REGINA – What’s good for the Atlantic goose is good for the Saskatchewan gander, when it comes to carbon tax for home heating. And if they’re not paying the carbon tax, neither will we. That’s the strategy Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is taking when it comes to...
Taxation
Canada’s Lost Decade
In the 1980’s, the world was infatuated with Japan. Its economy was on fire and was projected to overtake the USA as the world’s number one economy by the year 2000. That came to a grinding halt in the 1990’s as the Japanese stock market collapsed and economic...
Manitoba PCs Deserve Another Mandate
I have good news for commentators who say Manitobans will be sick, stupid, and broke if this tax-cutting PC government is re-elected: they’re wrong. The unadjusted StatsCan numbers for August 2023 prove it. As a total percentage of wages and salaries, Manitoba pays...
Replacing Gas Tax in a Mandated EV World
All levels of government in Canada collect around $20 billion in taxes on gasoline and diesel sales per year. The present government in Ottawa hopes to ban the sale of internal combustion vehicles by 2035. There are many practical reasons this will not happen but...
Featured News
Weaponizing the Law
The indictment of former U.S. president Donald Trump for crimes invented by his political opponents is the most egregious example yet seen of the weaponizing of the law. The United States is now full of examples. However, in Canada, we also see the law being...
“Looking At” Seizing Control Over Western Canada’s Natural Resources
OTTAWA, REGINA - Last week, two things happened that could have profound impacts on natural resources development in Saskatchewan. One is a hint the federal government might want to take control of natural resources away from the provinces, and the other is the...
Lessening Saskatchewan’s Reliance on Commodity Bonanzas
Saskatchewan is the beneficiary of elevated pricing and improved long term prospects for nearly all of the many commodities it produces: grain, oilseeds, oil, gas, potash, uranium, and even gold, copper and forestry products. While this very good news for both its...
Weakness of Euro, Pound, Yen, Loonie Are Ominous Signs
Too much could be read into the recent sagging value of the Euro, British pound, Japan’s yen and Canada’s loonie against America’s dollar. Relative interest rates, trade deficits, and government deficits and trends have major influences. In the longer term, all...
2021 Provincial Tax Rates
Gerard A. Lucyshyn is Vice President of Research and a senior research fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
2020 Provincial Tax Rates
Recently a long died and largely unlamented tax has been rediscovered with some new-ish fans who never really repudiated their great love for it. It is the Death Tax, or Estate Tax, which was abolished in Canada in 1971 by a Liberal government when a capital gains tax...
CRTC Wants to Tax Internet Users to Subsidize Content Creators
Sometime in the not too distant future, everyone who subscribes to the Internet should have to pay more to ensure more secure jobs and incomes for Canadian content creators whose lives have been disrupted by the Internet. That’s the pitch being made by Canada’s...
Fighting Poverty With Innovation and Capitalism
Yale University economist William Nordhaus was one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in economics this year for his work on analyzing the long-term economic impacts of climate change and climate policies. Quite appropriately, most media headlines focussed on...
Are you optimistic about new tax revenue from the marijuana industry? For years, marijuana advocates have been telling us that if we legalize and tax cannabis products, floods of new revenue will flow into government coffers and the budget will balance itself....
How “Legalization” Cost Canadian Taxpayers
You might wonder how legislators could possibly lose money by legalizing and taxing an addictive substance. Behold, Canadian officials have outdone themselves with the rollout of recreational cannabis. Both provinces and municipalities, many already in financial dire...