Jan 24 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Stephen Poloz sat down with the Toronto Star this week to discuss his seven-year term as the governor of the Bank of Canada which comes to a close this June. Here’s are excerpts from the interview:
Jan 22 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — As Donald Trump brags to the world’s billionaires at Davos about his two newest trade deals — the revamped NAFTA and a new agreement with China — how should Canadians feel about these developments? Relief, no doubt. But a bit of trepidation, too. First, the relief. Since Trump came to power three years ago, vowing […]
Jan 14 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Just when we seemed to be coming a long way, baby, new research shows the gender wage gap has barely shrunk and may soon grow again. Depending on how you measure it, women are still paid between 11 and 31 per cent less than men, even though we have made very slow progress over the […]
Jan 10 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Canada has once again become collateral damage for Donald Trump’s bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy, and the pattern is so deeply disturbing as to warrant more than just a sigh from the prime minister. Justin Trudeau was subdued Thursday when he said an Iranian missile probably caused the plane crash that killed 63 Canadians. Sure, he expressed […]
Jan 9 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — It took only a few days of 2020 for the violence of world events to rattle any tenuous confidence Canadians may have had in our economic prospects for this year. The opening week of January brought us the American killing of a top Iranian commander and the ensuing confusion around U.S. President Donald Trump’s motives, […]
Dec 16 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Remember all those generous election promises the Liberals sprinkled around for voters of every kind just a couple of months ago? Best forget all that now. Monday’s fiscal update shows in black and white that the federal government can’t deliver on everything it promised, and will have to delay, water down or just not deliver […]
Dec 13 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau’s mandate letters to his cabinet ministers have made at least one key thing clearer in terms of budgeting: the debt burden must continue to fall. While that’s the same guideline the Liberals have stuck to for the past few years, Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have studiously avoided recommitting to it since […]
Dec 9 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Mon., Dec. 9, 2019timer4 min. read As Jason Kenney and a third of his cabinet attempt to smother Ottawa this week with charm and argument, it’s not just because environmentalists and Justin Trudeau have been breathing down his neck about emissions in the oilsands. That’s just nagging. The real driving force behind Kenney’s push is […]
Dec 5 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — After more than a month of wide consultation and fierce bartering, the speech from the throne that Justin Trudeau finally pulled from the oven on Tuesday was missing a key ingredient: economic growth. Yes, it was mentioned a couple of times, but as a fait accompli rather than a goal. When it comes to prosperity, […]
Dec 3 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — It’s tempting to roll our eyes at the premiers this week for turning to the lazy common ground of holding their hands out to the federal government asking for more health-care money. It’s so predictable. Provinces’ demands for increased transfers are perennial and parochial, frequently ignored by the federal government as just noise. But there […]
Nov 27 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — If Chris Ragan’s math is right, Alberta and Ontario should be thanking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for imposing a carbon tax on their residents. Ragan is a McGill University economist and leader of the Ecofiscal Commission, which costed out the pros and cons of carbon pricing against other emissions-reduction strategies like Jason Kenney’s in Alberta […]
Nov 26 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Some of the world’s top economic policy thinkers say it’s time to batten down the hatches for the incoming global slowdown, and they have some pointed advice for countries to best prepare. It’s advice Canada could benefit from, slump or no slump. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says the world economy will only […]
Nov 21 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau frittered away a full month after the election to come up with a new cabinet. During that month, Premiers Jason Kenney and Scott Moe mobilized their anti-Liberal supporters, amplified the animosity that was left behind by the Liberals in the election campaign and deftly set an agenda for the prime minister that now […]
Nov 20 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — The Liberal government committed to more than half a billion dollars in unbudgeted spending during the two months leading up to the federal election campaign, documents reveal — and the money was promised at a time when the opposition parties faced new restraints on what they were allowed to spend before the writ was dropped. […]
Nov 17 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Dear Minister of Social Development, Nowhere is the age of disruption more present in people’s lives than in the world of work. We have chosen you to figure out the best role for government in mitigating the harm and amplifying the benefits of automation, labour shortages, an aging workforce, and mismatched skills. You will also […]