Browse "Policy"

Canada's federal and provincial governments follow a budgetary process, designed to ensure control, accountability and planning in the spending of public money.

Canada Corn Act, passed in 1843 by the British Parliament and applying to all grains, allowed Canadian wheat to enter the British market at a nominal duty, and flour manufactured in Canada at a proportionate rate.

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is an earnings-related, public pension plan that transfers income from workers to the retired. The CPP covers all Canadian workers except those in Québec who are covered by the parallel Québec Pension Plan (QPP). The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board manages about $300-billion in CPP assets, making it one of the largest pension fund managers in the world.

Canada Savings Bonds differ from other government bonds in that they can be cashed at any bank for the face value plus accrued interest. They cannot be sold by the original buyer but must be held until cashed or until they mature (usually in 7 years) from the time they were bought.

The Automotive Products Trade Agreement of 1965, better known as the Canada-US Auto Pact, led to the integration of the Canadian and US auto industries in a shared North American market. While it brought great benefits to Canada, it was eventually found to be contrary to international trade rules and was cancelled in 2001. By then it had accomplished its biggest goal — an integrated North American industry with a much stronger Canadian presence.

Temporary foreign worker programs are regulated by the federal government and allow employers to hire foreign nationals on a temporary basis to fill gaps in their workforces. Each province and territory also has its own set of policies that affect the administration of the programs. Canada depends on thousands of migrant workers every year to bolster its economy and to support its agricultural, homecare, and other lower-wage sectors. In 2014, there were 567,077 migrant workers employed in Canada, with migrant farm workers making up 12 per cent of Canada’s agricultural workforce. A growing labour shortage is projected to increase, with a study by the Conference Board of Canada projecting 113,800 unfilled jobs by 2025.

The Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) is an inter-governmental trade agreement regulating trade within Canada. It took effect on 1 July 2017. The goal of the agreement was to reduce or eliminate regulations against the free movement of goods, services, and investments within Canada. The officials who framed the new deal said they wanted to ensure that Canadian firms got the same access to the Canadian market as firms from the country’s international trading partners. CFTA also more closely matches the terms of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), which began taking effect in 2017.

It has been a long time since a Canadian government tried to force the auto industry to improve fuel efficiency. The energy crisis scares of the 1970s were still fresh memories when Pierre Trudeau's Liberals passed the Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act in 1982.

Carbon pricing plans impose a cost on the combustion of fossil fuels by industries and consumers — either directly through a tax, or indirectly through a cap-and-trade system. In a market economy like Canada’s, prices help regulate the supply and demand of goods and services. By influencing the price of a commodity like gasoline, through carbon pricing, governments aim to discourage its use and thereby reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that result from its consumption.

In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a national climate-change policy that included a system of carbon pricing across Canada. As of April 2019, nine provinces and territories have carbon pricing plans that meet the requirements of the national policy. In the remaining provinces — Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick — Ottawa imposed its own carbon tax. The tax has vocal opponents on the political right, including some premiers and party leaders.

Competition policy refers to legislation used by the federal government to eliminate privately imposed restraints on trade and to encourage competition.

Consumer standards are documents describing acceptable characteristics or usage for products, materials and services used by individual consumers. They may specify dimensional, performance or safety requirements for household products.

The Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs was established in 1967 to bring together under one minister the administering of federal policies regulating the marketplace.

Crop Insurance An all-risk crop-insurance program is available to Canadian farmers under the authority of the federal Crop Insurance Act (of 1959) and through concurrent and complementary legislation enacted by each province.

Employment insurance (renamed from Unemployment Insurance in 1996) refers to government benefit payments during a period of UNEMPLOYMENT. In Canada, the employment insurance system is financed by premiums paid by employers and employees and by federal government contributions.

Equalization payments are payments that the federal government makes to the poorer provinces. The monies come from Ottawa's general revenues and are unconditional transfers that can be spent as the recipient provinces please (see also TRANSFER PAYMENT).

Fiscal policy is the use of government taxing and spending powers to manage the behaviour of the economy. Most fiscal policy is a balancing act between taxes, which tend to reduce economic activity, and spending, which tends to increase it — although there is debate among economists about the effectiveness of fiscal measures.

Fowler Bauld & Mitchell Ltd. (FBM) is an architectural firm in practice since 1917, making it one of the oldest in Canada.

Canada, which is essentially a country of immigrants, has consistently required the importation of skilled and unskilled workers to assist its economic development.

 Income Distribution refers to the share of total income in society that goes to each fifth of the population, or, more generally, to the distribution of income among Canadian households.

The term "intergovernmental finance" refers to the web of financial flows linking governments in a constantly evolving federal system (see FEDERALISM).