Nullum Prandium Gratuitum
"Politicians don’t realize that the science is not settled on climate change. They think it’s a done deal and it’s inevitable that they have to take action so the question that they face is what type of action should we take? But I think they need to step back and do the science because it’s not clear that there is a problem because of climate change. There may be no problem at all." - Frontier's conversation with Lawrence Solomon, author of "The Deniers" . . . .           "As a thought experiment, if SaskPower, SaskEnergy and SaskTel were privately owned and independently regulated, would the public of Saskatchewan support a government policy to borrow billions of dollars to nationalize them?" - a Frontier conversation with Sheldon Schwartz . . .           Although Human Rights Commissions were founded to address insupportable abuses in the areas of employment and accommodation, their mandate has been unwisely expanded to include what is, in effect, a censor’s role. Read the latest Policy Series Paper . . .           Allowing public housing tenants the "right to buy" - a Frontier Policy Series Paper . . .           Getting rich by exporting water to the United States - read the provocative new Frontier Backgrounder . . .          Frontier's first video documentary debuts - Watch "Your Land is not Your Land" - How the RM of Ellice expropriated an 87 year old farmer's property for murky "tourism development" purposes.          How top down centralization and provider dominated policy is harming Manitoba Education - in the backgrounder - A Failing Report Card . . .          Professor Bryan Schwartz explores Manitoba as a "supplicant society" - A Conversation on the Frontier . . .          Test your climate change knowledge on Frontier's Smart Green Climate Change Quiz . . .          Frontier's Alberta Mini-Policy Blueprint - The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Governments - a Policy Series Paper . . .          Making the case for fiscal constitutions in the provinces - Leveling the Spending Field - a Policy Series Paper . . .          Our schoolkids are being taught a particular environmental ideology - why that's a problem - A Frontier Education Backgrounder . . .           Making the case that principals should not be in the teachers' union - another Education Backgrounder . . .          When factors such as household income are controlled, there is no evidence that greater access to computers at school has a positive correlation with academic achievement . . . Read the Frontier Backgrounder on computers in our schools . . .          Indigenous Peoples from an International Perspective - Comparing aboriginals in Australia, New Zealand and Canada - Policy Series Paper . . .          The Frontier Centre for Public Policy releases its 2nd Annual Aboriginal Governance Index, based on a weighted composite of scores evaluating six broad areas of good governance. This year's index covers 112 Aboriginal communities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Read Canada's only independent assessment of First Nations governance here . . .          A Canadian and European think tank jointly release the first ever international consumer-focused bench-marking of national healthcare systems comparing Canada and 29 European countries. We unveil the 2008 Euro-Canada Health Consumer Index . . .          Canada is again the most affordable place in the English speaking developed world to buy a house according to the 2008 Demographia housing affordability survey. Read more . . .          A smarter way to fight poverty - "Removing more people at the bottom of the income ladder entirely from the tax code is a superior means of fighting poverty." - Read the Policy Series Paper . . . .          The line losses on Manitoba's planned west side transmission line alone will generate greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to an extra 40,000 cars a year. Read the Policy Series Paper - "A Thread Down a Football Field" . . .           "The government is preventing those who are suffering from using their own money to get care, and it ends up in an infringement to the right to life, security and liberty of a person . . . " Dr. Jacques Chaoulli in a Conversation on the Frontier . . .          Frontier Centre releases its inaugural comprehensive evaluation of the finances of Canada's 30 most populous cities - read our preliminary snapshot of the financial landscape of urban Canada as profiled in the 2007 Local Government Performance Index . . .          David MacKinnon, Ontario critic of regional subsidies discusses how "unthinking money" from Ontario and Alberta retards Manitoba's policy landscape, a Conversation on the Frontier . . .          "Notwithstanding a weaker propensity to invest and expand, publicly retained SaskTel is indistinguishable from MTS . . ." - read the Policy Series Paper comparing SaskTel and MTS . . .          Taking all the cars off Canada’s roads would get us only halfway to Kyoto’s targets for greenhouse gas reductions. . . 10 "Smart Green" ideas to reduce greenhouse gases. . .           Modernizing environmental policy in Canada - the seven principles for making policy "smart green" - A Frontier Policy Series Paper . . .           
Welcome...

