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Raymond J. de Souza: The only economist to ever fully decipher Canada's mass of federal-provincial transfers

Thomas Courchene was happy to defy the consensus on whatever issue caught his attention

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More than 30 years ago I was a student of Professor Thomas Courchene, who died last November, one of the great Canadian economists of his generation, an example of how rigorous research is beneficial for public policy. On Thursday his grateful colleagues and students will gather at Queen’s University to honour a lifetime of work accomplished with good cheer and in good company.

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Some 10 years after I was in his class, Courchene published his 2004 paper, “Confiscatory Equalization,” demonstrating that his home province of Saskatchewan had been shortchanged in the equalization formula. Saskatchewan got a $120-million “refund” from the federal government due to his work, making the province even more grateful to him than his former students.

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