Skip To Content

The State of Fiscal Guardrails and the Impact for Budget 2022

Home / Webinars / The State of Fiscal Guardrails and the Impact for Budget 2022

April 12, 2022

Join the Ottawa Economics Association for an exciting discussion on the state of Canada’s fiscal situation and outlook in the context of Budget 2022, featuring Don Drummond and Bill Robson.

In 2020, as part of the extraordinary stimulus measures, the federal government introduced fiscal guardrails to serve as a benchmark for when it should put the nation’s finances onto a more sustainable track. Budget 2021 downplayed those guardrails, and the 2021 Fall Update ignored them. The February 2022 Labour Force Survey confirmed that, under any reasonable definition, the guardrails have been hit. Yet the unfunded spending increases have continued, and more loom. In the context of the 2022 Federal Budget, Don Drummond and Bill Robson will discuss the importance of stronger economic growth over the long term, and putting the country on a more prudent fiscal path, and how federal fiscal policy needs to change.

DonDrummond125x125 Stauffer-Dunning Fellow and Adjunct Professor, School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University Don Drummond

Don Drummond is the Stauffer-Dunning Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University. In 2011-12, he served as Chair for the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services. Its final report, released in February 2012, contained nearly four hundred recommendations to provide Ontarians with excellent and affordable public services.

Mr. Drummond previously held a series of progressively more senior positions in the areas of economic analysis and forecasting, fiscal policy and tax policy during almost 23 years with Finance Canada. His last three positions were respectively Assistant Deputy Minister of Fiscal Policy and Economic Analysis, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of Tax Policy & Legislation and most recently, Associate Deputy Minister. In the latter position he was responsible for economic analysis, fiscal policy, tax policy, social policy and federal-provincial relations and coordinated the planning of the annual federal budgets.

He subsequently was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for the TD Bank (2000-2010), where he took the lead with TD Economics’ work in analyzing and forecasting economic performance in Canada and abroad.  For Canada, this work was conducted at the city, provincial, industrial and national levels. TD Economics also analyzes the key policies which influence economic performance, including monetary and fiscal policies. He is a graduate of the University of Victoria and holds an M.A. (Economics) from Queen’s University.  He has honorary doctorates from Queen’s and the University of Victoria and is a member of the Order of Ontario.

Mr. Drummond is currently Chair, Canadian Centre for the Study of Living Standards; Fellow-in-Residence, C.D. Howe Institute and; member of the Expert Advisory Group to the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices.

bill_2016.png Chief Executive Officer, C.D. Howe Institute William Robson

Bill Robson took office as CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute in July 2006, after serving as the Institute’s Senior Vice President since 2003 and Director of Research from 2000 to 2003. He has written more than 240 monographs, articles, chapters and books on such subjects as government budgets, pensions, healthcare financing, inflation and currency issues. His work has won awards from the Policy Research Secretariat, the Canadian Economics Association, and the Donner Canadian Foundation. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and holds an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a member of the Panel of Senior Advisors to the Auditor General of Ontario and the Ifo World Economic Survey expert group, and a regular commentator on BNN/Bloomberg. Bill taught undergraduate public finance and public policy at the University of Toronto from 2000 to 2003, and a Master’s level course in public finance at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy from 2014 to 2019.

CABE provides this information as a service to our members. Materials shown in the slides and/or video have been provided with the permission of the speaker(s). All rights belong to them unless otherwise indicated. CABE is not responsible for the accuracy or content of information contained. CABE is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims all liability for, damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance on any information contained within this website.