The Frontier Centre for Public Policy is an independent public policy think tank whose mission is "to broaden the debate on our future through public policy research and education and to explore positive changes within our public institutions that support economic growth and opportunity." ...More

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Lawrence Solomon is the author of "The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria . . .

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Why Our Independence Matters to You

1. No Government Funding

Because we seek to comment objectively on public policy, FCPP is the only registered Prairie-based think tank which declines government grants.

2. Diversified Funding Base

We diversify our funding base as much as possible to ensure that we are not beholden to any particular industry, interest or persons. Individuals and businesses that see value in exploring better policy support FCPP. The bulk of our funding comes from charitable foundations that support public policy work in Canada.

3. Board/Staff Firewall

A respected Board of Research Advisors guarantees the independence and integrity of our work. The Centre has a formal policy, embodied in a Board of Directors resolution, that forbids any direct Board involvement or influence in the Centre's education efforts.

For an objective, arm's length take on public policy you can trust the very independent . . . Frontier Centre for Public Policy.


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Frontier's conversation with "The Deniers" author, Lawrence Solomon - If we had a problem with carbon then it might be sensible to have an upheaval in our economy. Then it might be sensible to increase the costs of our fuel. Then it might be sensible to increase the costs of food as we’re doing because of bio-fuels. Then it might be sensible to increase our taxes. But in the absence of information I don’t think it’s sensible to do these things at all. I think what we need to do is get the information because these carbon schemes not only can harm the economy, they can harm the environment as well. And in fact they are harming the environment.

End of Aboriginal Tax Exemption Positive - It is often said that nothing is certain in life except for death and taxes. Starting this month, residents of the Nisga’a territory in British Columbia will have to pay GST and PST, as well as taxes on fuel and tobacco, as part of the Nisga'a Treaty ratified in 2000. But, First Nations should not fear the introduction of taxes. They are an important way for self-governing Aboriginal communities to raise their own revenue. Join us weekly across the prairies for our hard hitting policy commentary broadcast across the Goldenwest Radio Network - Click here for a list of 9 stations and broadcast times.---

 RECENT UPDATES 
Latest Publications...
2008-07-04 - Lawrence Solomon
2008-07-03 - Sheldon Schwartz
2008-07-03 - Regina Cozying Up to Business
2008-07-02 - Let's Right this Glaring Wrong
2008-06-30 - Commissions of Human Wrongs
2008-06-27 - Getting More for the Health Reform Budget
Latest Audio & Video...
2008-07-02     Daniel Klymchuk on Exporting Water to the USA [Audio]
2008-07-01     Lawrence Solomon on the Science of Global Warming (CJOB) [Audio]
2008-06-30     Lawrence Solomon discusses Climate Change (CBC-SK) [Audio]
2008-06-29  The Deniers - The Science Is Not Settled on Global Warming (Solomon) [High Speed]
2008-05-23  Your Land is Not Your Land - Frontier's first video documentary [High Speed]
2008-04-13  Opiate of the Messes (Schwartz) [Low Speed] [High Speed]

