The CDHI Podcast

Building more LTC facilities won’t solve Canada’s long-term care crisis. The C.D. Howe Institute’s Rosalie Wyonch tells host Michael Hainsworth that the solution involves rethinking the way we deliver care, and each province could benefit from the lessons learned by their neighbours.

If you care about the direction of the country, you must care about tax reform. That’s the sentiment from the Canadian Tax Foundation’s Heather Evans who warns “fiscal pollution” is clouding our ability to attract business development. But is a 2 percent increase in the GST the solution?

Populist budgets don’t get A+ grades. But why? And what’s wrong with the budget Ontario’s Conservative government recently tabled? The C.D. Howe Institute’s Bill Robson tells Michael Hainsworth that it’s about more than just deficit spending.

Former federal health minister Dr. Jane Philpott, former Alberta health minister Fred Horne, and Rosalie Wyonch discuss the inadequacy of the $1.5 billion budget for the national pharmacare program in Canada. They analyze the challenges in achieving consensus among provinces, the disparity between costs and actual drug expenditures, and the importance of collaboration to enhance Canada's healthcare system. The discussion highlights the complexities of navigating a comprehensive pharmacare plan in Canada.

Securing Canada’s supply chains comes with risk. HEC Montréal Professor and C.D. Howe Institute Fellow-In-Residence Ari Van Assche debunks COVID-era theories about why we ran out of masks, toilet paper, and bicycles as well as how we can avoid the same fate in the future.

Raise the GST and luxury taxes. Balance the budget. End Supply Management for the dairy industry. In the C.D. Howe Institute’s Shadow Budget 2024, Bill Robson and Don Drummond warn that we’ll suffer more later if we don’t take the fiscal medicine now.

Curing what ails Canada’s healthcare system requires us taking the financial bull by the privatization horns. Dalhousie University political science Professor Katherine Fierlbeck and host Michael Hainsworth discuss the importance of accurately framing the nature of our system so we can understand it’s expectations – and limitations.

The Deep Freeze has put Albertans on notice: The fear of rolling blackouts is real. As a recent massive cold front from the Northwest Territories that flooded the province and its neighbours led to concerns about its citizens' ability to keep the lights on, and the furnaces too. Kent Fellows, a C.D. Howe Institute Fellow-In-Residence, Assistant Professor of Economics and Associate Program Director of the Canadian Northern Corridor Research Program at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, joins us to discuss.

Can Canada’s fraying social safety net catch new immigrants? And if not, what’s the solution as headlines reveal many are sleeping in shifts, dying on the streets, and not able to leverage their skillset in their new homeland? Former Ontario MPP Mitzie Hunter, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Toronto Mayor John Tory join Michael Hainsworth to revisit an engaging and entertaining Regent Debate.

How would the price of milk threaten Canada’s auto industry? Bill C-282 risks upturning trade negotiations with the world, especially our biggest trading partner. And if Donald Trump returns to the White House, Martha Hall Findlay tells the Institute’s Bill Robson and Michael Hainsworth that all bets are off.