When the mercury drops and utility bills go higher, the critics of Alberta’s experiment in deregulating power can be counted on to come out of the government-must-run-things closet to criticize Alberta’s private sector power companies.
Year: 2012
Strengthening Fiscal Responsibility Through Decentralization: Empower local voters to increase government accountability and efficiency
The constitution allocates responsibility over most policy areas exclusively to the provinces or the federal government. But the federal government routinely oversteps its bounds. To create more accountable, more efficient government, the federal government should step back and allow the provinces and municipalities to fund and deliver the services that they are responsible for.
Mistakes galore in first 1/2 hour of Gore’s climate change marathon
The first segment of former Vice-President Al Gore’s “24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report” has just completed. Gore and his guests connected Hurricane Sandy and other tropical cyclones with global warming caused by human-induced greenhouse gas emissions (“carbon pollution”, they wrongly called carbon dioxide). Besides the fact that such a connection is impossible since there has been no overall global warming in 16 years, the concept is also wrong in principle.
Corruption costs
Gilles Vaillancourt, the mayor of Laval, Quebec, is the latest casualty of the Charbonneau inquiry into corruption in Quebec's construction industry, as he has announced he will be stepping down. Besides the obvious moral dimensions of corruption, kickbacks and...
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Preston Manning: Report of the COVID Commission
Introductory Comment Brian Giesbrecht, Retired Judge, Frontier Centre Senior Fellow: The Frontier Centre for Public Policy is honoured to present Mr. Manning’s latest offering, in what he calls a fictionalized story. It is about everything that has happened to this...
Canada: Returning to the Original Vision
Many Canadians are aware of stories of how immigrants were originally attracted to Canada through the promise of free land. The then Minister responsible for immigration, Clifford Sifton, had his staff spread out across central and eastern Europe promising free land...
Government management of First Nations lands the problem
I was interviewed by a campus radio station in Winnipeg this morning. The main question was why I supported the proposed First Nations Property Ownership Act that is expected to be introduced in Parliament next year. The main reason I gave was the the federal...
The Real Time Ridesharing Revolution: Half Time Break
David Seymour evaluates his earlier prediction that ubiquitous smart phones will transform the taxi industry by analyzing the current market and regulatory environment.
We Can Get Better Teachers
Marcus Winters reviews the research literature on effective teachers and presents a way for school divisions to retain the most effective teachers.
Let Fishermen Off the Hook: Allow more marketing freedom
A new Frontier Centre study showing that payments to fishermen under the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation’s (FFMC) jurisdiction are declining should be a wake-up call to the provinces and territory that are still under it.
The Debate
Tomorrow, of course, is the big debate. The candidates will face each other to discuss the issues of the day, promote their ideas, prove their desire, and show to the public why they should be Mayor.
US telcos and cablecos complain that Kansas City gave Google a better deal
US cablecos and telcos are upset that Kansas City gave Google a better deal on access to municipal infrastructure than they get. Now they want the same deal, complaining that the Google deal is unfair and "not a level playing field"...
I (still) want your money… (2)
The meeting between BC Premier Clark and Alberta Premier Redford in Calgary did not resolve the impasse on Northern Gateway pipeline.
If you thought the climate scare was winding down, think again
Optimists assert that climate realism, the understanding that climate changes naturally all the time with little influence from humanity, is finally winning out over alarmism. Science and economics, they say, will win the war in realism’s favour. That is dangerously naïve.
Alberta and Ontario Must Work Together To Fix Fiscal Federalism in Canada
The result has been that, in some important respects, governments of the traditional “have-not” provinces have been able to provide public services that are more expansive and accessible than what is available to residents of Alberta, BC and Ontario.