Frontier Radio Commentary

Improving Access to the Newest Medicines (~2min) – May 17, 2013
New prescription drugs are constantly being developed to relieve suffering and help us live longer. Unfortunately, little seems to be done by governments to shorten the approval process so that they can get to patients who need them. Recent studies indicate that it often takes more than two years for new medicines to be approved and made available in Canada. (~2 min.)

Government Set to Move on First Nations Equality Law (~2min) – May 10, 2013
In Ottawa, a Commons committee is studying Bill S-2, which would correct a longstanding injustice affecting aboriginal women in Canada. It would guarantee that when a married couple living on a reserve divorce, both spouses will receive an equal share of the marital home and other property. This is the law in most Canadian provinces, but it does not apply on native reserves because they fall under federal jurisdiction. (~2 min.)

School Boards Should Offer Parents Choices (~2min) – May 3, 2013
In recent years, many local school boards in Canada have been faced with declining enrollment because of competition from private schools. As well, a growing number of parents have been choosing to home school their children. One way to reverse that trend is by providing a broader range of choices in the public school system. The approach has been tried with some success in Canada.

A Fracking Revolution (~2min) – April 26, 2013
There’s a green revolution happening in energy, but probably not what most are expecting. For years, environmental lobby groups have been pushing governments around the world to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases through carbon taxes, and large subsidies to encourage development of renewable energy. But for the most part, this top down approach has failed to change human behaviour in a significant way. (~2 min.)

Efforts to Create “Green Jobs” Seem to Backfire All Too Often (~2min) – April 19, 2013
Politicians often suggest that governments can strengthen the economy while improving the environment by using taxpayers money to create so-called “green jobs.” It sounds nice, but the idea is not based on solid economics. History has shown that governments can’t really “create” sustainable jobs in the private sector by subsidizing a particular industry. (~2 min.)

First Nations Should Welcome Financial Transparency Law (~2min) – April 12, 2013
Bill C-27, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act has cleared all the hurdles in Ottawa, and is now the law in Canada. It requires band governments to post important financial information on a website that’s publicly available. Bands now must disclose all salaries and benefits paid to the Chief and councilors, plus audited consolidated financial statements. If this information is not provided in a timely manner, band members can go to court and ask a judge to issue an order. (~2 min.)

Controlling the Bill for Public Sector Wages (~2min) – April 5, 2013
Governments across Canada are awash in red ink. Ottawa and most of the provinces are dealing with large deficits. One strategy to balance the books is reducing the public sector wage bill. We’re talking about the money that governments spend on salaries and benefits for public sector employees. (~2 min.)

Improving Value-For-Money in Canadian Healthcare (~2min) – March 29, 2013
All provinces in this country are striving to reduce wait times for health care, but despite their best efforts, Canadians generally wait longer for care than patients in many countries in Europe. When presented with the evidence of this, many Canadians assume that the reason must be greater spending on healthcare in those countries, but it’s not the case. (~2 min.)

Provincial Budget Season (~2min) – March 22, 2013
It’s budget season, both in Ottawa and in many provinces, including the prairies! The word Austerity is top of mind as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba prepared their budgets this year. With a new debt crisis in the tiny Mediterranean nation of Cyprus, governments across the world are cutting spending. (~2 min.)

Make Canada’s Tax System Simpler (~2min) – March 15, 2013
At this time of year, Canadians are once again being reminded that our tax code is very complicated, for both individuals and businesses. Many must hire accountants, lawyers and other professionals to do it out for them. In addition to these costs, all of us have to pay for the huge bureaucracy which is the Canada Revenue Agency. (~2 min.)

Increasing the Minimum Wage May Hurt Those Who Need it Most (~2min) – March 8, 2013
President Obama’s pledge to increase the minimum wage in the U.S. has rekindled a vigorous debate over how to improve living standards for unskilled and low skilled workers. Most economists believe that minimum wage increases cause entry level jobs to be eliminated. (~2 min.)

Big Federal Transfers Lead to Big Government (~2min) – March 1, 2013
Canada’s equalization program leads to bigger less efficient government in the so-called have-not provinces. Equalization goes back to the 1960’s, and the objective is to ensure that all provinces are able to provide comparable services. But in recent years the program has produced some unintended consequences. (~2 min.)

Frugal Public Management Can Fix Provincial Finances (~2min) – February 22, 2013
Budgets will be tabled in Ottawa and several provincial capitals over the next month or so. With the exceptions of Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, the bottom line will be a deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars. What is the alternative when economic growth is not generating enough tax revenue to balance the books? (~2 min.)

Time to Abandon Supply Management in Agriculture (~2min) – February 15, 2013
Imagine what would happen if the government of Canada took $150 from every family, regardless of their income, and transferred the proceeds to just 13,000 people. Imagine further that the $150 went to business owners with millions of dollars in assets. This already exists in Canada. It’s called supply management. (~2 min.)

Good News on Canada’s Environment (~2min) – February 8, 2013
Environmental activists continue to claim that Canada is becoming less healthy as the years go by. But there is now considerable evidence to the contrary. In fact, Canada’s environment is in much better shape than it was years ago.Ottawa monitors levels of several different pollutants to measure air quality. (~2 min.)

Merit Pay for Teachers Can Improve Student Performance (~2min) – February 1, 2013
The minister of Education in Alberta recently angered the province’s teachers’ union by thinking out loud about the possibility of introducing merit pay for teachers. It’s an idea that has been receiving quite a bit of attention across Canada recently. There is evidence that well designed systems can produce good results. (~2 min.)

How Biofuel Subsidies Hurt Poor People (~2min) – January 25, 2013
Governments around the world, including here in Canada, have spent many millions of dollars subsidizing the production of biofuels, which are derived from crops such as corn. The main reason is to help reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, but these programs have backfired in many cases, producing unintended negative consequences. The subsidies for producing biofuel drives up the price of the crops, especially corn which is used primarily to feed livestock. (~2 min.)

There are Better Ways to Change Bad Behaviour than Taxes (~2min) – January 18, 2013
Budget time will soon be upon us in most Canadian provinces, and with deficits almost everywhere, it’s quite likely that smokers will be hit again with higher taxes on their cigarettes. “Sin taxes” are among the most common tools governments rely on, claiming that it encourages people to quit. Smoking rates have been slowing declining for years, but much of the decline appears to be due to changing preferences rather than punitive taxes.

Idle No More Misses Important Steps in Native Improvement (~2min) – January 11, 2013
Chief Teresa Spence and other leaders of the Idle No More protest movement will have their much-coveted meeting with Stephen Harper and other government leaders, but it may take a while to determine the historic importance of the meeting. The protesters should understand that a large part of the solution is on their own doorstep. (~2 min.)

Health Care Wait Times Can Be Reduced (~2min) – January 4, 2013
As the new year begins, lengthy waits for healthcare continue to be a major concern for many Canadians. Money is not the problem since we spend more per capita on health care than almost any other country in the world. Yet our system fails to deliver world-class results, especially when it comes to wait times. One reason is that some policies do little to encourage efficiency in the system. (~2 min)