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William Watson, "From the editor's desktop" Sorry, an abstract of this article is not available. "The next five years" To begin this new year, Policy Options asked a number of thoughtful and opinionated Canadians what they felt would be and/or should be the important policy issues of the next five years. They were told to choose their own weights for "would" and "should" and to express themselves in any way they wished, but not to exceed 200 words. Here are their answers. "How the budget is made," interview with Scott Clark, deputy minister of finance C. Scott Clark, who has held various economics jobs in the Department of Finance and the Treasury Board Secretariat since 1975, became deputy minister of finance in July 1997. He's now putting together his second budget as the department's number-two man. We wanted to find out about budget-making in general and current budget policy in particular. William Watson met with Mr. Clark in his corner office on the 20th floor of the department's office block on O'Connor Street in Ottawa in early November. "A route for the Third Way," by Tom Kent The globalized economy is in financial turmoil and determined political leadership is needed to save it from its enemies within. Europe's new leaders may well be up to the task. We need: international monitoring of financial institutions, reconsideration of the Tobin tax, fewer fiscal preferences for capital income, and a tax on the retained earnings of corporations. "Canada and the Euro," comments by Patrick Crowley and John McCallum On New Year's Day, 11 European countries took the penultimate step toward replacing their national currencies with the euro. Patrick Crowley argues that the changeover's initial effects on Canada may be slight but that in the longer run we may wish to deepen the North American economic relationship. John McCallum thinks that giving up the shock absorber of a separate currency will prove very painful to most European countries. He argues that Canada should not think of imitating them. "What do we do with the dollar?" interview with Pierre Fortin, Rick Harris and Bill Robson Dollar, dollar, who's got - any idea what has been going on with the dollar? Three Canadians who should have are Pierre Fortin, professor of economics at l'Université du Québec à Montréal, Richard Harris, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and Bill Robson, senior policy analyst with the C. D. Howe Institute in Toronto. Policy Options' editor William Watson talked to them recently by conference call. Here is an edited version of their conversation. "Corruption north of 60," by Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard Corruption of the sort that recently forced the resignation of the Northwest Territories' Premier Donald Morin is systemic in the North. The main reason is that in the Territories' tribal-based government, the absence of a party system means there is no institutionalized interest to challenge the power of a premier and his cronies once they become entrenched. "The new constitutional duty to negotiate," by Dan Usher The Supreme Court's decision in the separation reference creates a new constitutional obligation to negotiate. But the Court neglected to fill in the details. What triggers the duty to negotiate? Who sets the agenda? Must negotiating parties make concessions? A "duty to negotiate" is a poor substitute for what we really need: clear rules about how secession would proceed. "TAGS : Une stratégie de transition ou d'assistance ?" by Maurice Beaudin Fisheries companies have adapted to the collapse of the east coast fishery, but people who work in the industry still seem not to realize that it will never again employ as many of them as it used to. The federal government's TAGS program, rather than encourage essential adjustments, has perpetuated the status quo. "Our flawed new magazine policy," by Dennis Browne The United States is bound to challenge Bill C-55, either under NAFTA or the WTO, and it may very well win. The case would be worth fighting hard if C-55 were good policy, but it is not. A strong domestic magazine industry is important to Canada but there are better ways to achieve it. "À quel prix vendre l'électricité ?" by Jean-Thomas Bernard The price that Hydro-Québec charges for electricity should be based not on what it costs to produce, but on its economic value as determined in the North American market for energy. That means domestic prices should be the same as export prices. The generally higher prices that would result would lead to both energy and economic efficiency. |
