In December 2020, PBO released a report assessing the Government of Canada’s 2018 decision to acquire, expand, operate, and eventually divest of the Trans Mountain Pipeline system.

This report provides an updated financial valuation of the purchased assets and estimates the valuation’s sensitivity to several key factors.

Regulatory changes for how the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board (PMPRB) formulates price ceilings for patented drugs have been proposed and are due to come into effect in July of 2022. This report examines the proposed change and quantifies its long-term impact. We find that a change to the median of eleven comparator countries is important, but that more flexibility to re-adjust prices would potentially contribute more to reducing expenditures by Canadians.

This report presents fiscal analysis of achieving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 2% Defence Spending Target.

This report provides an estimate of the impact of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the three Canada Recovery Benefits (CRBs) payments on the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) program.

This report provides current analysis of recent consumer price inflation data.

This enactment amends certain Acts to allow the survivor of an eligible person to receive pension benefits after the death of the person even if the person and the survivor married or began cohabiting in a conjugal relationship after the person attained the age of 60 years or retired. The PBO estimates the cost of the Veterans portion of this Bill with an effective date of January 1, 2023.

The PBO estimates the Veterans portion of Bill C-221 will cost $15 million in 2022-23 for a total of $276 million over the next 5 years.

Implementing a dental care plan for Canadians. The plan is expected to cover the costs of routine care, fluoride treatments, radiographs, sealants and other combinations of caries treatments, dentures, and periodontics. Households with an income below $90,000 may benefit from the plan. A phase-in period lasting from 2022 to 2025 will gradually expand coverage to those eligible. Households with an income below $70,000 per year will bear no cost. Co-payments scale linearly for households with income between $70,000 and $90,000. The thresholds are indexed to inflation.

The PBO estimates that this program will cost $9,036 million over a 5 fiscal year period and benefit 1,425 thousand people over 2022-2023, increasing to 5,894 thousand by 2026-2027.

Increasing the maximum amount of forgivable Canada Student Loans by 50 per cent, from $40,000 to $60,000 for doctors and from $20,000 to $30,000 for nurses working in underserved rural or remote communities. This policy will be effective April 1, 2023. 

The PBO estimates the proposed increase to the forgivable amount of Canada Student Loans for doctors and nurses who practice in rural and remote communities will generate a 5-year total cost of $19 million.

The PBO estimates that introduction of a luxury goods sales tax will generate $163 million of revenue in 2023-2024.

The PBO estimates that the implementation of Bill C-218 will reduce GST revenues by approximately $3 million in 2022-23 for a total of $76 million over the next 5 years. This cost estimate represents the reduction in GST revenues if all goods and services provided under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 621330 (Offices of mental health practitioners (except physicians)) were to become GST exempt. The PBO assumes this Bill will be effective January 1, 2023.