New Zealand may be kicking off a fiscal trend: boldly downsizing its public-sector payrolls to trim unwieldy government deficits. Its new coalition government, elected last October, is moving to eliminate 15,000 civil service jobs. David Seymour, ACT Party leader,...
An ocean of distance separates Flanders Fields from Ottawa. By now, we are separated just as much from the sentiments of the poem with the same name. In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, ………..If ye break faith with us who die We shall...
Big Topics & Big Ideas
In the 1980’s, the world was infatuated with Japan. Its economy was on fire and was projected to overtake the USA as the world’s number one economy by the year 2000. That came to a grinding halt in the 1990’s as the Japanese stock market collapsed and economic...
The indictment of former U.S. president Donald Trump for crimes invented by his political opponents is the most egregious example yet seen of the weaponizing of the law. The United States is now full of examples. However, in Canada, we also see the law being...
OTTAWA, REGINA - Last week, two things happened that could have profound impacts on natural resources development in Saskatchewan. One is a hint the federal government might want to take control of natural resources away from the provinces, and the other is the...
The Conservative leadership campaign caused consternation by calling for the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem, be fired - creating outrage in the political and media commentariat. Yet, at a time when all sorts of institutions are being called into...
Executive Summary The various federal political parties are all promoting the policy agendas they believe will foster a sustainably high quality of life for all Canadians. It remains to be seen whether they will attain the success that they aim to achieve. In some...
The new Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is correct when he says governments discourage work by taxes and clawbacks. The Marginal Effective Tax Rate (METR) measures what government takes from each new dollar earned in taxes and in clawbacks of income-related...
Anyone who thinks of the word Alberta will likely say, oh, yes, that’s an area in the western part of Canada —a Province of Canada. I think that is how it is known now. Constitutionally it is a Province of Canada. There are no other Constitutions of this nature to...
Why work for yourself when taxpayers can pay you instead? In the past seven years, more Manitobans than ever have chosen the job security and benefits of federal employment, while the self-employed have begun to vanish. Statistics Canada snapshots show the most...
Because the Federal Government and the Provincial Governments of Canada have allowed the Constitution‘s separation of powers outlined in Section 92 of the BNA Act to be blurred —disfigured. Section 92(7) outlines exclusive jurisdiction over health to be provincial....
Saskatchewan is the beneficiary of elevated pricing and improved long term prospects for nearly all of the many commodities it produces: grain, oilseeds, oil, gas, potash, uranium, and even gold, copper and forestry products. While this very good news for both its...
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...
Section 125 of the Constitution Act, 1867, states: “No Lands or Property belonging to Canada or any Province shall be liable to Taxation.”1 This constitutional protection is at the center of many long standing arguments between the federal government and...