Policy Forum: Crisis, Cleanup, and the Prospect of Long-Term Fiscal Change

Abstract

In this article, Shirley Tillotson compares policies adopted by the Canadian government to address the fiscal demands of the Second World War with a widely available income-assistance measure introduced in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She also discusses elements of post-war tax administration with an eye to parallels that can help us to think about our current situation and plans for the near future. Emphasizing the great difficulties and worries that burdened decision makers in the earlier period, Tillotson underscores the need for modesty in our expectations and urges attention to both contingencies of the moment (such as the life experience of key decision makers) and the longer-term structural dynamics at play (such as changes in the composition of the labour market).