Too much could be read into the recent sagging value of the Euro, British pound, Japan’s yen and Canada’s loonie against America’s dollar. Relative interest rates, trade deficits, and government deficits and trends have major influences. In the longer term, all...
Ian Madsen
CMHC, Ottawa’s Favourite Stealth Torpedo
Just a few months ago, the national discussion was about house prices and a lack of affordability. No longer, with houses, townhouses, and condominium prices cresting, imminent data may likely confirm serious price declines. Mortgage carrying costs are rising, as...
Stabilizing Volatile Alberta Government Revenues
Albertans received the pleasant news that their deficit-plagued provincial government might bank a surplus for their concluding fiscal year, and could very well experience the same this year. The reason for this happy state of financial affairs is the elevated price...
Via Rail, a Business That Would Not Be Created Today
A question investment managers and individual investors often (or should) ask themselves: “If I didn’t already own this stock, would I buy it today?” By any criteria, Via Rail, a Crown corporation owned by the federal government, is not a good investment - even under...
Featured News
Cities Have to Expand for House Prices to Fall
The cost of actually building a house does not vary that much across Canada The Ford government’s plan to expand the land supply available for housing has evoked the usual dog whistles about “urban sprawl” by interests apparently unaware of the strong...
How We Teach Reading Really Does Matter
Reading is the most important skill taught in school. If students don’t learn how to read, not much else that happens there is going to matter. That’s because being able to read is important in virtually every job. Without the ability to read, life itself will be a...
Dependence On Any One Foreign Nation is Unhealthy; In the Case of China, All Too Literally So
Of late, it has been remarked that most of the active ingredients for key pharmaceuticals in North America come from abroad - usually from China; in the case of generics, often from India. In turn, India often imports its key ingredients from China. So, diverting...
No Wow and No Ow at YOW: A Valuation & Strategic Appraisal of Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport
Divesting YOW will free Ontario taxpayers Privatizing Ottawa International Airport WINNIPEG, MB, March 30, 2020 - The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just released No Wow and No Ow at YOW: A Valuation & Strategic Appraisal of Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier...
Governments Too Often Make Decisions That Endanger Their Own Citizens
While the benighted residents of the world are having to deal with the restrictions imposed on them to minimize chances of transmission of the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19, many of them may be wondering how we got to such a predicament – where millions...
Gold’s Rise Could Be Signalling Chaos
Gold is a strange commodity. While it has some industrial uses, it mostly ends up in jewelry or money-surrogates such as coins and ingots; the latter often in central bank vaults. Unlike other metals, it accumulates and circulates in the economy and society; it is not...
The Raven Still Has Tricks Aplenty – a Valuation & Strategic Appraisal of Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
Divesting YVR will benefit B.C. taxpayers Vancouver International Airport WINNIPEG, MB, February 2020 - The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just released The Raven Still Has Tricks Aplenty: A Valuation & Strategic Appraisal of Vancouver International Airport...
Canada is Losing Its Competitiveness
Canada is gradually losing its competitiveness. According to the Institute for Management Development (IMD)1, a graduate business school and research centre, we are down three spots from 2018 to 13th. Canada is now ranked below the USA and Switzerland, as well as...
Profits Soar on a Knife-Edge of ‘Net Assets’: A Valuation & Strategic Appraisal of Aéroports de Montreal (YUL)
Aéroports de Montréal, ‘ADM’, whose main asset, Montreal-Trudeau International Airport’s symbol is YUL, is the umbrella company for the airport serving metropolitan Montreal, domestically and internationally. Its market area is larger: most of Quebec and much of...
Limits on Pension Investments Hurt Returns
Recently, members of ‘Extinction Rebellion’, a climate change activist group, sat in protest at the University of British Columbia, beginning a hunger strike on January 6th, trying to stop UBC’s pension fund from making or holding any investments in...
Solving Quebec’s Propane Vulnerability
Recently, the Alberta Premier opportunistically and sarcastically suggested to the government of Quebec that if they had, or would, allow pipelines to be built in the latter province, their current propane shortage, caused by the ongoing CN Rail strike, would not be a...