Size of the deficit isn’t the only thing that matters in the federal budget. Here are the other things that economist Mike Moffatt will be looking for Tuesday
This post first appeared on Canadian Business.
When the federal budget is released on Tuesday, the two big questions economists and pundits will have are “how big is the deficit?” and “how closely does the budget match the Liberal campaign platform?” While these are important issues, they are plenty of others worth considering. There are eight items in particular I will be looking for in Budget 2016:
Related: Maclean’s 2016 federal budget hub
One of the first things I look for in any budget are the economic projections, particularly after Budget 2015 contained wildly optimistic oil price forecasts. The economic forecasts in the budget will be a little less interesting this year as in late February the Department of Finance released a set of forecasts in their Canadian Economic Outlook (CEO). That said, many of the projections in the CEO only go out one or two years, so the forecasts in the budget will still be worth examining as they may have a longer time horizon. Hopefully Budget 2016 will contain cautious and realistic economic forecasts for the next five years.
Food price inflation caused by a falling loonie has negatively affected the ability of low-income families to buy healthy food. A food rebate program would both provide assistance for low-income families and economic stimulus.
It would be surprising if there are any actual tariff cuts in Budget 2016, but I would like to see the government commit to a process to selectively eliminate import tariffs. I would be delighted if they would attach a dollar commitment as well (e.g. we will cut $250 million in tariffs over the next three years), though that is probably asking too much.
The Ontario budget contained a clause committing to a basic income pilot and it is possible that the federal government may consider the same. I am highly skeptical of many of the proposals floated by proponents of a Guaranteed Minimum Income, so I will be looking to see if the federal government is considering moving in this direction.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement create massive opportunities for Canada’s agricultural and agri-food sectors, particularly in southwestern Ontario. In order to capitalize on these opportunities, we need to be able to ship our products to market. Improvements to Canada’s air transport infrastructure would be helpful, along with upgrades to Canada’s ports, such as Hamilton’s. There are many other types of southwestern Ontario exporters that would greatly benefit from improved trade infrastructure.
Statistics Canada makes some odd choices when it comes to data collection and many useful series are released with a substantial lag. Doing any kind of long-run macro-economic study is difficult due to the agency either lacking the will or the resources to splice together series after definitions change. Data at the Statistics Canada site is not displayed in the most user-friendly fashion (I would kill to have our municipal data displayed the way the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does it) and too often the site simply returns the message “UNEXPECTED ERROR.” Our open data portal, while a worthwhile initiative, substantially lags behind that of the United States. Committing resources to addressing these issues would be greatly appreciated by the policy-wonk community.
The budget is a lengthy document which is always full of surprises, so there will be plenty of announcements that are off everybody’s radar and will be worth looking for as well. But when I first get the budget book in my hands, I will be immediately searching for these eight things.