In an unusual move, the Ontario government released its 2016-17 budget in February, a month before the federal budget. Given that the budget contains no real surprises and, for the most part, indicates this government is sticking to the plan it set out last year, it’s difficult to see why…
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I submitted the following in response to a call by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency for public comments on the February 2016?draft environmental assessment?of the Pacific NorthWest LNG, also commonly known as the Petronas LNG project given the lead corporate proponent. (You can make a?submission?too). This submission is in regards…
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Today the Ontario government will table its second provincial budget since Premier Kathleen Wynne secured a majority mandate in June 2014. In these uncertain times, no government budget is easy to craft. There are always trade-offs. But this year, the big question will be: just how much is this government…
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By 2013 the Conservative government had cut overall federal taxes and other revenues to the lowest rate seen in more than 70 years. Between 2011 and March 2015, 25,000 to 30,000 federal public sector positions were eliminated. Between 2010 and 2015, 4,766 civil service jobs were lost in the prairie…
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It’s always nice to be recognized. So it was a pleasant surprise to see both Minister Don McMorris and the Saskatchewan Party address our latest study on the government’s liquor privatization plan. Unfortunately, both the Minister and the Saskatchewan Party appear to be struggling with some of the math involved…
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The rapid decline in the value of the Canada dollar relative to the US dollar has been cause for serious concern. If current trends are not reversed, both public policy options and prospects for private sector outcomes will be dramatically reshaped. A low dollar is caused by, and will entail,…
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Every year at this time, the marketing arms of Canada’s mutual funds go into high gear exhorting Canadians to dig deep to pour money into their RRSP investments in time to beat the end-of-February tax deadline. While it may be the officially supported time to think about adding to the…
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On February 1, I gave a guest presentation on homelessness to a graduate seminar class on housing policy taught by?Steve Pomeroy?at Carleton University’s?School of Public Policy and Administration. The focus of my presentation was the emergence of homelessness in Canada as a pressing public policy area in the 1980s. I…
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I was very pleased to see that MP Don Davies introduced a private member’s bill this past week calling for the voting age to be lowered to age 16. I know private member’s bills usually never make it, but this one is well worth other MPs’ backing. I’ve long been…
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