Apr 20 2021 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s budget is titled “A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth and Resilience”. It is a big-spending budget. There is new deficit spending for COVID relief, economic recovery and a transition to a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient economy. If there is an election in the fall, this is the type of budget […]
Dec 17 2020 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine — Historians debate key turning points in history—Pax Romana; the birth of spiritual leaders like Jesus and Mohammed; the invention of the printing press; the renaissance; and many more. Will the 2020 global pandemic mark an inflection point, the beginning of a special moment in human history? Can global leaders imagine a new future? Can countries, […]
Dec 11 2020 — Kevin Page — CBC — William Gladstone, a four-time U.K. prime minister, warned in 1891 that if “the House of Commons by any responsibility loses the power of the control of public money, depend on it, your very liberty will be worth little in comparison.” Today in Canada, Members of Parliament, the Parliamentary Budget Office and the media have all […]
Dec 1 2020 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine — Hippocrates said that desperate diseases demand desperate remedies. The COVID-19 pathogen is a novel coronavirus. It is highly transmissible and deadly. The Fall Economic Statement is a novel approach to budget planning. In a period of radical uncertainty, the fall statement lays out economic scenarios with potential fiscal responses contingent on the evolution of key […]
Nov 27 2020 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine — On Monday, December 30, 2020 Finance Minister (and Deputy Prime Minister) Chrystia Freeland will deliver her first major financial document to the House of Commons. It has been wryly noted said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression unless everyone in the room was drunk. While pandemic stress may be […]
Sep 29 2020 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine — Ten years ago, a business book was published titled Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. It was a New York Times business best seller. One of the authors, Douglas Stone, said “difficult conversations are almost never about getting the facts right. They are about conflicting perceptions, interpretations, and values.” In reading the latest […]
Sep 24 2020 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine — The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras said “Numbers rule the universe.” Typically, you do not see a lot of numbers in a Speech from the Throne (SFT). Who would want to listen to a Governor General talk numbers (besides me)? Still, it is possible to deconstruct what was in the speech — and not in the […]
Sep 5 2020 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine — It is a safe assumption that government of Canada cabinet ministers and Finance Department officials have spent much of their summer thinking about an economic recovery plan for Canada and a fall budget. The political and economic stakes are high. With the prorogation of Parliament, triggered in part by the resignation of a finance minister, […]
May 12 2020 — Kevin Page — Policy Magazine — The numbers of the April Labour Force Survey by Statistics Canada were both shocking and expected. The problem of high unemployment looms large. Not all jobs displaced by COVID-19 should be expected to return quickly as the economy re-opens. The law of unintended consequences will extract a pound of flesh. I wish this were not […]
Mar 22 2016 — Kevin Page — iPolitics — For its first budget, the Liberal government leveraged its 2015 electoral platform to deliver on promises to be a more interventionist government. Several legacy programs were announced today, with still more to come — one can surmise, given the scope of their promises — in subsequent years. The budget will be remembered for a number […]
Dec 14 2014 — Kevin Page — Toronto Star — Federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers are holding a pre-budget meeting in Ottawa on Sunday. This ought to be a momentous occasion. Sadly, though, it will likely be something far less than that. It’s a shame that in a federation such as ours, in which intergovernmental collaboration is essential to economic success, the federal government […]
Jan 19 2014 — Kevin Page — Toronto Star — The American educator and philosopher John Dewey once remarked that “we only think when we are confronted with a problem.” As a great procrastinator, that quote has always resonated with me. As did another Dewey remark: “We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts.” As we set out into 2014, […]
Sep 6 2013 — Kevin Page — iPolitics — Ottawa is going to be a busy and interesting place over the next few months. As the leaves turn colour in the Gatineau Hills, there will be a speech from the throne and an Economic and Fiscal Update. When the snow comes and the canal freezes over, we’ll have a budget. Besides the weather, our […]