University of Waterloo economist Anindya Sen recently published a study which tells us what everyone but the Ontario government already knows: the legally protected Beer Store monopoly is overcharging consumers. That is what monopolists do, after all.
Year: 2013
Arson Highlights Need for Debate on Bill 40
The Manitoba government tabled a series of amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act in May that have yet to come up for a vote in the legislature. Among many other things, Bill 40 would make it easier for landlords to evict tenants who are acting unlawfully.
Property rights still in jeopardy at border
A Saskatchewan couple is still discovering that property rights are precarious when it comes to the Canada-United States border. A saga pitting a Saskatchewan couple against a federal agency may soon be coming to a sad conclusion. Edwin and Alison Morris were informed...
Ferries to Relieve Traffic Congestion?
The new football stadium in the south end of Winnipeg has tremendous gridlock, requiring many fans to leave several hours early to arrive on time. Traffic in southern Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe is some of the worst in the world. In each case, ferries are being floated as a potential alternative to driving. It’s not clear how much they can practically do to relieve congestion, but it is certainly greater than zero. Given the cost of congestion mitigation, it may become economical in both instances.
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Global Fragmentation: The False Hope and Unrealistic Promises of Global Development Goals
In September 2000, one hundred and ninety-one member states established the United Nations Millennium Development Goals:1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; Achieve universal primary education; Promote gender equality and empower women; Reduce child mortality;...
What is the end Goal of Protests Over Residential School Graves?
In July, the Canadian prime minister denounced the arson and vandalism of Catholic churches across the country in the wake of the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools. After more than 1,100 unmarked graves were discovered at schools previously...
Hydro Ratepayers To Pick Up Another Tab
So, Manitoba Hydro plans to spend $700,000 of ratepayers’ money to ‘dialogue’ with their ratepayers on the ‘wisdom’ of its $20 billion (plus) development plans. Rather than propagating and disseminating propaganda on behalf of its political master, the Crown-owned monopoly utility would better serve ratepayers by cooperating in an independent and expert review of both the (government-directed) plans and options thereto (preferably before blindly continuing its ‘spend-a-thon’, all with borrowed money, all to the eventual account of the ratepayers, on the Province’s largest economic and financial gamble in its history).
Native financial transparency law may lessen on-reserve tensions
Pickets and sit-ins by First Nations members are increasingly becoming a preferred way to handle issues surrounding lack of transparency or accountability. One example is the Acadia First Nation near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Band members picketed the office today....
Rating Property Rights
The Frontier Centre has released the first Canadian Property Rights Index. The March 14th report, written by Joseph Quesnel, was fashioned along the same basis as a U.S. property rights index, rating how each of the 13 jurisdictions in Canada handled property rights.
Alberta Workers Taste Reality
Wages once virtually on par with the rest of the country became higher across all public-sector categories, in some cases substantially so, according to the study by Ben Eisen and Ken Boessenkool. (The province’s 36,000 teachers are paid 20 per cent higher than their typical counterparts elsewhere in the country, according to a recent Statistics Canada study.) Alberta’s public- sector salaries consumed nearly 95 per cent of the increase in provincial revenues over the decade analyzed.
The Future of E-Government in Saskatchewan
The strength of the Saskatchewan economy is exhilarating. Saskatchewan should take advantage of its relatively worriless situation and implement innovative measures to maintain long-term prosperity. One such measure is a world-class e-government. Saskatchewan placed tenth within Canada for the quality of e-government, outperforming only Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Pipeline or not, lots of Canadian crude oil is headed to the US
Environmentalists mistakenly think that blocking the Keystone pipeline will prevent crude oil, derived from Canada’s oil sands, from being extracted and from being conveyed into the US to be refined into gasoline, asphalt, and other products that are important to the transportation and manufacturing sectors. Their ultimate goal is to stop all development of the Canadian resource.
Chicken Processing Bonanza Alberta bound
It's no secret that Canadian so-called supply management marketing board policies are a destructive relic from the 1970s. Frontier, along with several other Canadian think tanks has written extensively how they artificially raise prices for consumers while...
Options for the CBC: Alternative Roles for the National Broadcaster
Based on a historical analysis of the original role for a national public broadcaster, Roland Renner assesses how improving technology has affected the CBC and takes a look at five potential alternatives for bringing the CBC in to the modern world. Renner looks at five potential proposals, ranging from abandoning the idea of a public broadcaster entirely, to making only minor changes to the current system, before making a final recommendation.
After Smoke Clears, Taxpayer-Funded Boondoggle Revealed
It was a different world in 2007 when then-B.C. premier Gordon Campbell announced that his would be the first carbon-neutral government in North America. The B.C. premier was a leader among Canadian politicians in introducing measures designed to curb carbon emissions. But like many of Mr. Campbell’s ventures, his attention and focus on the issue eventually waned and climate policy took a back seat to other matters.