In its 2021 budget on Monday, the federal government said it’s proposing nearly $30 billion over the next five years towards a national community-based childcare system. The budget stated that starting in 2021/2022, an investment of up to $27.2 billion over five years will bring the federal government to a 50/50 share of childcare costs […]
The head of the Bank of Nova Scotia is urging Ottawa to top up the annual Canada Child Benefit and increase childcare expense deductions, ahead of the federal budget announcement slated for April 19. During the bank’s annual general meeting on April 13, Brian Porter, chief executive officer of Scotiabank, said he wants the benefit […]
The federal government should embrace “aggressive incrementalism” on their promised path toward a national childcare system and quickly build on what’s already there rather than push wholesale change, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. The report suggests that trying to revamp how childcare is delivered in Canada by moving responsibility to […]
Institutional investors, regulators and financial standard organizations are calling on Canadian corporations to adopt transparent climate-risk reporting, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. The report noted corporate directors have the legal and fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their companies in developing strategies to address climate-related financial risks […]
Institutional investors, regulators and financial standard organizations are calling on Canadian corporations to adopt transparent climate-risk reporting, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. The report noted corporate directors have the legal and fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their companies in developing strategies to address climate-related financial risks […]
Faced with ballooning and unsustainable public pension liabilities, Taiwan’s government was forced to make a tough decision. In 2017, the country’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party passed a bill to dramatically cut retirement benefits for the country’s civil servants, public school teachers, police officers, firefighters and private sector workers. The changes were unpopular, but necessary. Underfunded […]
Economists say there is no doubt that Canada is experiencing a recession, but the exact criteria determining one is underway can be fraught with confusion. Broadly speaking, a recession is a period of business contraction where economic activity declines. But what exactly constitutes a decline, and over what time period, is the subject of much […]
The Bank of Canada is turning to the public for input on its inflation-rate target that underlies any changes to the central bank’s trend-setting interest rate. The bank had already planned on a much broader consultation than what it did for previous reviews long before the coronavirus pandemic struck Canada and forced a sharp decline […]
When Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for public sector pension plan obligations, these institutions must spell that out clearly in their financial reporting, according to a new paper by the C.D. Howe Institute. “Reporting of pension costs as they accrue and net obligations at a point in time is tricky,” wrote William Robson, the organization’s chief […]
Canada’s pension regulations have been designed to govern defined benefit plans and are a bad fit for target-benefit and multi-employer pension plans, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. The report, authored by Barry Gros, a retired actuary and chair of the University of British Columbia staff pension plan, argued that the […]