Past Lectures

2025/26

A New Era for Interprovincial Trade: Strengthening Canada’s Fragmented Market

Speaker: Dr. Trevor Tombe, Professor, University of Calgary & Director of Fiscal & Economic Policy at the School of Public Policy

Economist Dr. Christopher Ragan examines new ways to think about Canada's public debt — when it is so high as to create financing problems, when it is low enough to be safe from those same problems, and when it is in a "middle" zone where a realistic shock might be large enough to push the debt-to-GDP ratio back into the danger zone. Ragan argues that Canada's public debt is currently in the "middle" zone and the current Canadian government is being too complacent.

Please visit this page for a recording of the lecture.

2024/25

Keeping Our Fiscal Powder Dry

Speaker: Dr. Christopher Ragan, Associate Professor of Macroeconomics and Public Policy at McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy

Canada is one of the world’s most open trading nations, yet it is often easier for provinces to trade abroad than with one another. With rising uncertainty in Canada–U.S. relations and a major CUSMA review on the horizon, strengthening interprovincial trade has become increasingly important for economic resilience and long-term growth. This lecture offers a fresh look at internal trade barriers—why they persist, how significant they are, and which ones matter most. Drawing on new evidence about how industries across Canada are linked, it shows how reducing internal barriers—especially in the most interconnected sectors—can strengthen growth and prosperity nationwide. Provinces are already experimenting with new agreements, mutual recognition, and targeted reforms. Combined with external pressures, these developments point to a new opportunity to build a more integrated and productive Canadian economy.

Please visit this page for a recording of the lecture.

2023/24

Canada's Growth Crisis: Causes, Consequences, and Cures

Speaker: Andrew Coyne, Columnist for The Globe and Mail

Sluggish economic growth has long been a concern for Canada, especially in light of population aging and its costs. Lately, however, slow growth has been replaced by a new and even more alarming prospect: no growth, or even contraction, at least in per capita terms — not just in the short run but, it seems, indefinitely. What are the causes of this crisis? What are the implications? And what can be done about it?

Please visit this page for a recording of the lecture.

2022/23

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND — OR DOES IT? REFLECTIONS OF A 70S GUY

Speaker: William Watson, Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Deepening great power tensions. A looming energy crisis. Inflation heading to double digits. Public spending and debts are out of control. Central banks flummoxed. A Trudeau in the Prime Minister’s Office. Have we time-travelled back to the 1970s? William Watson, whose careers in economics and newspapering began in the 1970s, reflects on just how much what goes around does or doesn’t come around. 

Please visit this page for a recording of the lecture.

2021/22

Exploring the crypto frontier

Speaker: Carolyn Wilkins, External Member of the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England, former Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada and Senior Research Scholar, Princeton University

Bitcoin, stablecoins and NFTs often enjoy top billing in daily newsfeeds, particularly in recent weeks. In this lecture, Carolyn A. Wilkins demystifies this crypto frontier, and the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem that crypto assets like bitcoin and ether enable. She’ll talk about the origins and main features of the near US$2 trillion crypto asset market, what benefits it might hope to deliver to households and businesses, and the urgency of developing sensible legal and regulatory frameworks to address growing threats to investors, market integrity and financial stability for these benefits to be realized.   

Please visit this page for a recording of the lecture.

2020/21

Fiscal and Monetary Policy Anchors in an Era of Global Excess Saving

Speaker: David Dodge, Former Governor of the Bank of Canada

2017/18

You Get What You Pay For: Funding Cities in the 21st Century

Speaker: Enid Slack, Munck School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto

2016/17

Baffling Budgets and Odd Outcomes

Speaker: Bill Robson, President and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute