The RCMP’s ill-advised seizure of firearms from abandoned High River homes has eroded confidence in the federal police and may have the unintended consequence of endangering more lives in future.
Year: 2013
Winnipeg Renters Should Welcome New Condo Developments
The Corydon Avenue BIZ announced today that a new condo development containing 125 units scattered throughout 13 buildings in the Corydon/Osborne area is in the works. Predictably, knee jerk condo opponents are lamenting that new condo developments do nothing for the average renter. As it happens, they do.
Towards a First Nations Education Act
The federal government has begun intensive consultations in preparing a First Nations Education Act. Right now, the Indian Act is silent on educational standards, or even any kind of educational system for that matter. The federal government aims to fill that gap by...
Mergers of RMs Ignorant
Among independent researchers who study local-government finance, however, the idea that forced mergers magically create efficiency is about as popular as climate-change denial is for climatologists. The financial consequences of this simplistic policy usually follow a predictable pattern, no matter how large or small the unwilling partners involved.
Featured News
Interest Rates do not Merely Parallel Inflation Upward—the Inflation Risk Premium can Escalate too
It is not entirely clear whether the Canadian and the global economies are heading for a new inflationary era. It may turn out that inflation is not only elevated from recent negligible levels, but escalates, steadily at first, and then dramatically, as it did in the...
CUSMA the New NAFTA: Boon or Bane For Canada?
In 1994, the United States, Mexico and Canada created a free-trade region with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Considering the fact that the USA is the largest economy in the world (from 1994 to present), NAFTA was a true asset for the Canadian...
Smaller Class Size is About More Teacher Jobs
As student numbers decline in a country with an aging population, we continue to see a constant stream of policies designed to artificially increase the demand for teachers – including the push for more early childhood education, lengthening the number of years students must be in school, and now reducing class size even when the evidence shows that it does not benefit students.
Political Potshots won’t clean up Lake Winnipeg
A recent announcement that Lake Winnipeg is in the running for a threatened lake designation should focus our attention on finding incentive-based solutions.
Mr. President: For Next Energy Czar, Choose More Carefully: Secretary Steven Chu’s replacement needs a practical approach to climate change and energy.
President Barack Obama and the Senate must not repeat the mistake of choosing another climate activist for U.S. secretary of energy. Although well-qualified in his field of physics, outgoing Secretary Dr. Steven Chu brought a dangerously naïve vision of both climate change and America’s energy future to Washington.
New Report Propels Regina to Third Place
The City of Regina, by comparison, climbed nine spots over last year to tie for third with Maple Ridge, B.C., in the Frontier Centre for Public Policy’s annual Local Government Performance Index released Monday.
CBRM Sinks Lower in Think-Tank Survey
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy on Monday released the sixth annual edition of its local government performance index, which the CBRM has been a part of since the index’s first year in 2008.
Are Polar Bears Really Disappearing?: Some say they’re on the edge of extinction—but locals see a very different reality on the ground
I knew I was in trouble when the biologist from the Manitoba Conservation Department sat down next to me. “The bears look good,” he said. “I haven’t seen them this fat in years.” We’d both been hanging around the tiny town of Churchill, Manitoba, ground zero for everything having to do with polar bears. Every fall the town is overrun with bears waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze. The bears, in turn, are trailed by herds of tourists, tour guides, scientists, green-leaning types and B-list celebrities—all looking for communion with The Most Important Animal of Our Time.
First Aboriginal-owned oil sands project could be wave of future
A new business venture between a private oil junior and a Metis settlement in northern Alberta represents the first Aboriginal-run oil sands venture. This sort of 50-50 model represents the wave of the future, in terms of Aboriginal people entering the economy on a more equal field.
2013 Alberta Economic Summit
Last week’s Alberta Economic Summit was an interesting exercise. The panels of experts presented some sound economic ideas and generated some lively discussion. The interventions from state clients were less interesting because they had not much to say about how to resolve the current problems and because they were unabashedly self-serving. The public sector union reps and heads of public-funded charities predictably wanted more spending and more hiring. One of them, a woman representing the Boys and Girls Club, was shamefully unprepared, quoting wrong facts and making pronouncements without much of an idea of the historical record. Case in point, she claimed that the non-profit sector didn’t exist a century ago. You would think that someone high up in the non-profit sector would know a little of the history of voluntary organizations such as the Salvation Army or the Boys Scouts.
![Alberta's Premier Alison Redford addresses the audience at the First Annual Alberta Economic Summit on 9 February 2013 at Mount Royal University in Calgary.](http://fcpp.org/files/wpuploads/2013/02/IMG-20130209-00596-e1360622681859-225x300.jpg)
Alberta’s Premier Alison Redford addresses the audience at the First Annual Alberta Economic Summit on 9 February 2013 at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
As an exercise, in and of itself, the Summit was a good thing. As a political tool, it may have bought the premier the room that she needs to convey to Albertans the impression that she is doing something about the economy. Whether the Summit will have any practical benefit remains to be seen. Touted as the First Annual Alberta Economic Summit, it opens the probability that there may be more of them. And if so, their institutionalization can result in creating a specific place for discussing policy ideas that might result in tangible impact.
But the idea was culled in a hurry from political necessity, more than economic need or historical tradition. I say historical tradition because we should not forget that Social Credit wanted and tried to institute government by experts. The experts would create the policy and the politicians would put it into place. Parts of what took place last Saturday exhibited shades of that colourful Alberta past, the premier would be horrified to admit.
I must give credit to the premier for having sat through the proceedings all day, sometimes listening to ideas critical of her doings and undoings, and lack of doing in some instances. I thought that subjecting herself and her MLAs (perhaps most ministers) to the process showed an uncharacteristic amount of humility, for which the premier is not known. It was either humility or meeting a strategic demand in practical politics. Either way, Redford is deserving of credit for it. But it is difficult for me to imagine that the premier will agree to subject herself to the same thing each and every year.
If Calgary city council doesn’t wanted to be treated like a ‘farm team’ they should demand real responsibility
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi recently accused the provincial government of treating the City of Calgary like a ‘farm team.’ I’m not sure that was the best analogy, as a pro-sports team can call up prospects from a farm team at any time. A better sports analogy to illustrate the relationship would be between a micromanaging general manager, and a subservient coaching staff.