Don Drummond (economist)

Last updated

Don Drummond, OOnt is a noted Canadian economist, having served extensively in the federal Department of Finance Canada, as Chief Economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank and as a scholar at Queen's University. He is known for his wide contributions to public policy in Canada and extensive citation on economic issues.

Contents

Early life and education

Drummond was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, where he graduated from the University of Victoria. He subsequently received his M.A. in economics from Queen's University in 1977, and was awarded a Doctor of Laws honoris causa by Queen's University in June 2010. [1] On Tuesday, June 9, 2015, the University of Victoria conferred an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD).

Federal Department of Finance

Drummond joined the federal Department of Finance where he served for 23 years, holding a series of progressively more senior positions in the areas of economic analysis and forecasting, fiscal policy and tax policy. He served as Assistant Deputy Minister of Fiscal Policy and Economic Analysis, Assistant Deputy Minister of Tax Policy & Legislation and Associate Deputy Minister. In this latter position, Drummond was responsible for economic analysis, fiscal policy, tax policy, social policy and federal-provincial relations. As well, Drummond coordinated the planning of the annual federal budgets. [2] Paul Martin, Finance Minister and later Prime Minister, called Drummond "one of the most principled and imaginative public servants with whom I have ever worked". [3]

Chief Economist at TD Bank

Drummond was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for the TD Bank from 2000 to 2010. He led TD Economics’ work in analyzing and forecasting economic performance in Canada and abroad. [4] From 2001 until his retirement, he headed government relations for the bank. [5]

He was regarded as having transformed the bank's economics department into a "think-tank on topics of national importance". [6] Many of Drummond's reports at TD were credited with significantly influencing government's policy decisions, including the reported impact of his 2008 report "Time for a vision of Ontario's economy" (co-authored with Derek Burleton) [7] in shaping the 2009 Ontario Budget and convincing the provincial government to harmonize its sales tax with the federal Goods and Services Tax. [8]

During this tenure at TD, he participated in a variety of public policy initiatives, including serving as an advisory panel member of Bob Rae’s review of Ontario post-secondary education (the "Rae Report"), [9] serving on the Task Force for Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults of the Toronto City Summit Alliance (now, the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance), [10] chairing the Labour Market Ministers’ Advisory Panel on Labour Market Information, [11] and co-chairing a Toronto Financial Services Alliance Working Group to establish a global risk management institute in Canada. [12]

Drummond also served as a member of the National Statistics Council and was openly critical of the federal government's 2010 decision to eliminate the long-form census for the Canada 2011 Census without consulting the advisory body. [13] In July 2010, he testified to the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on the planned replacement of the mandatory long-form with a voluntary National Household Survey, stating: "I think the data could actually be worse than not having anything. It could be misleading. You may be making misleading inferences because you don't actually know how to properly weight the groups that might be underrepresented." [14]

Fellowship at Queen's University

He was appointed the Donald Matthews Faculty Fellowship on Global Public Policy at Queen's University in June 2010, [15] and co-chair of the C. D. Howe Institute’s Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness Council in March 2011. [16]

He is spearheading a research initiative to investigate the causes of and policies to mitigate Canada's ailing productivity performance. [17]

Drummond Commission

In its 2011 Budget, the Ontario provincial government appointed Drummond to head the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services (the "Drummond Commission") to "examine long-term, fundamental changes to the way government works" and explore "which areas of service delivery are core to the Ontario government’s mandate, which areas could be delivered more efficiently by another entity and how to get better value for taxpayers’ money in delivering public services." [18]

The report of "Drummond Commission" was received on February 15, 2012. [19] Under status quo assumptions, the report forecasted that Ontario's budget deficit would more than double to $30.2 billion in 2017–18 and net public debt would reach $411.4 billion, equivalent to just under 51 per cent of the province's GDP. [20] Moreover, the commission warned that: "We can no longer assume a resumption of Ontario’s traditional strong economic growth and the continued prosperity on which the province has built its public services. Nor can we count on steady, dependable revenue growth to finance government programs. Unless policy-makers act swiftly and boldly to prevent such an outcome, Ontario faces a series of deficits that would undermine the province’s economic and social future." [21]

The report broadly urged the Ontario government to "not simply cut costs" and "avoid across-the-board cuts" but rather "give priority to programs and activities that invest in the future rather than serve the status quo" and develop "evidence-based" policy, including ongoing data-based evaluation. [22]

The 543-page report included 362 specific recommendations for restoring Ontario's fiscal balance by 2017, including: various measures to contain health care cost growth at 2.5% annually; limiting spending growth to 1% and 1.5% respectively for primary and postsecondary education (compared with current 3 to 5%), including ending full-day kindergarten and increasing class sizes; [23] elimination or reduction of sector-specific business subsidies, including the feed-in-tariff program subsidizing solar and wind generation; [24] reducing public sector pension benefits rather than increasing contributions; [25] major reforms to provincial agencies and Crown corporations to enhance revenue streams; and investigation into increased user fees for water, electricity and parking. [26]

