The Politics of Money: An IFSD Podcast

As Canada prepares to host top global investors in Toronto, the conversation is no longer just about attracting capital. The challenge is turning global investor interest into real projects, new jobs, productivity growth, and higher living standards in communities across Canada.

In this special 🎙️ 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 episode, IFSD Executive VP Sahir Khan and Chief Economist Mostafa Askari are joined by Bud Locklear and Michelle Leslie to explore Canada's investment opportunity at a pivotal moment for the economy.

The discussion frames where Canada's foreign investment stands going into the conference, provides context for the high stakes and digs into critical issues — from the impact of shifting Canada-U.S. relations to how project management, execution and matter as much as investor interest.

Featuring:
Bud Locklear, Canada-U.S. relations expert and former longtime U.S. Embassy Advisor
Michelle Leslie, Executive Energy and Investment Advisor 

🎙️ 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 is the official podcast of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy (IFSD) at the University of Ottawa.

#Canada #Investment #FDI #EconomicGrowth #Infrastructure #Energy #CriticalMinerals #PublicPolicy #PoliticsOfMoney #IFSD

Health care. One of Canada's largest public expenditures, one of its biggest economic sectors, and one of the defining policy challenges facing governments at all levels.

In this special pre-budget episode of The Politics of Money, IFSD's Kevin Page, Sahir Khan and Mostafa Askari use their experience inside government — including helping develop federal budgets — to dig into the difficult policy trade-offs that could shape federal-provincial health care discussions in the years ahead.

• The future of the Canada Health Transfer
• Fiscal sustainability and demographic pressures
• Health care's role in economic growth and productivity
• Access, wait times and quality-of-care tradeoffs
• Federal-provincial responsibilities and accountability

This episode launches our new pre-budget podcast series.

In the weeks ahead we will explore major policy challenges and fiscal choices facing Canada in Budget 2026.

Leave us a comment with your budget questions — let us know what fiscal policy issues we should tackle next. 

Thanks for listening!

Special Bonus Episode

Last week, IFSD President & CEO Kevin Page travelled to Charlottetown, PEI, to speak to Canada's premiers at a breakfast seminar hosted by the Canadian Federation of Nurses' Unions at the Council of the Federation Summer Meeting.

In this special edition of The Politics of Money, Sahir Khan sits down with Kevin to discuss the key messages he delivered to premiers about health care, sustainable public finances, and Canada's economic future.

• Why health care should be viewed as a driver of economic growth and resilience, not simply a spending pressure
• The approaching 2027-28 expiry of the enhanced Canada Health Transfer escalator and why governments may need to talk renewal
• Federal and provincial fiscal pressures, including slower economic growth, public debt, and competing spending priorities
• How health care affects Canada's long-term fiscal sustainability, provincial budgets, and bond ratings
• Why dialogue between governments may be essential to improving health system performance while maintaining fiscal sustainability

This bonus episode includes slides from Kevin Page's presentation, Health Care, the Hinge Moment & Public Finances, delivered in Charlottetown on July 22, 2026.

Links:
Download Kevin's Presentation (PDF): https://bit.ly/IFSDCoF
Centre for Future Work: https://centreforfuturework.ca/
Canadian Federation of Nurses' Unions: https://nursesunions.ca/
Council of the Federation Communique: https://canadaspremiers.ca/canadas-premiers-united-for-canadians/
IFSD: https://ifsd.ca/

Taking Stock of Canada at 159: Strong Fundamentals, Real Pressures

At its core, the story of Canada is about a lot more than economics. It’s about values, choices, and long-term fiscal sustainability. Its about outcomes that matter and the kind of future Canadians want to build, together.

In this special Canada Day episode of The Politics of Money⁩, the IFSD team take stock of how Canada is really doing at 159. And what needs to happen to be even stronger for Canada Day 160 next year.

IFSD's Kevin Page, Sahir Khan, and Mostafa Askari take a closer look at Canada “by the numbers” and, more importantly, the real story those numbers tell.

Canada’s fundamentals are strong: high life satisfaction, long life expectancy, strong education outcomes, and a sustainable fiscal position, for the moment.

But the picture is complex.
👉 Growth has slowed.
👉 Affordability pressures are rising.
👉 Public services are under strain.

This conversation moves beyond headline metrics like GDP to ask deeper questions: What outcomes really matter to Canadians? And what tradeoffs are Canadians willing to make? 

The team also reflect on the experiences of families who chose Canada. And why, even at this challenging "hinge" moment, it remains a country worth investing in and building.

Topics covered:

🔹 How Canada is doing, looking beyond the easy analogies and headline numbers
🔹 Affordability, productivity, and investment challenges
🔹 Fiscal standing and long-term sustainability
🔹 Wellbeing as a policy outcome
🔹 Immigration, opportunity, and betting on the Canadian project

Food insecurity in Canada is rising — new policy responses are needed

👉 About 1 in 4 Canadians are living in food-insecure households, including around 2.5 million children
👉 Food banks are seeing record demand and a growing number of users are working Canadians

So what’s going on?

Canada’s social safety net is not keeping up, but it was never designed to address food insecurity.

In our latest episode of The Politics of Money, IFSD convenes leading experts to unpack the issue.

💬 “Food insecurity is not a food issue — it’s a resource issue.”

IFSD's Managing Director Helaina Gaspard speaks with Sarah Stern (Executive Director, Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security), Valerie Tarasuk (Professor Emerita, University of Toronto),  Craig Gundersen (Snee Family Endowed Professor, Baylor University), and Jennifer Robson (Associate Professor, Political Management, Carleton University).

Their discussion digs into: 

• Why food bank use is rising—even among employed households
• The limits of existing supports like EI and the Canada Child Benefit
• How responsiveness, timing, and targeting of income supports matter
• What lessons Canada could draw from programs like SNAP in the U.S.

