Author: Sherry Cooper

Unfortunately, Statistics Canada had more bad news for us this morning–a weak November jobs report and a big decline in trade for October–both of which portend a marked slowdown in growth in the final quarter of this year. At the same time, the U.S. released a strong enough November employment report to assure that the…

The Bank of Canada kept the key overnight interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent as expected, as the Federal Reserve is poised to hike rates for the first time in nearly 10 years. The Bank’s decision did not, however, reflect complacency with the state of the Canadian economy, but rather a hand-off to the much…

As politically popular as it is to spew “soak-the-rich” rhetoric during an election campaign, the reality is that it is a very inefficient way to raise revenues or to address income inequality. Indeed, it will actually shrink the economic pie. It provides a disincentive to entrepreneurial spirit and work effort and it will make it…

“There’s a crisis on youth unemployment and there’s a crisis on the hope that you can achieve, that you can get started,” Luisa Girotto, Starbucks Canada’s vice ­president of public affairs, said. “It’s not enough to say we’ll hire five, we’ll hire ten. It’s not about making a little dent.” Canada’s national youth unemployment rate was 13.5…

The jobs numbers released today for October exceeded expectations in both the U.S. and Canada. This was a particularly important report for the U.S., because it all but insures that the Federal Reserve will hike rates for the first time in a decade when they next meet on December 16. Interest rates in both Canada…

With the Alberta economy hitting the skids, the Notley government faced conflicting goals–diversifying away from the hard-hit oil sector, stimulating the economy and putting the province back on a path to a balanced budget. In June, the government introduced legislation to increase spending for health care, education and social services. It increased the provincial income…

It is no surprise to anyone that the Bank of Canada maintained its target overnight rate at 1/2 percent today, judging that the underlying trend in inflation continues to be about 1.5 to 1.7 percent. Even before the landslide sweep of the Liberal Party into power, assuring a more stimulative fiscal policy next year, the…

What does a Liberal majority and the promise of deficit spending by the Trudeau government mean for the average homeowner? According to Sherry Cooper, the chief economist at Dominion Lending Centres, you might want to re-assess your mortgage. “Particularly so because running deficits means issuing more debt and increasing the supply of government bonds means…

The majority win by Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberal Party in last night’s (October 19) election pushes Trudeau’s campaign promises of an overhaul of Canada’s tax system and increased infrastructure spending to the forefront, according to a TD Economics note to investors released October 20. Sherry Cooper, chief economist for Dominion Lending Centres, said the unexpected…