In 2015, he was made a member of the Order of Ontario. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Rae</span> Canadian politician and diplomat (born 1948)

Robert Keith Rae is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party from 1982 to 1996, and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011 to 2013. Between 1978 and 2013, he was elected 11 times to federal and provincial parliaments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalton McGuinty</span> 24th Premier of Ontario

Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr. is a former Canadian politician who served as the 24th premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013. He was the first Liberal leader to win two majority governments since Mitchell Hepburn nearly 70 years earlier. In 2011, he became the first Liberal premier to secure a third consecutive term since Oliver Mowat after his party was re-elected in that year's provincial election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2003 Ontario general election</span> Held on October 2, 2003, to elect the 103 members of the 38th Legislative Assembly

The 2003 Ontario general election was held on October 2, 2003, to elect the 103 members of the 38th Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada.

The harmonized sales tax (HST) is a consumption tax in Canada. It is used in provinces where both the federal goods and services tax (GST) and the regional provincial sales tax (PST) have been combined into a single value-added tax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Frost</span> Canadian politician

Leslie Miscampbell Frost was a politician in Ontario, Canada, who served as the province's 16th premier from May 4, 1949, to November 8, 1961. Due to his lengthy tenure, he gained the nickname "Old Man Ontario"; he was also known as "the Silver Fox".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Baird (Canadian politician)</span> Canadian politician (born 1969)

John Russell Baird is a retired Canadian politician. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2015 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He had been a member of the federal cabinet, in various positions, since 2006. Previously he was a provincial cabinet minister in Ontario during the governments of Premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves. Baird resigned from Harper's cabinet on February 3, 2015, and as a Member of Parliament on March 16, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Christopherson</span> Canadian politician

David Christopherson is a Canadian politician. From 2004 until 2019, he represented the riding of Hamilton Centre in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 2003, and was a cabinet minister in the provincial government of Bob Rae. Christopherson is a member of the New Democratic Party.

Frances Lankin,, is a Canadian senator, former president and CEO of United Way Toronto, and a former Ontario MPP and cabinet minister in the NDP government of Bob Rae between 1990 and 1995. From 2010 to 2012, she co-chaired a government commission review of social assistance in Ontario. From 2009 to 2016, she was a member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rodriguez (politician)</span> Canadian politician

John R. Rodriguez was a Canadian politician. He served as the mayor of Greater Sudbury, Ontario from 2006 to 2010 and previously represented the electoral district of Nickel Belt in the House of Commons of Canada from 1972 to 1980 and from 1984 to 1993 as a member of the New Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of Ontario</span> History of politics in Ontario, Canada

The Province of Ontario is governed by a unicameral legislature, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, which operates in the Westminster system of government. The political party that wins the largest number of seats in the legislature normally forms the government, and the party's leader becomes premier of the province, i.e., the head of the government.

William Edmund "Ed" Clark, CM is the former president and chief executive officer of TD Bank Group. Clark was appointed to this role on December 20, 2002. Prior to this appointment, he was president and chief operating officer of TD Bank Group, a role he held since July 2000. On April 3, 2013, Clark announced his intention to retire as president and CEO effective November 1, 2014 at age 67, after 12 years as CEO. After his retirement, Clark worked as an adviser for Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and helped introduce beer and wines into grocery stores and partially privatize the electricity distribution company Hydro One. Currently Clark is Chair of the Vector Institute in Toronto, one of the top AI Institutes in the world which he helped to start. Clark is a major philanthropist who has used his philanthropy combined with his organizations skills to advance social causes such as working with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for those who cannot afford them, Friends of Ruby to help Queer teenagers, Homeward Bound to help single mothers in shelters to have a career plus a number of another initiatives.

<i>Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005</i> Statute of Ontario, Canada

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) is a statute enacted in 2005 by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Canada. Its purpose is to improve accessibility standards for Ontarians with physical and mental disabilities to all public establishments by 2025.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Ford</span> 26th premier of Ontario

Douglas Robert Ford Jr. is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario since June 2018 and leader of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party since March 2018. He represents the Toronto riding of Etobicoke North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Michel Clair is an administrator and former politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He was a Parti Québécois member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1976 to 1985 and served as a cabinet minister in the governments of René Lévesque and Pierre-Marc Johnson. Clair later became an executive administrator with Hydro-Québec.

The Mowat Centre was an independent Canadian public policy think tank associated with the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. It was established in 2009 with support from the government of Ontario, and published its first report in February 2010. It closed in June 2019 after its funding agreement with the Government of Ontario was cancelled. It was named after Ontario's longest-serving Premier, Sir Oliver Mowat.

The Drummond Report is a nickname given to a deficit-reduction report written by economist Don Drummond. Released on February 15, 2012, around great hype, the report is intended to advise the government of Ontario on how to reduce the province's debt levels - the highest for any province in Canada.

