The Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy
Who We Are
Focused on public finance and its intersection with politics and institutions, the mission of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy (IFSD) is to provide our clients and stakeholders with evidence-based support for decision-making, budgeting, planning, due diligence, and institution-building.
Founded in 2016 by Kevin Page, Canada’s first Parliamentary Budget Officer, IFSD is both a non-profit, Canadian think-tank and a global advisory practice. With a unique, deep understanding of public finance and institutions, IFSD employs a disciplined research-based consulting approach that leverages decades of team experience in public financial management, macroeconomics, and public administration. Situated at the University of Ottawa, IFSD works in Canada and worldwide to support better decision-making by governments, and their stakeholders in the broader public and private sectors.
Trusted by government ministers and opposition parliamentarians alike, multilateral organizations, and judicial bodies, leading Indigenous organizations, and corporations, IFSD principals are recognized as internationally connected, non-partisan experts delivering evidence-based analytical support for decision-making, budgeting, planning, due diligence, and institution-building.
IFSD is a research institute that uses money as a tool to analyze and address public policy challenges.
To put a finer point on it: governments, legislatures, public administration and other key political and economic actors and institutions come together to form fiscal ecosystems. These ecosystems are rooted in hundreds of years of political history and economic development and are composed of an intertwined set of incentives, public and private information and a complex set of rules and processes based on constitutional law, legislative law, conventions and power struggles. The actors within this system depend on one another, as well as the robustness and transparency of information and processes, all underpinned by a society’s standards of accountability.
It is at this dynamic intersection of money and politics that IFSD brings its expertise, to research, advise, engage, and teach.
IFSD has established a solid reputation for strategic advice and hands-on leadership by fostering an extensive domestic and international network necessary to gather data and expertise needed to inform its findings and advice. The IFSD consulting model aims to deliver its core capabilities to advise clients across a variety of economic matters such as expenditure analysis, cost estimation, economic analysis, budget decision-making, benchmarking, oversight, and due diligence, value-for-money, and performance.
IFSD’s suite of value-added services include:
- Strategic advice on an evidenced-based approach to new proposals for programs, projects, and policies for consideration by line departments, central agencies, and political leadership.
- Detailed review of the allocation of resources to provide the evidence to inform a strategic review/reallocation exercise, and program reform and demonstrate alignment with government priorities and value-for-money considerations.
- Financial oversight, due diligence, costing, and benchmarking services for projects, programs, and organizations.
- Strategic and hands-on support from senior IFSD resources in the preparation of Memoranda to Cabinet and Treasury Board submissions.
- Training courses covering forecasting, costing, financial oversight/due diligence, the expenditure management system, and managing the complexity of political budgeting and its key actors.
What We Do
