BILL 64 is dead. There is little doubt that many Manitobans were delighted when interim Premier Kelvin Goertzen tolled its death knell. Instead of dancing around the bill’s funeral pyre, government members need to seriously review the Manness/MacKinnon commission...
Was there a cultural genocide in Canada as claimed in the Truth and Reconciliation Report? Mass graves at residential schools? An interview with Professor Rodney Clifton, co-editor of “From Truth Comes Reconciliation: Assessing the Truth and Reconciliation...
Over the last six weeks or so, popular newspapers in Canada and around the world have been filled with reports and commentaries on the discovery of 215 graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School and an increasing number of graves at other...
Country singer Kenny Chesney’s lyric “Everybody want to go heaven, but nobody want to go now” is perhaps an apt metaphor for the current debate over Bill 64, the Education Modernization Act. Everybody knows that Manitoba students underperform academically, but when...
Those of you who are tired of my rants about the demise of our once great health system will be pleased to know that this is my last editorial. I am retiring from the BCMJ Editorial Board; currently, I am the longest-serving member (more than 20 years). I have been a...
Back in the lofty, pre-Justin Trudeau government days of 2014, back when oil was booming, pipelines were planned to east and west coasts, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were swimming in money, around $81 billion was spent in capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the Canadian...
A new study published by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy shows that per-pupil education costs are soaring in Manitoba. Taxpayers shoulder an ever-increasing burden, but there is little evidence that higher spending results in better educational outcomes. ...
By now high school graduates have had their graduation celebrations, started their summer jobs, and many are getting ready for university. Some plan to attend research-oriented universities, such as the University of Manitoba, while others plan to attend...
A new Frontier Centre study supported the NDP Minister of Education’s decision to shut down the Council on Post-Secondary Education. The NDP Minister of Education, James Allum, planned to fold the Council on Post Secondary Education into the Department of...
Accountability, measured by results rather than inputs, is fast becoming a reality in Canadian universities, but administrators still claim they need more resources and fewer constraints on their spending. Over a seven-year period from 2001 to 2008, the resources for...
University of Manitoba president David Bernard got off without serious battle wounds when Education Minister James Allum rejected his proposal to increase the graduate student fees by more than 300 per cent. He was fortunate, because the University of Saskatchewan...
Executive Summary • Professor William Baumol coined the term “the cost disease” to indicate that the cost of consumer products has increased at the rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), while the cost of education and health care have increased at an exponential...
Education costs are skyrocketing across the north, and there is little evidence that the increased spending has produced better outcomes for students. Policy reforms are needed to bring more consumer choice and competition into education. William Baumol,...
Taxpayers have good reasons to be concerned about the skyrocketing costs of education. Recently, William Baumol, professor emeritus of economics at Princeton University, used the term “cost disease“ to describe the exponential increase in the cost of social services—a...
Taxpayers have good reasons to be concerned about the skyrocketing costs of education. Recently, William Baumol, professor emeritus of economics at Princeton University, used the term “cost disease“ to describe the exponential increase in the cost of social services—a...