Hot Topics in Economics

Mario Lefebvre Director Centre for Municipal Studies

The 2012 Budget announced federal job cuts totalling 19,200 over three years.1 While these cuts are significant, they do not come close to rumoured numbers that ranged as high as 60,000 jobs. And the cuts will not devastate the Ottawa-Gatineau economy....

Robin Wiebe Économiste sénior

> English version

À Montréal, les visiteurs ne peuvent faire autrement que de remarquer la multitude de petits immeubles à appartements qui longent les rues de la ville. Dits « les plexes », ces immeubles de quelques étages seulement, avec leurs escaliers extérieurs, sont profondément ancrés dans ...

Robin Wiebe Senior Economist

> Version français

Visitors to Montréal cannot help but notice the proliferation of small apartment buildings which line inner city streets. Known as “plexes,” their low-rise design and outdoor staircases have deep historic roots. The staircases could originate from French-Canadian settler habits or from a ...

Kip Beckman Principal Economist, Economic Services

A few weeks ago, the media reported that some top business leaders in Iceland had been lobbying the government to drop its 137 year-old currency, the krona, and adopt the Canadian dollar as an alternative. This is heady stuff for Canada. When countries want ...

Kip Beckman Principal Economist, Economic Services

There is nothing that angers Americans more than soaring gasoline prices and, as prices rocket towards $5 per gallon in some parts of the country, Republicans are blaming the Obama administration for the unwelcome situation that is unfolding just as the economy is starting to ...