Nov 23 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Pandemic fiscal policy has come to us mainly in the form of words. “We will always have your backs,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tell us repeatedly. “Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.” Finally, we will get some numbers to go with the words — some badly needed […]
Nov 17 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto.com — Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, took to the podium again on Tuesday and resurrected an old refrain from the first wave of the pandemic: “Let’s plank the curve, Canada.” That messaging — along with the blunt lockdown it entailed for many parts of the country — may have eventually worked the first […]
Nov 12 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — If there were ever a time for the federal government to be extra ambitious on climate change, it’s right now — not just for the sake of global warming, but for the sake of our own economy, too. Over the next few weeks, Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson will be setting out several key building blocks […]
Nov 11 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — When former U.S. president Barack Obama appeared with Joe Biden at a drive-in rally in Miami just before election day last week, he held out hope that a Biden administration would be a whole lot less exhausting. “You’ll be able to (go) about your lives knowing that the president’s doing his job instead of suggesting […]
Nov 7 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Sat., Nov. 7, 2020timer4 min. read The economic grind of the second wave is coming into sharp focus. But so is the folly of a hasty reopening in the hopes of lightening the load. On Friday, the latest job numbers from Statistics Canada showed that the rapid rebounds in the labour market over the course […]
Oct 29 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Brampton Guardian — Generous, because doing less will only hurt everyone in the long run. And yes, we can afford it. Chrystia Freeland’s staff billed her first big finance-minister vision speech on Wednesday as “an announcement of national significance” and that was an overreach. She quite deliberately avoided talk of numbers or of setting firm parameters on government […]
Oct 23 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — For those of us sifting through the dregs of politics for glimmers of hope, the U.S. presidential debate on Thursday night was at least marginally rewarding. President Donald Trump not only seemed to take the advice of his advisers to tone it down a bit from the last time, he also played mostly by the […]
Oct 23 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Our Windsor — Polemic politics are getting the best of us. The personalized hatred between the Liberals and Conservatives on Parliament Hill that was briefly, and helpfully, contained by the pandemic last spring has now burst into the open, driving the country repeatedly to the brink of an election despite the onset of a second wave of COVID-19 […]
Oct 20 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Our Windsor — There’s a golden opportunity hiding in the deafening political brinksmanship that is consuming Parliament Hill right now. As a way to steer clear of the Conservatives’ insistence that a committee be set up to air out every existing document on the WE Charity scandal, the Liberals are trying to entice them with an alternative: a […]
Oct 12 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto.com — The federal minister for innovation and his staff had embarked on a letter-writing campaign, contacting every single EV manufacturer in the world with a personalized message, asking them to come to Canada and build their cars here. No luck. He rubbed elbows with them every chance he got, but executive after executive told him they […]
Oct 9 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Fri., Oct. 9, 2020timer3 min. read The economic health of a country, like that of a household, depends on jobs, and Canada got 378,000 more of those in September. We are three quarters of the way back. That’s such precious good news that we need to focus on making sure it’s not short-lived, undermined by […]
Oct 9 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Mark Carney is back in the public eye with some provocative marching orders. He and some of his high-profile allies in global finance have issued a to-do list for getting to net zero, that oft-promised dream of a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. Canada, for all its talk, can only check off about half the things […]
Oct 6 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Tiff Macklem calls it his “beacon.” As the new governor of the Bank of Canada gets his feet wet amidst the greatest economic crisis of our times, he says he has one thing in mind at all times in order to keep his policy grounded: the inflation target. Having a guiding light that shines through […]
Sep 25 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Daycare was hands-down the big winner from this week’s throne speech, and that’s a victory for parents, kids, pandemic-stricken workplaces and the labour force of the future. The persuading has been done. Now the hard work begins. The Liberals have committed to a “significant, long-term sustained investment to create a Canada-wide early-learning and child-care system.” […]
Sep 22 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Canada is jumping into the electric vehicle market with both feet, and that sure seems like it will be a great thing for labour, investment and the environment. But that will only be the case if it comes with some solid, strategic thinking and a financial commitment for government, the private sector and labour to […]