Client Notes
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Government Launches Major Projects Office to Expedite Projects of National Interest
On Friday the Government of Canada launched the Major Projects Office (“MPO”) with a mandate to serve as a single point of contact to get “projects of national interest” built faster. Additional detail is set out below. The MPO, established under the Building Canada Act that was passed in June, is being touted by the…
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Ontario Budget 2024 Analysis
Ford government shifts course with $214 billion to deal with political and economic challenges Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy presented the 2024 Ontario Budget with a focus on making investments on “Building a Better Ontario” in three ways: significant infrastructure investments over the next decade, keeping costs down for people (or really, key voter segments), and…
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The Cognitive Dissonance of the 2023 Fiscal Update
Not so very long ago when “Fall Economic Updates’” were added to the Parliamentary calendar, these short “Updates” on the fiscal situation heralded a new transparency around the nation’s finances. “Updates” then morphed into “mini-budgets”, providing the Government of the day an opportunity to pat itself on the back and to offer up pre-holiday goodies. At…
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Let’s try this again: The Ford Government’s Second Cabinet Shuffle
There has been a fair amount of turmoil in the Ontario Ford government the last few weeks, and certainly the last 48 hours, with the resignation of two additional Cabinet Ministers – one related to the Greenbelt scandal, and the other leaving politics (for now) to take a position in the private sector. So far,…
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Cabinet Jenga on The Rideau
Refashioning a Cabinet mid-way through a Government’s mandate is not unlike a game of Jenga. Something’s gotta give to get things moving: a retirement, a demise (physical or political) or expanding the size of the Cabinet to add new Cabinet-level leadership around a pressing issue. Inevitably, Ministers are ditched (deservedly or not) so that someone…
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Crypto Won’t Stay Dead: A Conundrum for Regulators and Central Bankers. An Opportunity for Canada.
The demise of “crypto exchange” FTX (only a short time ago), and the resulting collapse in the value of crypto, may have been greeted by central banks and financial services regulators with relief. Some pronounced private digital currencies like bitcoin officially dead. Others believed there would be time to figure out what to do about…
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Budget 2023: Big Spending To Placate The NDP and Confront A Competitive And Dangerous World
The NDP are the big winners in Budget 2023. The Liberals have delivered what the NDP needs to continue to shore up the Minority Liberals: a national dental care plan, a prohibition on the use of replacement workers during strikes and the requirement that recipients of investment tax credits pay a fair wage (whatever that…
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Ontario Budget 2023: A Budget for Uncertain Times
The Ford government released its 2023 Fiscal Plan with very little of the “pre-conditioning” announcements that have been de rigueur for governments of all stripes the last two decades. Indeed, until yesterday morning’s papers, there’s been nary a whisper, hint or smoke signal as to what Finance Minister Bethlenfalvy had in store for Ontarians. Well, it’s…
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The Federal Mini Budget: Keeping Their Powder Dry, Not So Much
The federal government delivered a Fall Economic Statement this week. These Statements have morphed into ‘mini budgets’ full of pricey ‘goodies’ that used to be reserved for full budgets. Minister Freeland and the government are clearly preparing for challenging times next year and presented a “downside scenario” if growth continues to slow. In that eventuality,…