Sep 22 2020 — IRPP — Despite federal, provincial, and territorial governments devoting a lot of effort on plans to reduce poverty in recent years, too many Canadians continue to struggle to meet their basic daily needs on incomes that fall far below the poverty line. And, among all household groups, single persons without dependants are most likely to find themselves […]
Sep 22 2020 — Marc Lee — Policynote.ca — Public policy in Canada remains haunted by large deficits that prevailed in the 1980s and early 1990s. With COVID-19 economic response pushing the federal deficit to an estimated $343 billion in 2020/21, some pundits are starting to beat the deficit hysteria drum again. Don’t let big numbers scare you. Here’s why we shouldn’t be worried. […]
Sep 18 2020 — Elmira Aliakbari and Jason Clemens — Fraser Institute — Gerry Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Trudeau, is at the heart of a new group, the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery, which recently released a series of recommendations for massive investment in green projects. These recommendations seems to be influencing the prime minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, in terms of how […]
Sep 17 2020 — Public Policy Forum — New digital frontiers have renewed old problems: conspiracy theories, hate speech and disinformation. This conversation with Peter MacLeod, founder of public engagement firm MASS LBP, and Amira Elghawaby, journalist and human rights advocate, gives us insights on the health of our democracy and explores innovative approaches to civil dialogue in a social media age – […]
Sep 15 2020 — Public Policy Forum — Canada must come to grips not just with a massive fiscal shortfall but also consecutive deficits in our current account, a broad measure of our trading and investment relationship with the rest of the world. A government plan must be growth oriented if we are to get the twin deficits under control without resorting to […]
Sep 11 2020 — Public Policy Forum — Denise Amyot, CEO of Colleges and Institutes Canada, and Paul Davidson, President of Universities Canada, saw the move online of 1.4 million learners in the 10 days after the pandemic struck. Now those students are going back to school in new ways – ways we didn’t expect to be the norm for 10 years. Join […]
Sep 10 2020 — Fred McMahon — Fraser Institute — Two troubling questions lurk behind the results of the Fraser Institute’s 2020 Economic Freedom of the World report, released Sept. 10. This year’s report is based on 2018 data (the most recent available). By 2018, global economic freedom had recovered from the 2008 financial crisis and was at its highest level ever, albeit by just […]
Sep 3 2020 — Public Policy Forum — Optimistic that we will have a COVID-19 vaccine soon, Dr. Alan Bernstein joins former health minister Anne McLellan and host Edward Greenspon for a cautious discussion about the four-way deal Canada just signed to manufacture a vaccine, public trust in a vaccine, and the political tensions that might affect getting a vaccine to those most […]
Sep 2 2020 — Alex Whalen and Ben Eisen — Fraser Institute — Earlier this summer, the four Atlantic provinces formed the “Atlantic Bubble” as the region works toward freer movement of people amid the COVID crisis. And clearly, the pandemic’s effect on the economy underscores the value of free movement of people and goods, which—on the bright side—presents some opportunity. For example, as the Atlantic provinces cooperate […]
Aug 21 2020 — Policy Options — Despite the headlines about high deficits because of the cost of COVID-19 programs, governments must avoid the knee-jerk reaction of drastically cutting spending right now. While deficits can be problematic if left unchecked and persistent for too long, history and context matter a great deal. Canada is among the wealthiest countries in the world — […]
Aug 21 2020 — Pierre Lemieux and William F. Shughart II — Fraser Institute — Proof that anything will have absolutely no harmful consequences is—well, impossible. But it’s pretty much the touchstone that government agencies in the European Union and the United States use to regulate chemical compounds—including medicines. It’s as if everything were forbidden unless explicitly permitted. The result? A life-threatening stifling of innovation. And that was true before […]
Aug 18 2020 — Macdonald-Laurier Institute — The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on the foreign-interference tactics of Russia and China. Since the beginning, both actively promoted disinformation and conspiracies about COVID-19’s origin and engaged in “mask diplomacy” to boost a favourable international profile. There are allegations of Russian and Chinese hackers targeting organizations developing a COVID-19 vaccine. While Russia has […]
Aug 7 2020 — Kristina M.L. Acri — Fraser Institute — First, the good news. Symvivo Corporation, a Canadian company, currently has a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate in phase one trials. But the bad news is that the Trudeau government is dismantling the incentives to find a vaccine. In the battle against the global pandemic, public- and private-sector actors both have essential roles to play. Governments are […]
Jul 30 2020 — Alex Whalen and Tegan Hill — Fraser Institute — Due largely to COVID-19, the big banks project negative growth for Nova Scotia’s economy in 2020, ranging from –5.5 per cent to –7.4 per cent. Without a strong rebound, such a steep recession could have a lasting impact on living standards in the province and Maritime region more broadly, which are already well below the […]
Jul 28 2020 — Macdonald-Laurier Institute — Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for giving me this opportunity to address you today on the shocking persecution of the Uyghur minority in China. I come to this from a slightly different angle than other people on the panel and other people who’ve testified. Some of you may know me. For many years, […]