The key issues in fiscal federalism will be debated once again when the federal government, the provinces, and the territories return to the negotiating table. Ottawa has appointed an expert panel on equalization and territorial formula financing and the provinces and territories have established an advisory panel on fiscal imbalance. Both will report in the first half of 2006, after which the negotiating pace will accelerate. In a timely collection, contributors from the government and academia tackle these fiscal policy issues from a broad spectrum of perspectives.

Contributors include Keith Banting (Queen's), Robin Boadway (Queen's), Paul Boothe (associate deputy minister of Finance), Kathy L. Brock (Queen's), Stéphane Dion (minister of the Environment), James Feehan (Memorial), Harvey Lazar (Queen's), Ron Neumann (former Manitoba finance official), Alain Noël (Montréal), Joe Ruggeri (New Brunswick), and Greg Selinger (Manitoba minister of Finance).