Public transportation is an important contributor to urban mobility, particularly in Canada’s largest metropolitan areas. Despite the fact that most residents view public transportation as a necessity, there is a tendency to think of it as more of a social …
Local Government Performance Index
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has completed the eighth edition of its Local Government Performance Index (LGPI). The Transparency Index (TI) ranks the top 100 Canadian cities on the quality of their financial reporting over the 2013 financial year. …
Let Grocers Sell Booze
Ontario’s antiquated alcohol-distribution system has come under heavy scrutiny over the last few months. While alcohol policy change in Ontario has been glacial, the recent proposal to allow grocery stores to sell alcohol could be a step in the right …
Accessibility Needs to be Part of the Debate Over the Future of the Beer Store
Recent revelations about the Ontario government’s relationship with the Beer Store have led to renewed interest in reforming Ontario’s byzantine liquor regulations. Many of the policy implications have been discussed ad nauseum, but one remains curiously absent from the debate: …
The Auditor General Did Not Say that P3s Cost Taxpayers $8 Billion
The Auditor General of Ontario’s report is a technical document that few people actually read. Bullet points from executive summaries of such reports are often used as the basis for newspaper columns and political talking points in the grown up …
The Future of Public Transportation Has Arrived – and It’s in Cleveland
Support for public transportation has grown significantly over the past decade in North America. Major transit expansions were key issues in the recent Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg elections, and ambitious plans were green lighted by voters in each of those …
Now is the Time to Harmonize Manitoba’s Provincial Sales Tax
Premier Sellinger’s decision to increase the provincial sales tax to 8 percent has hovered over provincial politics like a dark cloud for more than a year. The issue won’t go away. Sellinger himself admitted that the lingering unpopularity of the …
What We Can Learn from the City That Lost A Million Pounds
There are two types of people in Canadian cities: people who hate cars, and people who hate cyclists. Or so the perception goes. While it is true that many cities have seen bitter electoral feuds over bike lanes and urban …
City Councillors Should Spend Their Office Budgets
Now that municipal election season is over in Manitoba and Ontario, city councillors are transitioning into the ordinary business of governing. One of the first tasks will be hiring office staff. Some councillors will be tempted to hire as little …