The two economists — Michael Smart of the University of Toronto and Jack Mintz, head of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary — say the way Canadian governments collect sales taxes is among the most inefficient in the advanced world.
Worth A Look
Toronto Bubble Risk Topping New York in Condos
Canada’s housing market is about 10 percent overvalued, with inflated prices primarily in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, King said in a telephone interview. “We would call it a bubble,” she said.
A Flawed Formula: In allotting equalization, no thought is given to how much it actually costs to provide basic public services
Ottawa’s equalization scheme, under which the federal government gives money to “havenot” provinces so that they can provide roughly comparable levels of public services as found in “have” provinces at roughly comparable levels of taxation, is a little more than 50 years old.
Un-Crown Them: Privatizing Crown corporations has been a successful, and lucrative, strategy. Yet many remain in state hands
The last decade has been a relatively quiet period in terms of privatization at both the federal and provincial levels. There are a number of reasons for this privatization hiatus. Certainly a major contributing factor, at least at the federal level, is that the low-hanging fruit has already been privatized.
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...
EI Favours East Coast, Study Finds: Ontario, West ‘left to fend for
“The situation for Canada as a whole wasn’t much better. Only 46% of unemployed Canadians received EI benefits during the recession of 2008-09, compared with 71% and 76% in the recessions of 1981-82 and 1990-91, the study found.”
A Disguised Welfare Scheme: EI isn’t an insurance program. It’s an interregional transfer of wealth
“That means EI isn’t an insurance program, despite its name. It is both a tax on employment and an inter-regional transfer of wealth. If it were truly an insurance program, premiums would be charged according to the likelihood a worker would make a claim.”
Taxi Industry Reports Tired and One Sided: Ignores past seventeen years of evidence.
The people of Regina and Saskatoon have been sold short by taxi industry studies that don’t look at all the available evidence, in fact ignoring all evidence published since 1993.
Global Trade: Should Saskatchewan be an Australia or a Tasmania?: The breadth of human collaboration has defined prosperity for eons.
Open trade drives prosperity by allowing specialised labour and the exchange of new ideas, a forward looking Premier should not be saying things like “he doesn’t understand how we could benefit” from foreign investment such as BHP Billiton’s investment in PotashCorp. Through the long lens of human history the answer is obvious.
Two Lies Make A Truth
“In the world of green and liberal politics, where they practice extreme environmentalism, nothing bears examination: two lies make a truth. We now learn that Bjorn Lomborg, who was never a climate skeptic, has magically disavowed that status. As the entire mockery of human induced global warming collapses, it is a convenient conversion.”
Fake Competition: Forcing telecoms to share their networks with small ISPs
“Imagine if you were the owner of the only fully equipped garage outlet in a small town and some government regulatory agency ordered you to rent your premises a few hours a day, at a predetermined tariff, to other local mechanics. A decision by the CRTC will force telecoms to give ISPs acccess to their network at the same speeds they offer their own customers.”
Natives Fear Ottawa Aiming To Convert Reserves To Private Land Ownership: Federal study of successful reserves with rent-paying businesses prompts some bands to raise alarm over resource rights
“Ottawa has quietly ordered a study of Canada’s most economically successful first nations, raising the prospect of a new approach to developing businesses on reserves while sparking fear among some native leaders that their rights to land and resources are at risk.”
Welcome Return Of The Prodigal True Liberal
“Fraser wants the Liberal Party to return to “liberal values”. But what are they? Has any ideological label been more contested, coveted and contorted than the term liberal?
First Nation Fraud Case Encouraging
A case involving fraudulent use of treaty land entitlement money on one Saskatchewan First Nation shows there is plenty of work to do in ensuring governance and better democracy for Native communities.