An occasional topic at Frontier is equalization, a very time worn federal transfer program that flows vast sums of money, no-strings-attached, to the so-called "have-not" provinces. While certainly well-intended, several think tanks have documented the program's...
Equalization
Manitoba Government Spending Rising Rapidly
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Manning Networking Conference 2013
Last month the Frontier Centre attended the annual Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa As well as getting to listen to some great speakers and panels during the conference sessions, we also had a booth of our own out in the foyer. It was a great opportunity to...
Ontario Can No Longer Take One for the Team
Thirty-five years ago, Ontario premier Bill Davis explained his province’s oversized responsibility for Canadian harmony in a lecture to a group of American college students. Ontario “is sufficiently significant in its economic and political influence that in terms comparable to the United States it would be like combining the states of New York and California,” he said. “Ontarians contribute to our national program of equalization, are blamed for whatever goes wrong and are generally expected to set high standards of national conduct.”
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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...
Manitoba in ‘Cycle of Dependency’: ‘Easy street system’ will be reformed
While many support the principles of federal equalization, they do not realize the distortions it causes, including bloated public sectors and a perverse incentive to raise taxes.
Government Debt and Public Debt
How much debt has and will the Manitoba Government take on?
Ontario’s Have-Not Economics
With a provincial election coming in October, and Dalton McGuinty’s governing Liberals down in the polls, it’s easy to understand why the Premier and his Finance Minister, Dwight Duncan, would want to get in front of the media as often as possible to defend their record. Unfortunately, their message has been fractured on one key issue.
Revitalizing Manitoba:: From Supplicant Society to Diversity and Dynamism
“I call this whole series an intellectual exploration…my continuing attempt to make sure I never find work in this province. I laugh, I’m smiling, but it’s not that funny. So let me just go back briefly to the diagnosis from three years ago. The idea of Manitoba as a supplicant society. I’ll explain more what that’s about, and put that whole criticism in this larger philosophical context, and then get to the very concrete suggestions that I have attempted to make for revitalizing our society.”
Will Selinger Ever Turn Off the Spigot?
Day by day over the past two months I became more and more angry and frustrated as I watched Premier Greg Selinger buy the votes of Manitobans with their own tax dollars. He has made announcement after announcement totalling millions of dollars the government doesn’t have and probably never will have.
New Regional Policies are Urgently Needed
In the 1960’s Canada’s regions were doing well. A fast forward fifty years shows that most regions have fallen short of the promise of fifty years ago.
Glad I got Married
Single men suffer from a higher rate of poverty than women in Canada
Much more than the Parti Quebecois falling apart in Quebec
Crucial infrastructure around the Montreal era is falling apart, and urgent repairs promise a difficult summer for motorists in that city.
A Legacy Project for the New Parliament: An opportunity to restore the federation
The new federal parliament has a golden opportunity in its hands to provide meaningful and badly needed fiscal reform to the country. Such reforms could lead to economic renewal, increase productivity, lessen inter-governmental tensions, and strengthen the federation.