Alberta’s premier has, one hopes, learned the hard way. Margaret Thatcher famously said “There is no such thing as society.” Today she might have added the corollary that “There is no such thing as social licence.” There is such a thing...
Municipal Government
The need for productive infrastructure
Cities around the country are seeking to improve urban transportation infrastructure. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is committed to spending money on the “right things,” to create jobs and improve the economy. Yet, the productivity of infrastructure...
Unite the Right
By-elections can be important for many reasons. Tuesday’s provincial by-election in Calgary-Greenway was significant because of its impact on the rivalry between the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Party. It was a close call, but the PCs managed to...
Why Calgary needs its fluoride
In 2011, Calgary council voted 10-3 to discontinue fluoridation of the city’s water, which had begun 20 years earlier pursuant to a referendum. Now the consequences are becoming visible. A study by Alberta medical researchers shows that the incidence of cavities...
Featured News
The Man who Saved the Plains Indians
At the time of Confederation, Canada’s Plains Indians were in a desperate situation. The same European-introduced guns and horses that resulted in a briefly glorious golden age for them had also resulted in constant inter-tribal warfare and the rapid disappearance of...
Renewed Talk of Abolishing the Indian Act
Political attacks on the Indian Act are back in the news, and that is a good thing. However, Canadian politicians, including First Nation politicians, need a credible plan about what to do before we pull out the champagne. Attacking the Indian Act is not a big deal...
Poverty and Growth: Retro-Urbanists Cling to the Myth of Suburban Decline: Suburbs have more poor people mainly because they have more people, write Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox.
In the wake of the post-2008 housing bust, suburbia has become associated with many of the same ills long associated with cities, as our urban-based press corps and cultural elite cheerfully sneer at each new sign of decline, most recently a study released Monday by the Brookings Institution—which has become something of a Vatican for anti-suburban theology—trumpeting the news that there are now 1 million more poor people in America’s suburbs than in its cities.
Muzzling Those in the Know
Despite constant indications and reminders that a province with an state-directed economy, one over-burdened by out-of-control government expenditures, is not likely to be a stellar economic performer, the provincial government continued its quest to extend its hegemony.
Toronto’s Successful Garbage Privatization
When Toronto privatized garbage collection west of Yonge street last year, ideologues on the left panicked. They argued that it would lead to worse service, pointing to initial collection delays when private collection began. A local union even created a complaint line. As I argued in a National Post article on the subject, this highlights all that is right with contracting out services: it’s much easier to hold private companies accountable than government.
Naming – ‘bread and circuses’
Unfortunately, the main ‘plebiscite’, on the continuation of the government, is still some time off. In the interim, and unfortunately, despite evident economic woes, the government chooses ‘bread and circuses’ – and calls a vote on trees and fish.
Deceiving Oneself to the Cost of Others
The budget, implemented, will make a heavily indebted and high-taxed Manitoba even less competitive with other jurisdictions than it already is, resulting in less investment in the Province and more ‘movements out’ of the young, the skilled, the professionals and the wealthy.
Mayor Katz highlights the biggest problem with Manitoba’s PST increase
The PST hike was ostensibly meant to fund infrastructure. Yet, as Sam Katz pointed out, it will actually reduce the ability of the City of Winnipeg to meet its own infrastructure obligations. Katz argues that while Winnipeg residents pay 61 percent of PST revenue, they’ll only receive $7 million of the $277 million from the PST increase.
A Taste of Reality for Alberta’s Public Sector
There are more than a few politicians in Canada delighting in what’s happening in Alberta these days. For years, provincial leaders have been driven mad by the often obscene deals that Alberta has struck with its public-sector employees, making everyone from doctors to teachers the best paid in the country. Not surprisingly, those same professions in other provinces have used these wage benchmarks as targets of their own during contract negotiations.
Saskatchewan Budget 2013
Well, the Saskatchewan Budget was released today and it was pretty boring, to be honest.
Saskatchewan Budget Tomorrow
All eyes will be on Saskatchewan tomorrow when the provincial government releases its annual budget.