The Glacier Grinds Closer: How Demographics Will Change Canada’s Fiscal Landscape
Abstract
The impacts of demographic change on Canada's fiscal landscape will be profound, and as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, they are no longer far away. If current patterns of spending in age-sensitive public programs - healthcare, education, elderly and children's benefits - persist as the population evolves, Canadians will divert more of their incomes from other public and private purposes to fund them. Discounted over 50 years, that increase amounts to an implicit liability of $2.8 trillion for governments, with essentially all the burden falling on the provinces and territories rather than on Ottawa.Download Info
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Paper provided by C.D. Howe Institute in its series e-briefs with number 106.Length: 6 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2010
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published on the C.D. Howe Institute website, September 2010
Handle: RePEc:cdh:ebrief:106
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Related research
Keywords: Fiscal Policy; Canada; demographics; government programs; health; education; seniors; families;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
- E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy
- H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-AGE-2010-10-30 (Economics of Ageing)
- NEP-ALL-2010-10-30 (All new papers)
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Angelo Melino, 2011. "Moving Monetary Policy Forward: Why Small Steps - and a Lower Inflation Target - Make Sense for the Bank of Canada," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 319, January.
- Colin Busby, 2011. "The Fragile Fiscal Pulse of Canada's Industrial Heartland: Ontario 2011 Budget," e-briefs 113, C.D. Howe Institute.
- Ake Blomqvist & Colin Busby, 2012. "Long-Term Care for the Elderly: Challenges and Policy Options," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 367, November.
- Christopher Ragan, 2011. "Precision Targeting: The Economics – and Politics – of Improving Canada’s Inflation-Targeting Framework," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 321, February.
- James P. Bruce, 2011. "Protecting Groundwater: The Invisible and Vital Resource," C.D. Howe Institute Backgrounder, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 136, February.
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