The Trudeau government is raiding our Covid-19 starved pockets to send $36 from each of us to rich dairy farmers
Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau chose a Saturday, hours before a long-awaited federal economic update, to offer more non-COVID-19-related compensation to Canada’s supply-managed farmers. Eighty-one per cent of dairy farmers are located in Quebec and Ontario. Compensation was expected but how it was done was a little strange. Few in the industry knew what…
The Quebec system offers an opportunity to dive deeply into outcomes. The results aren’t promising for children
Advocates of state-run child care saw opportunity in the COVID-19 crisis. It’s an old idea but not a great one. Working parents returned home to care for their children, some able to continue paid work from home and others not. As a result, calls for universal child care grew louder than they had for 15…
Given that infections don’t by a long shot equal hospitalizations, civil libertarians are rightly sounding warning bells
On Sept. 18, Israel became the first developed country to launch a second COVID-19 lockdown. It came four months after the first lockdown – instituted in March – ended. How Israeli citizens have reacted to the unsustainable nature of renewed lockdowns is instructive for the Canadian jurisdictions that have increased a rhetoric of fear about…
Governments tend to forget about consumers when managing supply. Open trade to more cheese and challenge our farmers
Cheese heads – it’s what Canadians are called in many of the United States border regions. It’s because when many Canadians visit their American neighbours, they head straight to the nearest supermarket and buy cheese – and milk and eggs. Dairy and eggs are much more expensive in Canada than in the U.S., even when…
Plan requiring projects to describe how they will achieve net-zero emissions may not even be feasible
By Alex Whalen and Elmira Aliakbari The Fraser Institute Newfoundland and Labrador’s energy sector, already struggling from the downturn in world oil markets and the COVID-19 recession, has taken another blow – this time directly from the federal government. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently imposed new rules – known as the…
The economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic should include Nova Scotia and New Brunswick lifting restrictions on natural gas fracking. Natural gas prices are low but that won’t last forever. Energy industry observers say the natural gas supply glut existed even well before the pandemic. However, the oversupply problems seem to be worse for American…
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre When forecasting future oil consumption around the world, many people have opinions and agendas. Forecasts rooted in facts and technological capabilities are more rare. An example of an informed opinion comes from Vaclav Smil, professor emeritus of the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Environment. Smil is…
Despite decades of subsidies by Canadian taxpayers, Bombardier Inc. continues to be mired in a financial crisis jeopardizing its future. The latest humiliation came as the company had to sell its train-making division to pay off a substantial amount of debt due this year. Once a proud symbol of Canadian entrepreneurship, it now is the…
Confederation was designed as an economic union from sea to sea, linked by infrastructure that crosses provincial borders
During the recent French and English language debates for the Conservative leadership, one of the two leading candidates accused the other of wanting to impose an oil pipeline on Quebec without its consent. Erin O’Toole, the Conservative MP for Durham, Ont., articulated his vision for a national energy corridor throughout Canada. He was then accused…
It’s time to reduce funding to police and reallocate those dollars to more proactive ways to reduce crime
Here’s a couple of questions that might have seemed crazy to many people just a few short years ago but are gaining purchase today. Do we really need as much policing as we have? Or are the ever-growing police budgets actually inadvertently leading to greater violence? A lot of us have believed that police exist…
Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau chose a Saturday, hours before a long-awaited federal economic update, to offer more non-COVID-19-related compensation to Canada’s supply-managed farmers. Eighty-one per cent of dairy farmers are located in Quebec and Ontario. Compensation was expected but how it was done was a little strange. Few in the industry knew what…