👉 At its core, the challenge is this:
How do we design a social safety net that actually prevents food insecurity—rather than responds after the fact?

For more, please also check out our special live event at the University of Ottawa, Hunger in a Time of Rising Food Costs: The Immediate and Sustained Impact of Food Insecurity. 

Taxation. Perhaps the most hotly debated topic in public life — but one of the hardest to discuss honestly.

In this episode of The Politics of Money: An IFSD Podcast, we bring together American and Canadian perspectives to move the discussion beyond slogans and examine the real‑world tradeoffs and consequences. Including how the pursuit of tax competitiveness risks becoming a race to the bottom.

Tax debates often start and end with a single idea: tax cuts. But in public finance, lower taxes still must be paid for — either through spending reductions, higher user fees, deferred public investments, or decisions to raise revenue elsewhere. 

Scott Pattison (Federation of Tax Administrators) offers a state-level U.S. lens. He explains why states face intense pressure to compete for jobs and investment, including the implications of operating under balanced-budget constraints that limit their ability to run deficits outside of capital borrowing. He also cautions against simplistic cross-border comparisons. To compare jurisdictions meaningfully, he argues, we must look beyond headline GDP figures and focus on measures that better reflect lived experience — such as median household income, life expectancy, and quality-of-life indicators.

Heather Scoffield (Canadian Tax Observatory) provides perspective on how Canada’s tax debate has become politically “toxic” and dominated by tax cuts. She explains how this focus can detach the conversation from the costs of national priorities — and from the role taxes play in funding public services, as well as the trust required to sustain that social contract.

The episode closes with an IFSD roundtable featuring Kevin Page, Sahir Khan, and Mostafa Askari on what today’s “hinge moment” means for Canadian tax policy. They discuss how competitiveness isn’t only about tax rates — it’s about choices, capacity, and how the fiscal system can support the country Canadians say they want.

Food insecurity is not just a social issue — it’s an economic, health, and productivity challenge with lasting consequences for Canada.

In this special live event hosted by the IFSD—in partnership with the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security and the Office of Research and Public Policy Outreach at the University of Ottawa—leading researchers, economists, and practitioners examine the real cost and consequences of food insecurity in Canada — from its impact on health systems and labour markets to the long‑term impacts for children, households, and communities.

The event is moderated by Adrian Harewood (Journalist and Associate Professor at Carleton University) and features:

• A conversation with Dr. Valerie Tarasuk (Professor Emerita, University of Toronto) on the drivers and health costs of food insecurity
• A panel discussion with Geranda Notten (Full professor, University of Ottawa), Rebekah Young (Vice-President, Scotiabank), and Natalie Spooner (Interim CEO, Ottawa Food Bank) on worsening food insecurity and the health, economic, and policy consequences for Canada.

The cross-sector event explores why food insecurity has risen so sharply in Canada, its impacts on health, dignity, well‑being, and economic security, and what policy tools can actually make a difference.

📍 Recorded live at the University of Ottawa

 Hosted by the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy (IFSD)

In our The Politics of Money Fiscal Update Reaction episode, IFSD's Kevin Page, President and CEO, Sahir Khan, Executive VP, and Mostafa Askari, Chief Economist, share their immediate takeaways after spending the day inside the lock up for the government’s spring Economic Update tabled today.

They look beyond the headline deficit improvement to assess the credibility of the fiscal framework, the role of fiscal guardrails, and what actually changed under the hood. 

The discussion examines the trade‑off between short‑term affordability measures and longer‑term fiscal risk, alongside execution challenges and key transparency gaps—particularly around delivery, defence spending, and major capital projects.

The episode offers listeners a clear framework for understanding the Fiscal Update and asks the key question whether Canadians should have confidence in the government's fiscal plan, as Canada heads toward the fall budget in an increasingly uncertain global environment.

🎙️ CHECKING UNDER THE HOOD | IFSD's Fiscal Update Preview

Ahead of the government’s spring Economic and Fiscal Update, The Politics of Money brings together IFSD President and CEO Kevin Page, Executive VP Sahir Khan, and Chief Economist Mostafa Askari, for a timely preview of what they're looking for in the government's plan. 

The conversation explores the government’s room to manoeuvre amid global shocks and affordability pressures, while achieving a balance between short-term relief and long-term fiscal credibility. IFSD's team talk about how deficits fit into the over all fiscal picture, what bond rating agencies are looking for, looming pressures around execution and implementation, and the growing importance of transparency as well as expectations facing the Liberal government now that they have secured a majority in the House of Commons. 

A must-listen Fiscal Update primer for parliamentarians, public servants, journalists, and anyone interested in Canada’s economic outlook.

Bonus: Estimates Explained

Each year, Parliament is asked to approve hundreds of billions of dollars in public spending through the Main Estimates. And each year, confusion follows about what the Estimates do and don’t mean.

What’s new spending? What Departments are being cut and by how much? How do we reconcile the Estimates and the Budget? Why don’t the numbers line up?

Kevin Page and Sahir Khan worked inside central government agencies crafting budgets and spending plans. Later they worked in the Parliamentary Budget Office, helping MPs decode government’s spending plans. 

In this bonus episode of The Politics of Money, Kevin and Sahir discuss why Canada’s spending system is so difficult to interpret – by design. They unpack the parallel systems that govern public finance: one built for planning and policy; the other for parliamentary approvals. 

The conversation walks listeners through how Budgets, Main Estimates, Departmental Plans, and Public Accounts fit together — and why Parliament is often asked to vote without a single, coherent picture of government spending. Kevin and Sahir close with practical ideas for reforms that would make Canada’s public finance system clearer, more transparent, and more accountable.