Though many claim that governments can reduce poverty by raising welfare rates and making benefits easier to get, the only real poverty reduction in half a century of welfare policy has come about by raising employment rates, not welfare rates.
Poverty
Taming Two Dragons: Income Support Reform that Makes Sense
This policy paper examines the means and policies by which Canada could help people on welfare without trapping them in a cycle of poverty.
Media Release – Income Support Reform that Makes Sense: Poverty, Welfare, and the Future of Income Support
Based on a structural and historical analysis of Canada’s welfare system, this policy paper argues that welfare has helped create and maintain a chronically workless underclass that persists regardless of economic or labour market conditions instead of helping welfare recipients.
Family Reunification
Recently I wrote an Op-Ed in the National Post where I argued that the family re-unification program has a number of benefits that are difficult to quantify. Critics of the immigration status quo often claim that there is a "net fiscal transfer" from native born...
Featured News
The Man who Saved the Plains Indians
At the time of Confederation, Canada’s Plains Indians were in a desperate situation. The same European-introduced guns and horses that resulted in a briefly glorious golden age for them had also resulted in constant inter-tribal warfare and the rapid disappearance of...
Renewed Talk of Abolishing the Indian Act
Political attacks on the Indian Act are back in the news, and that is a good thing. However, Canadian politicians, including First Nation politicians, need a credible plan about what to do before we pull out the champagne. Attacking the Indian Act is not a big deal...
Tearing Apart the British Welfare State: Tories Impose Jobs on the ‘Workshy’
“In a huge and risky experiment sure to be watched closely by other countries wrestling with public debt, government budget deficits and shrinking work forces, Prime Minister David Cameron’s government Thursday announced sweeping plans to change the lives of 5 million people dependent on government payments in an effort to push hundreds of thousands of people into the work force.”
Food Banks And Poverty – Two Different Issues: Statistics fail to bear out the claim that rising food bank use predicts rising poverty.
The rise in the use of food banks doesn’t necessarily mean poverty is rising, as many commentators have claimed. Paradoxically, it this rise has occurred while official poverty rates have been falling. This doesn’t mean food banks are a bad thing, simply that they do not necessarily indicate increases in poverty.
Why Food Bank Use is Increasing, Despite a Reduction in Poverty
Many people believe that food banks are a necessary evil, a community response to the failure of governments to address increasing poverty, and even a yellow canary for our society. The evidence, however, does not support the notion that food bank use and poverty rates are closely linked.
‘Poverty’ Calls For Precision
“Any program or initiative must have a clearly defined problem it intends to solve. Anything less risks squandering scarce resources, including those of people’s time, interests and energy.”
Minimum Wage Hikes Miss The Target and Cause Collateral Damage: High minimum wages are a bad strategy for fighting poverty
Minimum wage increases are a flawed strategy for fighting poverty because they do not accurately target needy families, and because they contribute to higher unemployment.
Poverty: The Real Challenge is Understanding Where We’re At: Canada’s success at beating poverty means the poverty debate has morphed into an income inequality debate.
Canada has been so successful at beating poverty the real danger is forgetting what it is treating inequality as if it were poverty.
Media Release – Myths about Childcare Subsidies: The Frontier Centre looks at daycare facts
Is day care an unalloyed good? A new paper by Frontier’s Ben Eisen looks at the research literature and finds the benefits of daycare to be ambiguous, and that a universal childcare system is likely an overly expensive and inefficient policy option.
The Opportunity Cost of Copenhagen: Money for malnourished kids or for another Kyoto
A new climate change treaty at Copenhagen would likely cost trillions of dollars. The opportunity costs associated with such a course are thus enormous.
Media Release – Christmas Comes Early for Winnipeg Taxi License Owners: Values rise at a trend average of $44/day for the last decade.
When taxi shield holders ask for taxi fares to be raised, decision makers should consider the immense values already capitalised into market value of the licences, now approaching $400,000 in Winnipeg.