The rise in the use of food banks doesn’t necessarily mean poverty is rising, as many commentators have claimed. Paradoxically, it this rise has occurred while official poverty rates have been falling. This doesn’t mean food banks are a bad thing, simply that they do not necessarily indicate increases in poverty.
Year: 2010
Why Food Bank Use is Increasing, Despite a Reduction in Poverty
Many people believe that food banks are a necessary evil, a community response to the failure of governments to address increasing poverty, and even a yellow canary for our society. The evidence, however, does not support the notion that food bank use and poverty rates are closely linked.
Reserves Are Part Of The Problem
“When it comes to aboriginal affairs, it’s too bad that many of the ideas meant to improve the lives of ordinary natives never see the light of day. The best suggestion I’ve seen all year is the proposal by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy that non-viable reserves be relocated closer to urban centres — and jobs.”
Defying Trend, Canada Lures More Migrants
“As waves of immigrants from the developing world remade Canada a decade ago, the famously friendly people of Manitoba could not contain their pique. What irked them was not the Babel of tongues, the billions spent on health care and social services, or the explosion of ethnic identities. The rub was the newcomers’ preference for “M.T.V.” — Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver — over the humble prairie province north of North Dakota, which coveted workers and population growth.”
Featured News
Let’s Celebrate Reaching Global Population of Eight Billion
Recently, the United Nations estimated that the population of Planet Earth had reached eight billion souls. Despite the chatter of the highly subsidized climate doomster complex this is quite an achievement - it certainly indicates that the carrying capacity of our...
China’s “Truckers’ Convoy”
Anti-lockdown protests are now taking place across China - the Chinese equivalent of our Truckers’ Convoy. The protests are a reaction to the brutal policies that literally lock people in their apartments, when even one infection is detected. As in Canada, when...
EI Favours East Coast, Study Finds: Ontario, West ‘left to fend for
“The situation for Canada as a whole wasn’t much better. Only 46% of unemployed Canadians received EI benefits during the recession of 2008-09, compared with 71% and 76% in the recessions of 1981-82 and 1990-91, the study found.”
Taxi Industry Reports Tired and One Sided: Ignores past seventeen years of evidence.
The people of Regina and Saskatoon have been sold short by taxi industry studies that don’t look at all the available evidence, in fact ignoring all evidence published since 1993.
A Disguised Welfare Scheme: EI isn’t an insurance program. It’s an interregional transfer of wealth
“That means EI isn’t an insurance program, despite its name. It is both a tax on employment and an inter-regional transfer of wealth. If it were truly an insurance program, premiums would be charged according to the likelihood a worker would make a claim.”
Global Trade: Should Saskatchewan be an Australia or a Tasmania?: The breadth of human collaboration has defined prosperity for eons.
Open trade drives prosperity by allowing specialised labour and the exchange of new ideas, a forward looking Premier should not be saying things like “he doesn’t understand how we could benefit” from foreign investment such as BHP Billiton’s investment in PotashCorp. Through the long lens of human history the answer is obvious.
Natives Fear Ottawa Aiming To Convert Reserves To Private Land Ownership: Federal study of successful reserves with rent-paying businesses prompts some bands to raise alarm over resource rights
“Ottawa has quietly ordered a study of Canada’s most economically successful first nations, raising the prospect of a new approach to developing businesses on reserves while sparking fear among some native leaders that their rights to land and resources are at risk.”
Two Lies Make A Truth
“In the world of green and liberal politics, where they practice extreme environmentalism, nothing bears examination: two lies make a truth. We now learn that Bjorn Lomborg, who was never a climate skeptic, has magically disavowed that status. As the entire mockery of human induced global warming collapses, it is a convenient conversion.”
Fake Competition: Forcing telecoms to share their networks with small ISPs
“Imagine if you were the owner of the only fully equipped garage outlet in a small town and some government regulatory agency ordered you to rent your premises a few hours a day, at a predetermined tariff, to other local mechanics. A decision by the CRTC will force telecoms to give ISPs acccess to their network at the same speeds they offer their own customers.”
Testing Still Valuable
Standardized tests are supposed to measure, in a fair and consistent way, what students have learned. But how do we know what these students have learned? The tests are supposed to measure the effectiveness of teaching strategies. We don’t know how effective the teaching in these classes was. The tests are supposed to tell the public, which pays for schools, how those schools are performing. Frontier Centre in the media, from The Windsor Star.
Report Cards Need Clarity: ‘Edu-babble’ not helpful for students
Despite recent moves by ‘outcome-based” educators to eliminate percentage grades, if used properly, standardized report cards are best for parents and teachers.