The Manitoba and federal governments have recently disagreed on the population of the province, a dispute that could lessen the transfer payments Manitoba receives, overwhelmingly from taxpayers in other provinces. Manitoba Finance Minister Jennifer Howard feels...
Year: 2013
Rights of Union Workers Should Not be Unilaterally Altered
For too long, Canadians have watched as governments have entered into bad and costly labour agreements with public sector employees. Now that the politicians can no longer afford these expensive contracts, the rights of public sector workers are being altered without...
More To Do In Saskatchewan
A recent report by the Fraser Institute on economic freedom across all 60 Canadian provinces and US states, has ranked Alberta first, and Saskatchewan right behind in second place. This news received significant media coverage in Saskatchewan and across North America...
Alberta schools are getting worse, not better
There is an old saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. By this standard, the Redford government must be insane—at least when it comes to public education reform. Over the last decade, the Department of...
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There’s Nothing Fair About Canadian Health Care
For the past 14 years, Vancouver surgeon Dr. Brian Day has led the charge for health-care reform, pushing for the right of patients to pay for private care if their health and well-being are threatened as a result of waiting in a stagnant and overburdened public...
Transformers: More than Meets the Eye
The path to net zero, based on the much disputed belief that carbon dioxide is a pollution, is more steep and impractical than most people realize. Replacing fossil fuels with clean electricity will require much more power generation and a greatly upgraded grid to...
What if?
Is it still possible to hold future electricity rate increases to the rate of inflation? Following nine years of rate increases well above the rate of inflation, Manitoba Hydro's $30-billion plus plan includes increasing electricity rates by four per cent every year...
Look at options for STC, Frontier Centre says
Joe Couture, The StarPhoenix, December 12, 2013 The latest transfer of cash from provincial coffers to the Saskatchewan Transportation Company is for a needed capital project, not increasing operating costs, according to the minister responsible, Don McMorris....
Anti-Oil Sands Propaganda Cannot Win the Day
Environmental extremists like the public to believe that the debate over the oil sands is a choice between economic rewards or a healthy environment. But Canada and Alberta can have both. The oil sands are being developed in a responsible way. Only three percent of...
Getting on track: the Auditor-General and railway safety
According to Auditor-General Michael Ferguson’s recently released Fall Report, “significant weaknesses” continue at Transport Canada. These weaknesses have been flagged for some time, dating back a dozen years to when the federal government adopted a new rail safety...
Housing Affordability and Standard of Living
Stu Niebergall I was working out at the gym the other day, when I overheard a discussion regarding housing affordability in Regina. The two who were working out beside me said something I have not heard before in the 20 plus years that I have lived in Regina and, I...
A sensible alternative to new dams
Manitoba Hydro, pressured by the provincial government, continues to spend and make commitments for its $22-billion "preferred development plan." The plan involves the construction of Bipole III, down the extreme west side of the province and through prime...
Housing Affordability and the Standard of Living in Saskatoon
Executive Summary Housing affordability has deteriorated markedly in the Saskatoon metropolitan area since 2006. While Saskatchewan has had the largest increase in household of any province over the past five years, house prices have escalated at a far greater rate....
Manitoba – when will the deficits end?
For roughly a decade, the NDP provincial government annually reported a balanced summary of accounts (core government operations plus the surplus and deficits of Crown Corporations and other government controlled entities). That streak ended with the global...
Harper’s quest for Santa’s Village
You have to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper some credit. While he has not delivered on his promises of military and ice breaker technology in his quest to solidify Canadian sovereignty over Canada’s Arctic, he has been consistent in making sure Canada’s claims are...