Dominic Giroux was Laurentian University's tenth President and Vice-Chancellor from April 1, 2009 to June 2017. In 2011, he received one of Canada's "Top 40 Under 40" Awards and was named the 2010 Education Personality of the Year by Radio-Canada/Le Droit. Afterwards, he worked at Health Sciences North (2017-2023) and Montfort Hospital.

The Ontario government debt consists of the liabilities of the Government of Ontario. Approximately 82% of Ontario's debt is in the form of debt securities, while other liabilities include government employee pension plan obligations, loans, and accounts payable. The Ontario Financing Authority, which manages the provinces' debt, says that as of March 31, 2020, the Ontario government's net debt is CDN $353.3 billion. Net debt is projected to rise to $398 billion in 2020-21. The Debt-to-GDP ratio for 2019-2020 was 39.7%, and is projected to rise to 47.1% in 2020-21. Interest on the debt in 2019-20 was CDN$12.5 billion, representing 8.0% of Ontario's revenue and its fourth-largest spending area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Morneau</span> 39th Canadian Minister of Finance

William Francis Morneau Jr. is a Canadian businessman and former Liberal Party politician who served as minister of finance and member of Parliament (MP) for Toronto Centre from 2015 to 2020.

Armine Yalnizyan is a Canadian economist and columnist. In 2012, the CBC described her as one of Canada's "leading progressive economists". She was a senior economist with the progressive Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives from 2008 to 2017. She appeared regularly on CBC TV's Lang and O'Leary Exchange, CBC Radio's Metro Morning, and contributed regularly to the "Economy Lab" at the Globe and Mail. She is currently a fellow with the Atkinson Foundation focused on the future of workers in a period of technological and demographic change. Her work focuses on "social and economic factors that determine our health and well being", and the care economy. She contributes bi-weekly business columns to the Toronto Star.

References

  1. ↑ Pitts, Gordon (2010). "From boardroom to classroom". Queen's Alumni Review. No. 3. Archived from the original on 2012-09-07.
  2. ↑ "Queen's University, School of Policy Studies". Archived from the original on 9 September 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  3. ↑ Martin, Paul (2009). Come Hell or High Water. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. p. 189. ISBN   9780771056932.
  4. ↑ "Queen's University, School of Policy Studies". Archived from the original on 9 September 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Perkins, Tara (29 April 2010). "Don Drummond is ready for a rest". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  6. ↑ Stoffman, Daniel (May 2009). "The Celebrity Economist". Toronto Life. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  7. ↑ Drummond, Don; Derek Burleton (29 September 2008). "Time for a vision of Ontario's Economy" (PDF). TD Economics Special Report.
  8. ↑ Stewart, Sinclair (14 May 2009). "TD's Power of Persuasion". Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "Postsecondary review to improve quality and expand access". Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Retrieved 8 June 2004.
  10. ↑ "Task Force Addresses Urgent Need to Reform Income Security Policies with Unveiling of Report". CCNMatthews. 15 May 2006.
  11. ↑ "Don Drummond to Head Labour Market Information Advisory Panel". Government of Canada, Human Resources Skills Development Canada.
  12. ↑ Perkins, Tara (8 September 2010). "Institute to plug Canada's bank prowess". Globe and Mail.
  13. ↑ Whittington, Les (26 July 2010). "Government-appointed advisory group says Canadians need full census info". Toronto Star. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  14. ↑ "Evidence (27 July 2010)". 40th PARLIAMENT, 3rd SESSION, Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  15. ↑ "Don Drummond appointed fellow and visiting scholar in Policy Studies". Queen's University, School of Policy Studies. Retrieved 17 February 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  16. ↑ "C.D. Howe Institute appoints Don Drummond as co-chair of the Fiscal and Tax Competitiveness Council". C.D. Howe Institute. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  17. ↑ Torobin, Jeremy (17 February 2012). "The Lunch - Don Drummond: Taking a bite out of debt". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  18. ↑ "2011 Ontario Budget". Government of Ontario. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  19. ↑ "Ontario Receives Report From Drummond Commission". Government of Ontario. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  20. ↑ Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services (2012). Public Services for Ontarians: A Path to Sustainability and Excellence. Queen's Printer for Ontario. p. 2.
  21. ↑ Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services (2012). Public Services for Ontarians: A Path to Sustainability and Excellence. Queen's Printer for Ontario. p. 69.
  22. ↑ Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services (2012). Public Services for Ontarians: A Path to Sustainability and Excellence. Queen's Printer for Ontario. pp. 125–129.
  23. ↑ Church, Elizabeth (15 February 2012). "Drummond delivers 'gloomy' wake-up call to Ontario". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  24. ↑ Blackwell, Richard (15 February 2012). "Drummond report gets cool reception from Ontario businesses". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  25. ↑ Kiladaze, Tim (15 February 2012). "Reduce pension benefits, don't increase contributions: Drummond". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  26. ↑ Church, Elizabeth (15 February 2012). "Drummond delivers 'gloomy' wake-up call to Ontario". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  27. ↑ "New Appointees to the Order of Ontario".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.