A month ago, the Chronicle Herald published an article in which I argued that the Atlantic Canada economy is unsustainable and that the region has become a major burden on Canada. The starkest evidence of that is that other Canadians are obliged to contribute $6,400...
For many years, there has been debate about equalization and other transfer programs and their impact on Atlantic Canada and other regions. Much of this discussion has been technical and difficult to follow. The debate has also been misleading because it focused on...
It is time for a fundamental course change by Atlantic Canadians respecting equalization and other regional subsidies. We’ve had a half-century of remarkably large subsidies to Quebec and Atlantic Canada, recently amounting to several thousand dollars per citizen per...
Equalization and many other subsidies provided to Canadian regions are one of the most widely discussed but least understood aspects of our national life. They are widely discussed because the funding devoted to these subsidies is large and their political impact...
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...
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...
In recent days, readers of the Guardian have read very different articles on equalization, one by Premier Wade MacLauchlan and one by me. This is healthy. One hopes that the debate continues. It is important to be factual as we go forward. For example, Mr. MacLauchlan...
The controversies that have erupted over equalization in recent days must seem tiresome to many Canadians. Our national debates on equalization have been marked by conflict, obscure technical jargon, little research on the impact of the program, excessive vitriol and...
Canada Should Fix Equalization and Other Regional Subsidies Now, the latest study by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, demonstrates how equalization is unfair, diminishes productivity, holds back economic development,...
The Frontier Centre's David MacKinnon and why Canada's "have" provinces are getting a raw deal when it comes to equalization.
David MacKinnon February 2, 2017 In recent months, several commentators have been recommending that other countries adopt equalization and other Canadian-style regional subsidies. They argue that this would help avoid the political stresses that the American rustbelt...
Souris Mayor Dave MacDonald recently told the Premiers’ Council on EI that recent changes to the federal EI program are killing his town. Unfortunately, Mr. MacDonald did not note that Islanders receive three times as much as they contribute to the EI program. This...
Over fifty years, observers have become inured to troubling reports of Atlantic Canada's economic difficulties. Even the most jaundiced observer would recognize, however, that data for the last two years describes something different. The regional economy is not...
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...
I will deal with the myths associated with the current equalization system and then devote the largest part of my remarks to the consequences of these myths for Canadians and the politics of actually changing.