A separate Intelligence Memo summarized the impact on fictional families of the combination of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the boosts to the Goods and Services Tax Credit and Canada Child Benefit from February to July.

Canadian governments moved swiftly and massively to provide personal supports to Canadians during the COVID crisis. This Intelligence Memo looks at income from three families in February before the crisis hit, in April when generous federal and provincial supports hit their zenith,…

Ken Boessenkool is a public-policy economist with a long history in Canadian politics. Some of the facts marking the COVID-19 economic recession as unique are becoming clearer. Unlike past recessions, where job losses were concentrated in manufacturing and construction and most of…

Three related facts about the COVID-19 economic recession are becoming clearer. The most affected sectors are public facing sectors – largely the service sector; the most affected income group is the poor; and the most affected demographic is women. This makes the current…

Canada’s social safety net has evolved slowly and carefully in an overlapping federal system of transfers and benefits. Ottawa has responsibility for the tax system and Employment Insurance (EI). The provinces have primary responsibility for most social assistance and disability…