That is for Manitobans to decide—are we content to remain a supplicant society, or are we determined to become a more vibrant one, with a new dynamism, pluralism and vitality?
Equalization
Manitoba, The Supplicant Society
Special monograph of the entire 8-part series on a variety of topics affecting Manitoba competitiveness, well-being and prosperity by Law Professor Bryan Schwartz.
Redact All You Want, We’ve Gone Overboard on Equalization
What exactly does the government have to fear from a study of equalization payments? We don’t know. But according to a February report published by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (“Dollars & Sense: A Case for Modernizing Canada’s Transfer Agreements”), the government has much to fear – most importantly the revelation that Canada’s equalization program now distributes billions of dollars a year to provinces that least need the help.
Equalization not Entrenched in Constitution
Even though more of the media now concedes that the system is quite broken some still repeat the popular myth that equalization is permanently set in concrete because “it is entrenched in the Canadian constitution.” Thankfully this is not true.
Featured News
‘Side Issues’ Result in Much Higher Costs to Our Health and Social Systems
As we enter the year 2022, most Canadians will have lived their entire lives under the shibboleth that says we have the best health-care system in the world. Our beloved medicare is universal in scope, free of charge and offers equal access to all. What country could...
Touted Climate Emergency for Calgary is Deceitful and Undemocratic
Calgary has sworn in its first female mayor. A week earlier, less than 24 hours after winning the mayoral race, she gave her first post-election talk-radio interview to Ryan Jespersen, mostly involving a series of softball questions. He asked her the obligatory woke...
Michael Bennaroch, Professor and Chair of Economics, University of Winnipeg
Are Manitoba Hydro’s prices too low? A perspective from the head of the University of Winnipeg’s economics department.
Deconstitutionalizing Equalization
Equalization reform is possible despite its symbolic mention in our constitution.
The Tasmanian Devil is in Equalization’s Details
Australia’s equalization system allows Tasmania to install regulatory and tax regimes hostile to investment and growth.
Sweden’s Equalization Milk Cow
Sweden’s complex equalization system encourages less successful areas to compound their relative disadvantage in order to maximize payments. They tend to impose higher tax levels, employ more citizens in the public sector and resist reforms in service delivery that have proven successful in the Stockholm area.
In Flanders’ Fields the Transfers Grow
Equalization policies now intensify calls for separatism in Belgium.
Fixing Manitoba’s Balanced Budget Law PowerPoint Slides
Manitoba’s Auditor General Jon Singleton’s powerpoint presentation to Frontier Centre Breakfast on the Frontier March 11, 2004
Equalization and the Flypaper Effect (FC015)
SUMMARY: Under the present formula for equalization, Manitoba has received over three times Saskatchewan’s entitlement over the program’s lifetime. The extra money has allowed more spending in Manitoba and a proportionately larger public sector. OBSERVATIONS: Due to...
Transformational Equalization
A 3 part series on making equalization a transformational policy..
Gordon Tullock, Co-Founder, School of Public Choice Economics
Frontier interviews Professor Gordon Tullock, one of the world’s greatest living economists