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B.C. Missed an Economic Opportunity by Importing New Ferries From China, Rather than Building them Here
BC Ferries recently announced a purchase of four major new vessels from a shipyard in China. This decision has sparked criticism from trade unions and others, who argue the ferries should have been commissioned from domestic shipyards. New research from the Centre for Future Work confirms that the decision to import the ferries, rather than domestic procurement, imposed a significant foregone economic cost on the province.
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Trump Launches New Attack Against Canada’s Currency
U.S. President Donald Trump has opened another front in his trade war against Canada, suggesting that Canada is taking advantage of the U.S. through its currency. Both currencies are called the dollar, but Canada’s trades for less than the U.S. currency, and Trump argues this creates an unfair advantage.
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Trump Hits Canada and Others With Still More Tariffs
As negotiations among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico continue over the review and renewal of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), U.S. President Donald Trump has ratcheted up his aggressive tariff threats against Canada and other countries. This follows his usual ‘Art of the Deal’ strategy, which is to create chaos, threaten harm, extract concessions (often marginal), and then claim historic victory.
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Auto Talks a Chance to Reinforce the Canadian Industry’s Lasting Potential
As Canada’s auto industry grapples with the fallout from Donald Trump’s erratic and mutually-damaging tariffs, the union representing auto workers has opened its triennial round of major bargaining with the major North American automakers. First up will be talks with Ford, which has invested $5 billion in its Canadian operations despite the tariffs. In this commentary, originally published in the Toronto Star, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford discusses the importance of this bargaining in enhancing stability for both workers and the automakers, and showcasing the advantages of Canadian auto manufacturing – advantages which, he argues, will outlast Trump.
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Senate Testimony on the Canadian Economic Outlook
Centre for Future Work Economist and Director Jim Stanford was recently invited to testify before the Senate of Canada’s National Finance committee, regarding the economic and fiscal outlook for the country. The testimony was part of the committee’s hearings regarding certain aspects of budget implementation (including measures announced in the recent Spring Economics and Fiscal Update).
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Stellantis Shows Canada’s Industrial Economy is On the Line
Automaker Stellantis recently announced it would shift production of a new vehicle from an assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario (which has been closed for re-tooling) to Indiana, in order to escape the effects of Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on Canadian-assembled vehicles. This decision seems to confirm the worst fears of Canadian economists regarding the long-run impact of Trump’s trade war: by weaponizing access to the U.S. market and pressuring global companies to relocate long-run investments to the U.S., Trump would shatter the viability of continued production in Canada and other countries.
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Bringing Capital Home Would Boost Canadian Growth, Reduce Trade Imbalance with U.S.
Donald Trump claims his aggressive trade actions are justified because of ‘unfair’ trade practices by other countries, that result in big U.S. trade deficits. But the real cause of those perpetual U.S. trade deficits is ongoing capital inflows to the U.S. from other countries – including Canada. In this commentary originally published in the Toronto Star, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford shows that Canada is now a huge net lender to the U.S., with a positive foreign investment balance there of $1.6 trillion. Bringing some of that capital back to Canada would not only help to finance the major projects we are undertaking to protect our economy against…
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Elbows Up for Canada’s Economy
On September 15, 40 progressive economists and policy experts gathered in Ottawa for the ‘Elbows Up Economic Summit.’ The Summit was co-sponsored by the Centre for Future Work, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), and several other national civil society organizations. It was co-chaired by Centre Director Jim Stanford and Peggy Nash, Executive director of the CCPA.
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The Role of Industrial Policy in Defending Canada Against Trump’s Attacks
There is growing awareness of the importance of targeted supports for key high-value industries, as part of the effort to protect Canada’s economy in the wake of Donald Trump’s trade war. His tariffs have deliberately targeted Canada’s most important value-adding, high-tech manufacturing industries – including auto, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, machinery, trucks, and manufactured wood products. The goal is clearly to undermine the viability of those industries, to the advantage of U.S.-based locations. That would reinforce Canada’s growing (and precarious) reliance on unprocessed natural resource products to pay our way in world trade.
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Building a Sovereign, Value-Added, and Sustainable Economy
In this existential 'Elbows Up' moment for Canada's economy, public discourse has been overly influenced by loud demands from corporations and their political backers to implement their age-old agenda: deregulate (especially environmental rules), cut taxes, build more pipelines.