Finances of the Nation is a new effort by academic researchers, in partnership with the Canadian Tax Foundation, to assemble Canadian public finance data and make it available to researchers, journalists, students, and the general public.
Good research on public policy starts with good data. Public policy analysis in Canada is frequently limited by a lack of data. Data which allows for research that is reliable over time and across provinces and regions of the country is currently nonexistent. Essential information about government revenue and expenditure, statutory tax rates, and the specific costs and benefits of particular taxes and spending programs is often missing or hard to find.
The Finances of the Nation project will assemble these datasets and build tools to make the data more accessible and useful to everyone.
A key part of the project, Finances of the Nation is to publish research on public policies in Canada. Since 2014, a Finances of the Nation feature article has been published quarterly in the Canadian Tax Journal, these articles are now also available through this website.
This blog is a new step for FON. Academic researchers and other policy analysts will be writing shorter pieces of policy analysis to be hosted here. Blog posts will of course be short and opinionated and, given FON’s focus, they will be data-driven.
FON staff will also use the blog to report on and amplify the work of other researchers in Canada, with the goal of bringing people together to have conversations on public finance.
Finances of the Nation relies on insights from the public finance community. Have a dataset, article idea, or want to chat? Please reach out at admin@financesofthenation.ca or on Twitter at @FONCanada.