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What if Canada’s economic challenges weren’t just about markets, but about how we think and invest? In this episode of the Commercial Real Estate Podcast, hosts Aaron Cameron and Adam Powadiuk are at the RealREIT Conference and sit down with Bill Robson, President and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute, for a clear-eyed look at the macro forces reshaping Canada’s economic trajectory, and what they mean for commercial real estate. Bill breaks down why strong national fundamentals aren’t enough to offset weakening competitiveness, stalled business investment, and policy decisions that unintentionally suppress productivity and wage growth. 

The conversation covers the widening tax and investment gap with the U.S., how immigration and capital investment must work in tandem, and why municipal budgeting practices quietly inflate housing costs. For investors, developers, and anyone tracking Canada’s economic future, this episode offers a grounded take on the policy levers that truly move the CRE market.

What you will learn:

• Why Canada remains globally competitive despite recent stagnation
• How the U.S. tax reform of 2017 created a $3 trillion investment gap
• The hidden cost of populist tax policy on long-term prosperity
• Why immigration policy and capital investment must move together
• How municipal cash-based budgeting inflates housing costs and limits supply
• The agglomeration effect as a real economic engine

Bill Robson became the CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute in July 2006, after serving as the Institute’s Senior Vice President since 2003 and Director of Research since 2000. He has written more than 280 monographs, articles, chapters, and books on such subjects as government budgets, pensions, healthcare financing, inflation, and currency issues. His work has won awards from the Policy Research Secretariat, the Canadian Economics Association, and the Donner Canadian Foundation. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College, holds an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors, and is a regular commentator on BNN/Bloomberg. Bill taught undergraduate public finance and public policy at the University of Toronto from 2000 to 2003, and taught a Master’s level course in public finance at the  University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy and Governance from 2014 to 2019.

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