Introducing FACT: a national partnership for a fairer Canadian tax system
The Fair and Accountable Canadian Taxation (FACT) Partnership launches today — a three-year, SSHRC-funded collaboration uniting researchers at the University of Calgary, Carleton University, and the Université de Sherbrooke with the Canadian Tax Observatory and Social Capital Partners to build the evidence base Canada currently lacks on tax fairness.
Led by Dr. Lindsay M. Tedds (University of Calgary) with Dr. Jennifer Robson (Carleton University), Dr. Antoine Genest-Grégoire (Université de Sherbrooke), FACT produces rigorous, accessible evidence on the fairness and accountability of Canada's tax and transfer system across three research themes: tax mix and progressivity; redistribution and public value; and administrative equity and access. An equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility lens runs across all three.
Taxes are how we fund everything we share as a society, but Canada's tax system has become so complex and fragmented that most people can't see how it works or whether it treats them fairly. That erosion of understanding is also an erosion of trust in government itself. FACT brings together researchers at Calgary, Carleton and Sherbrooke with the Canadian Tax Observatory and Social Capital Partners to build the evidence base Canada currently lacks — on who actually bears the tax burden, on what public spending is really worth, and on the administrative barriers that keep people from receiving the benefits they're entitled to. What excites me most is that this work doesn't stop at publication. It's designed from the outset to reach the public and policymakers alike, and to outlast the grant that funded it.
— Dr. Lindsay M. Tedds, Professor of Economics, University of Calgary, and Project Director of FACTA partnership built for reach
FACT's design puts knowledge mobilization at its core. Research is academic-led and independent; dissemination is co-developed with the partner organizations so that findings reach policymakers, journalists, and the public in both official languages. The Canadian Tax Observatory anchors the public-facing side of this work — leading open-access publication, bilingual dissemination, and the data infrastructure that turns research into resources Canadians and policymakers can use. Social Capital Partners connects FACT to practice communities through policy roundtables and cross-sector engagement.
The alliance also situates Canadian research internationally: through the Observatory, FACT connects to the global network of tax observatories coordinated by the Paris School of Economics, placing domestic work within international debates on fiscal transparency. Over its three years, FACT is designed to evolve from a focused collaboration into a standing national network on fiscal fairness, with data-sharing protocols and partnership structures meant to outlast the initial grant.
Already producing
FACT's first published research appears in the 2026 Canadian Tax Journal — three articles spanning tax administration, benefit delivery, and the case for a permanent public body on tax policy, with plain-language companion pieces to follow. Recruitment of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers across the three institutions is underway.