Policy Notes - A One Page Policy Discussion
2008-06-27 - Getting More for the Health Reform Budget
2008-06-25 - Government Owned Reactor not Good Public Policy
2008-06-18 - A Political And Court Addiction To Speech Suppression
Frontier Backgrounders- Short Analyses
2008-06-23 - Separating the Twins
2008-06-14 - Water Exports
2008-06-13 - Canada’s Doctor Shortage
Perspectives- Thoughts from the Advisory Board...
2008-06-17 - Jim Crow Energy Policies
2008-06-10 - How Bad Government Caused The Food Crisis
2008-06-10 - The World Food Summit: Canada is part of the problem
Policy Series - Longer Reports & Studies
2008-06-30 - Commissions of Human Wrongs
2008-05-01 - The 'Right to Buy'
2008-04-22 - Leveling the Spending Field
Conversations - with Policy Innovators
2008-07-04 - Lawrence Solomon
2008-07-03 - Sheldon Schwartz
2008-06-09 - Nigel Hannaford
Special Reports and Publications
2008-05-23 - Richard Epstein
2008-03-25 - Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
2008-03-14 - Temperature Monitors Report Wide-Scale Global Cooling
Rural Renaissance Notes
2008-06-09 - New Rural Innovators are Future of Rural Canada
2007-11-20 - Your Land Is Not Your Land
2007-08-21 - Paying for the Wheat Board
PowerPoint Slides from Events
2008-06-22 - Time for a New Crown Review
2008-05-20 - How Overseas Recruitment can Fix Labour Shortages (Linda West)
2008-05-19 - Climate is a Generalist Discipline (Tim Ball)
Aboriginal Voices from Ground Zero
2008-06-11 - Residential Schools Propaganda?
2008-06-01 - First Nation Boots Controversial MLA
2008-05-01 - Governance Index A Positive Move For First Nations
Worth a Look - In our Virtual Library...
2008-07-04 - Free Trade in Food?
2008-06-26 - American Exception
2008-06-23 - What's Green and Goes Pop?
Modern Environmentalist
2008-04-11 - Still Feeding The World
2008-03-20 - Technology Smashes the Tyranny of Distance
2008-03-05 - Power, Water and Roads Could Benefit from Smarter Pricing
Frontier Radio Commentary
2008-06-27 - End of Aboriginal Tax Exemption Positive  
2008-06-20 - Solve Canada's Doctor Shortage By Copying European Health Care 
2008-06-13 - The Whole Truth About Residential Schools  
Charticles- A Graphical Look at Issues
2008-06-06 - Municipal Salary and Benefit Expense
2008-04-07 - Ontario and Public Sector Padding in Manitoba
2008-03-07 - Real City Crisis is Weak Asset Management
Frontier Channel - Audio
2008-07-02 - Daniel Klymchuk on Exporting Water to the USA 
2008-07-01 - Lawrence Solomon on the Science of Global Warming (CJOB) 
2008-06-30 - Lawrence Solomon discusses Climate Change (CBC-SK) 
Frontier Centre in the Media
2008-07-03 - Regina Cozying Up to Business
2008-07-02 - Let's Right this Glaring Wrong
2008-06-26 - Downplaying Global Warming
Frontier Channel - Video
The Deniers - The Science Is Not Settled on Global Warming (Solomon) [High]
Your Land is Not Your Land - Frontier's first video documentary [High]
Opiate of the Messes (Schwartz) [High] [Low]  
Interactive Policy
2008-04-22 - Smart Green Climate Change Quiz
2008-01-29 - Frontier Centre-Demographia Housing Affordability Calculator
2005-09-14 - Power Opportunity Cost Calculator
YouTube - Video
Act to End Eminent Domain Abuse - Kelo Day June 23
Congress & Light Bulbs
Pizza Surveillance
In the spirit of “doing the right thing” – while you still can – here is a shopping list of suggestions that should go a long way to helping rural Canada, and none of them involves mindless buckets of subsidies for the regions.
 



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In The News

2008-06-30
More Global Warming Nonsense
Anyone truly worried about malaria in impoverished countries would do well to focus on improving human living conditions, not the weather, say Paul Reiter, director of the Insects and Infectious Diseases Unit of the Institute Pasteur, Paris, and Roger Bate, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The globalization of vectors and pathogens is a serious problem, but it is not new, say Reiter and Bate:

o The Yellow Fever mosquito and virus were imported into North America from Africa during the slave trade.

o The dengue virus is distributed throughout the tropics and regularly jumps continents inside air passengers.

o West Nile virus likely arrived in the United States in shipments of wild birds.

The concept of malaria as a "tropical" infection is nonsense, says Rieter and Bate, it is a disease of the poor. Meanwhile, malaria has been increasing at an alarming rate in parts of Africa and elsewhere in the world:

o Scientists ascribe this increase to many factors, including population growth, deforestation, rice cultivation in previously uncultivated upland marshes, clustering of populations around these marshes, and large numbers of people who have fled their homes because of civil strife.

o The evolution of drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes, and the cessation of mosquito-control operations are also factors.

Of course, temperature is a factor in the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases, and future incidence may be affected if the world's climate continues to warm. But throughout history the most critical factors in the spread or eradication of disease has been human behavior and living standards. Poverty has been and remains the world's greatest killer, say Reiter and Bate.

Source: Paul Reiter and Roger Bate, "More Global Warming Nonsense," Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2008.