The Manitoba government should sell its residential real estate holdings to the private sector and then concentrate on providing targeted subsidies to low-income Manitobans, this according to a new backgrounder from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. The report, from Frontier research associate Dan Klymchuk, shows how $25 million could be shaved off annual operating costs now paid by the provincial government, and instead redirected to those Manitobans in need of subsidized shelter. That $25 million could help subsidize 21,000 more people with their housing costs.
Year: 2008
City Debt, Taxes Higher Than Average — Report
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy released last week a financial analysis of 79 Canadian cities. The report, which calls for greater consistency among municipal financial reporting, found St. Albert property owners paid 18 per cent more in taxes per household last year compared to 10 other prairie cities.
Go-Ahead For Urban Sprawl
The Victorian Government has all but given up on a long-standing pledge to contain Melbourne’s urban sprawl, announcing another big expansion of the metropolitan boundary for new housing. Six years after setting a “clear boundary” for the city in the Melbourne 2030 policy, the Government has succumbed to a booming population, a housing shortage and resistance to high-density development in established suburbs.
The Next Team
What would you call a group of economists who are skeptical of regulating mortgage markets, who think unemployment insurance and unions increase unemployment, who say that tax hikes retard economic growth, and who believe that the recovery from the Great Depression was a monetary phenomenon rather than the result of New Deal fiscal policy? No, it is not a right-wing cabal. It’s Team Obama.
Featured News
The Man who Saved the Plains Indians
At the time of Confederation, Canada’s Plains Indians were in a desperate situation. The same European-introduced guns and horses that resulted in a briefly glorious golden age for them had also resulted in constant inter-tribal warfare and the rapid disappearance of...
Renewed Talk of Abolishing the Indian Act
Political attacks on the Indian Act are back in the news, and that is a good thing. However, Canadian politicians, including First Nation politicians, need a credible plan about what to do before we pull out the champagne. Attacking the Indian Act is not a big deal...
Media Release: Short-term Costs for Long-term Finality
First Nations and Canadian taxpayers need a new expedited approach that prioritizes specific land claims and moves towards a final filing deadline.
Megacity, Schmegacity – It’s Time For The Microcity!
The megacity was supposed to be more efficient and less costly, with a new arrondisement system that promised suburban-style service for everyone. But even with the best intentions, it’s just created more layers of arrondo-bureaucracy, piled atop mega-bureaucracy, piled atop blue-collar-ocracy. It’s become obvious that bigger is not more efficient. It’s slower, more bureaucratic and less friendly.
Sun & Pacific Ocean: Elephants in the Room for Prairie Grain?
Describing the factors associated with drought on the Canadian Prairies and their impact.
Martin Durkin, Director of The Great Global Warming Swindle
If you examine the mountain of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) literature on this, you’ll find the vast majority of it concerns the possible (projected) effects of climate change. Most of this is highly suspect and does not address the central question of whether humans are causing the climate to change. The climate has always changed. Climate change is nothing new.
The 2008 Local Government Performance Index – Ontario Regional Report
Cities are listed in alphabetical order: Ajax Aurora Barrie Belleville Brampton Brantford Burlington Caledon Cambridge Chatham-Kent Clarington Cornwall Greater Sudbury Guelph Halton Hills Hamilton Kawartha Lakes Kingston Kitchener London Markham Milton...
The 2008 Local Government Performance Index – Atlantic Canada Regional Report
Cities are listed in alphabetical order: Newfoundland: St. John's Nova Scotia: Halifax New Brunswick: Frederickton Moncton Saint John
The 2008 Local Government Performance Index – Prairies Regional Report
Cities are listed in alphabetical order: Alberta: Calgary Edmonton Grande Prairie Lethbridge Medicine Hat Red Deer St. Albert Strathcona County Wood Buffalo Saskatchewan: Regina Saskatoon Manitoba: WinnipegView entire Prairie edition in PDF Format (55...
The 2008 Local Government Performance Index – BC Regional Report
Cities are listed in alphabetical order: Abbotsford Burnaby Chilliwack Coquitlam Delta Kamloops Kelowna Langley Maple Ridge Nanaimo New Westminster North Vancouver Port Coquitlam Prince George Richmond Saanich Surrey Vancouver...
The High Cost of Not Investing in Health Care
The decision to use computerized order entries will be made at the hospital or regional authority level, but provincial governments can provide incentives, for instance by pairing a subsidy for making the transition to computerized ordering with a reduction in healthcare transfers for regions that fail to take action.