British Columbia Premier Christy Clark recently announced that the days of self-regulation are over for the real estate industry. The Real Estate Council of B.C. had previously been tasked with ensuring that people who are buying and selling homes in the province are...
Year: 2016
American Job Losses and NAFTA
Decades of steady trade liberalization have served Canada’s economic development. As the Montreal Economic Institute’s Mathieu Bédard noted recently in FP Comment (“Trump’s anti-NAFTA myths spread north,” July 14), the NAFTA years...
First Nations’ Financial Reporting and Public Opinion in Canada
Over the last several decades, indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians have become increasingly interested in issues relating to financial transparency and accountability on Canadian reserves. Indigenous and non-indigenous governments have responded with various...
Will Saudi Ceasefire in Oil War Offer Price Relief
Canadian energy producers have been dealing with a triple whammy of low oil prices, unfavourable policy changes and the Fort McMurray wildfire. Two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia’s new oil minister declared a ceasefire in the two-year-old oil war with the shale industry....
Featured News
The Swedish Response to Covid-19 versus Canada
In a recent New York Times article, David Wallace Wells asked, “How did No-Mandate Sweden End up with such an average pandemic”. Let’s be clear. This admission from the New York Times, who tried to destroy the response to Covid-19, starting in April 2020 and...
Draconian, Anti-Science Measures During the Pandemic Has Led to Loss of Trust in Our Institutions
Candida Auris is a fungus that, unlike most fungi, can survive in a human body. It is capable of spreading within the body, resulting in an agonizing death. For unknown reasons the fungus is spreading at a rather alarming rate. So far, cases have been confined to long...
Liberals and federal NDP policies restrict Alberta oil to U.S. market
During the 1988 Free Trade debate, the Liberals and NDP fought a provision that required Canada to maintain its oil export volumes to the U.S. at historical levels. So it is a remarkable irony that these two parties are now fighting against pipelines that would allow...
Canada’s New Federal Mortgage Rules: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Medicine?
For some time , the Bank of Canada, international organizations and financial analysts have expressed concern at Canada’s rising house prices and related household debt levels. Some have even suggested risks similar to that of the housing bust that devastated...
Supply and Demand in Alberta’s Housing Market
It is well known that the Alberta economy is largely driven by the oil and gas sector. One unfortunate consequence of this is that Alberta is subject to the boom and bust cycle that is pervasive in all resource-‐based economies. In boom periods, the demand for...
Oil Prices and the Canadian Economy
Back in 2010, soaring oil prices and the accompanying appreciation of the Canadian dollar was perceived by some to be a major problem for the Canadian manufacturing sector. People argued that our economy suffered from a “resource curse”- a phenomenon where...
Growth Management: Focusing on Priorities
The Notley government promises a new Municipal Government Act in the fall, following a consultive process. In its September announcement, the Government said that new Growth Management Boards would be established in the Calgary and Edmonton areas. “Growth...
Recent Mortgage Rule Changes Not Well Thought Out
Starting in 2008, the federal government has made changes to the manner in which mortgages can be financed through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). For instance, the maximum amortization period has been reduced from 40 years to 25 years; the maximum...
Green Energy Poverty Week
A week dedicated to topics that underscore impacts environmentalists don’t want to discuss April 22 was Earth Day, the March for Science and Lenin’s birthday (which many say is appropriate, since environmentalism is now green on the outside and red, anti-free...
Let’s stop pretending ‘social licence’ is an actual thing
Alberta’s premier has, one hopes, learned the hard way. Margaret Thatcher famously said “There is no such thing as society.” Today she might have added the corollary that “There is no such thing as social licence.” There is such a thing...
Canada’s war on ISIS: Why declaring genocide without ramifications is dangerous
In his speech at the University of Ottawa on March 29, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion noted that Canada’s foreign policy strategy under the Trudeau government will be guided by the principle of ‘Responsible Conviction.’ Few...