Peter Holle January 30, 2017 In November, CBC proposed to withdraw from advertising in exchange for increased government funding. This is a significant move for the corporation because the broadcast-television advertising market, once lucrative, is fragmenting as...
Crown Corporations
A New Model for Funding Public Transit: Embracing the User-Pays Principle
Public transportation is an important contributor to urban mobility, particularly in Canada’s largest metropolitan areas. Despite the fact that most residents view public transportation as a necessity, there is a tendency to think of it as more of a social welfare...
Speed or Greed: Does Automated Traffic Enforcement Improve Safety or Generate Revenue
Better engineered cars along with the adoption of seat belts and other road safety measures and legislation have contributed to a 58% decline in road fatalities in Canada between 1970 and 2009. The fatality rate is now so low that almost twice as many Canadians die...
The Future of Public Transportation Has Arrived – and It’s in Cleveland
Support for public transportation has grown significantly over the past decade in North America. Major transit expansions were key issues in the recent Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg elections, and ambitious plans were green lighted by voters in each of those...
Featured News
Process, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Accountability and Transparency Inspectorate, ‘PEEATI’
A litany of disastrous decisions have sometimes cost lives and definitely many billions of dollars. Effectively cancelling the Global Public Health Intelligence Network; the failure to implement the pandemic preparedness protocols developed by Ottawa’s public health...
Foreign Influence in Canadian Economy?
Foreign influence or interference has become a mediatic topic. The fear and suspicion of interference in the elections and democratic process have been in news headlines. For the western countries, the suspicion bears on Russia and China. Revisionist powers have a...
The Road Out of Poverty
New Frontier Centre study recommends provinces drop restrictions on automobile ownership for Canadians on income assistance.
Ending Saskatchewan’s Prohibition-Era Approach to Liquor Stores
This report analyzes the state of Saskatchewan’s approach to alcohol sales at the retail and wholesale level. It finds that alcohol sold at private outlets is not more expensive, doesn’t result in higher consumption and that public monopolies do not prevent alcohol-related crime or social harm. In fact, a province such as Saskatchewan with much government retailing and the lowest overall sales and consumption rates in the country has the highest, second-highest or third-highest rates of alcohol-related harm with respect to friendships, marriage, work, studies, employment, finances, legal problems and physical violence.
Media Release – Ending Saskatchewan’s Prohibition Approach to Alcohol Sales
A closer examination of the empirical data and statistics shows that most of the claims made in favour of government monopoly, particularly those made by the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union, are exaggerated, misleading, lack sufficient data, or are simply incorrect.
Traffic Congestion, Time, Money & Productivity
Congestion Costs: This is why such serious attention is paid to the Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) Annual Mobility Report, which estimates the costs of traffic congestion, principally the value of lost time as well as excess fuel costs. The fundamental premise, long a principle of transportation planning and policy, holds that more time spent traveling costs money, to employers, employees and shippers.
Media Release: Municipalities are Failing to Adequately Disclose Taxi Regulation to the Public
Municipalities responsible for taxi regulation should publish regular (perhaps quarterly or annual) reports of key facts relating to the economic implications of taxi regulation. Licences are not the property of licencees but rather a privilege that is granted by government on behalf of the public. In turn, the public has a right to be informed about the use of these licences.
Who Owns Taxi Licences?
Taxi regulation is almost unique in Canada because it controls the price and quantity supplied to market, rather than just the quality or safety. This approach creates a number of primary and secondary economic effects that are difficult for voters to understand. Because governments should act with the informed consent of their people, the onus should be on municipalities to report the effects of their regulatory activities on taxis and consumers. But most city websites show that such disclosure is abysmal and often absent.
Privatize City Hall
“Toronto’s municipal strike is over. Some 30,000 garbage and other workers are back on the job. That’s at least 15,000 too many. If the strike has taught Torontonians anything, it’s that the city does precious little for its residents.”
High-speed Rail in Canada: Decade of Debate Chugs On
“A new debate is emerging among Canadians about whether high-speed passenger trains are the answer to rising oil prices, traffic congestion, airport delays and environmental concerns.”
A High-speed Train Collision with Fiscal Sense
Megaprojects around the world are subject to predictable cost overruns. In Canada, think of Montreal’s very expensive Olympic Stadium, BC’s 1990s-era fast ferry boondoggle, or the Vancouver Convention Centre and the 2010 Winter Olympic games.