflation in August 2020 to 8.1 per cent in June 2022. That’s really fast. The last time we saw anything like it was 1970-73…