Year: 1998

Rethinking the Police

We can never downplay the value of our police. They are “the thin blue line” who perform a critical community function that occasionally has lethal consequences for them. But there is plenty of room for rethinking the structure of Winnipeg’s police services.

The Wealth Of Time

January Michael Cox and Richard Alm calculate how much of the average worker’s productive day must be set aside to make a particular purchase, and then they compare the results with the hours past generations had to put in.

To Sell Or Not To Sell Winnipeg Hydro

Winnipeg’s civic election warmed up last week when mayoral candidates Glen Murray and Peter Kaufmann duked it out over Winnipeg Hydro. Kaufmann would sell it to Manitoba Hydro while Murray would keep the utility, invest $235 million in it, and use the profits to help cut property taxes.

Featured News

Speeding Up The Rails

The railroads’ poor performance in transporting Prairie farmers’ grain to ocean terminals is chronic and well documented. Private ownership, as demonstrated in Britain, offers a light at the end of this tunnel.

Enlightened Unionism – Competitive Model

Two years ago at a conference on local government reform, I met Stephan Fantauzzo, a union leader who represents municipal workers in the City of Indianapolis. Fantauzzo provided a union perspective on the wave of reform now underway in local government. It was a...

No Free Lunches

A famous economist once said: “There is no such thing as a free lunch”. He was right. So beware of elected officials who skirt the sad results of excessive property taxation by offering high profile “freebies”. It’s another reason your house in Winnipeg suffers from the lowest property values in Canada.

Fixing Winnipeg’s Urban Sprawl

People can escape paying their share by moving to lower-tax communities just outside the perimeter: they simply work and consume services in Winnipeg without paying for them. As the city’s population falls, capital and operating costs are spread over fewer people. Taxes must then go up, but this stimulates even more flight to the exurbs. And so on.