• A recent University of Toronto paper by Jeff Allen and Steven Farber examines work access as measured in travel time to get to work. The “30-minute job access” is a rounded-up average in all heavily populated regions in Canada. • The 2021 census revealed that...
The latest urban planning fad to sweep across Canada is the 15-minute city, which proposes to redesign cities so that all urban residents live within an easy, 15-minute walk of schools, retailers, restaurants, entertainment, and other essentials of modern life. This...
Big Topics & Big Ideas
Canada’s first subway line, which opened in Toronto in 1954, was 7.4 kilometers long and cost $6.8 million per kilometer—$76 million per kilometer in today’s money. That seems a bargain compared to a subway line Toronto is now constructing at a projected cost of well...
For the past 14 years, Vancouver surgeon Dr. Brian Day has led the charge for health-care reform, pushing for the right of patients to pay for private care if their health and well-being are threatened as a result of waiting in a stagnant and overburdened public...
The path to net zero, based on the much disputed belief that carbon dioxide is a pollution, is more steep and impractical than most people realize. Replacing fossil fuels with clean electricity will require much more power generation and a greatly upgraded grid to...
The rise of remote and hybrid work has brought about a significant shift in how people access employment opportunities, reducing the need for physical commuting. This article examines the latest data for major metropolitan areas in the United States (with over one...
There’s a disturbance in the force of global shipping, as if a major transit point started slipping away. There’s a very serious problem occurring a few thousand miles to the south of us, one that Canada could have taken tremendous advantage of, if only we had built...
Manitoba has a chance to prove it’s not the weakest link in an agreement struck between it and the other Prairie provinces to explore the possibility of building a deep-water harbour at Port Nelson on the Hudson Bay. Manitoba must do its part to not mess this...
The debate continues about the Route 90 expansion (Kenaston Boulevard) and whether it is a good investment for Winnipeg. Some arguments have been tabled to the extent that there is no use in expanding highways, or that transit would be better, or that nothing should...
This article entitled People in Toronto won't stop working from home and it's impacting the city paints a relatively negative picture about downtown prospects - noting that Toronto office vacancy rates have just hit their highest level since 1995. Looks like the...
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...
Canada’s federal travel mandates are so oppressive, even apolitical international agencies have stepped up to condemn them. The International Air Transport Association has added its voice to the Official Opposition, citizens, airline staff fired for their vaccination...
A question investment managers and individual investors often (or should) ask themselves: “If I didn’t already own this stock, would I buy it today?” By any criteria, Via Rail, a Crown corporation owned by the federal government, is not a good investment - even under...
Other than Covid 19, inflation, the collapse of Hong Kong as a free society, and a continuing bull stock market, the last two years has also been a time of space “development. We have also seen two companies offer space tourism, the development of the largest rocket...