Big Ideas seminar series

Shelter vs. Tax Shelter

Thursday, July 16, 2026 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm EST Alt Hotel (185 Slater Street, Ottawa, Canada)
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Event description

Join us for a discussion of Shelter vs. Tax Shelter, a report from the Canadian Tax Observatory that examines the growing role of housing tax measures in Canada and their implications for affordability, equity, and economic performance. The report explores who benefits from housing-related tax incentives, with a case study of the First Home Savings Account, and considers whether these policies are helping Canadians access housing or contributing to broader affordability challenges.

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Speakers

Heather Scoffield

Heather Scoffield

Canadian Tax Observatory

Heather Scoffield is the first CEO of the Canadian Tax Observatory and a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. She has devoted her career to writing and public engagement around economic policy. Over the course of her 30-year career in journalism, she covered monetary and fiscal policy, economics, trade, environment and energy. She was the Ottawa bureau chief and economics columnist for the Toronto Star, where her writing focused on political economy and its effect on people.

 

Heather was also the Ottawa bureau chief for The Canadian Press, leading an award-winning team of political journalists. Before joining CP in 2009, she spent 12 years at the Globe and Mail covering policy and economics.

 

More recently, she was senior vice-president of strategy at the Business Council of Canada, collaborating with business leaders and policymakers to find practical solutions to the economic challenges of our time. Heather has a master’s degree in journalism from Western University and a BA in international relations from York University.