RE: Make School Day Work Smarter, Not Longer — December 17, 2012

99.5% of the time I agree with the Frontier's views but on this one I have to provide a different  viewpoint. The existing school system at the elementary level is modeled on the same system that existed in the 60's, 50's, 40's, etc. Children are present in school from 9:00am to 3:30pm. Let's take the average family of the 21st century whereby both Mom and Dad are both present in the workforce (unlike the 60's, 50's, etc. where Mom's were "stay at home"). The standard workday is 8:00 to 4:00 or 9:00 to 5:00. Either parent is now forced to either rearrange their work schedule in order to pick up their child(ren) or find suitable after school daycare (for children under the age of 12).

Now take this situation one step further and apply it to a single parent family that is living at or below a middle income level. The parent gets two weeks vacation per year. The average number of Professional Development days teachers receive are a minimum of 1 per month not including early dismissals. The single parent must arrange and pay for an after school sitter or daycare when their child is released from school at 3:30pm. The cost of this to the parent is significant in terms of percentage of their annualized income. Factor in that the parent must arrange for a sitter 10 days a year not including the two weeks at Xmas and the summer and one can see the system is fine if we were living in 1952 but doesn not work for 2012.

I would argue that the average school day should not only coincide with the average work day but should be 8:30 to 5:30 to allow parents to fullfill their career/job obligations and help contribute to our economy by allowing for more work time and more disposable income directed to things the family needs vs going to after school daycare.

Email - Winnipeg, Mb

RE: Quebec Shouldn’t be Given its Gun Registry Data — September 21, 2012

This column was an eye-opener. Not so much for Navarro-Genie's gun registry argument, but for the examples he gave of the intrusion of the Quebec government in people's lives.

I was aware of the requirement of women to maintain their maiden names upon marriage, but had forgotten, or was un-aware that, among other restrictions, all housing leases must expire at the same time, and that state permission must be sought in naming a child, or to send one to a non-French school. Top it off with the edict that all outdoor commercial signs must be exclusively in French and you have, I believe, the most totalitarian, intrusive regime in Canada.

As with all of their entrenched information-gathering systems already in place, the gun registry in-formation is merely another nail in the coffin for individual freedom in that sad imitation of a democracy.

Eric Hindson, Calgary

RE: Quebec Shouldn’t be Given its Gun Registry Data — September 21, 2012

Question:   Why do you care if Quebec keeps registering long guns, you are in Calgary, does it really affect you?  The majority of Canadian's wanted to keep the registry.

Honestly, I'd be perfectly content if Alberta was the one to leave the country.  You can take Stephen Hitler with you, and continue to ruin your local environment with all the tar sands production and those ugly tailing ponds.  Email from William Groombridge

RE: Taxi Industry Reports Tired and One Sided — September 27, 2010

Thank you for the excellent piece by David Seymour in Saskatoon's The Star Phoenix of September 24, 2010. On two fronts, the piece succeeds. First, Mr. Seymour shows that the paid expert Professor Mundy presumes that more rather than less taxi regulation is necessary. Second, Mr. Seymour scrutinizes the selective and dated scholarship that underlies Professor Mundy's pre-ordained conclusions. Similar criticisms of Professor Mundy's reports have emerged in St. Lake City and Denver. Perhaps being away from the coasts clears the heads of Canadians and Americans and allows us to see these taxi reports for what they are. - Prof. Thomas D. Russell, J.D., Ph.D. University of Denver Sturm College of Law

 

RE: Global temperature cooling — March 14, 2008
When I was an undergrad, global cooling was the mantra I was taught. The environmental catastrophe is upon us, etc., etc. E-mail from Calgary

RE: Ethanol: The Promise and the Peril — October 16, 2002
The truly scary part of this whole scenario is that wheat is not as efficient as corn. The proponents refuse to concern themselves with the plant feedstock issues. If these plants are going to survive at all they will require cheap feed wheat or corn. This will mean US corn, as Canadian prairie production will not satisfy the needs of the number of plants being discussed. The cheap feed wheat scenario will be hard to hold together as farmers will want to ensure maximum per acre return and unless the yield per acre can be increase several fold it doesn’t make sense to grow the product on the prairies. The potential benefit to society is far overshadowed by the potential harm to already existing industries. - email Winnipeg.

RE: What do you people think of Stephen Harper's idea of giving people a tax credit to take the bus? E-mail from W Borkowski, Tyndall, Manitoba — August 18, 2005

It's not a new idea or a bad one. It addresses one of Frontier's three themes of high performance public policy - neutrality. Automobiles and parking fees are a recognized expense for tax purposes - it is not unreasonable to hold the same for transit passes.

Mass transit remains a declining transport mode as urban areas disperse naturally due to rising incomes and changing living, work and shopping patterns. The internet allows many to work from home. Companies locate their facilities on less expensive suburban land away from bus routes. We don't find cheap and convenient big box stores on expensive downtown land. Thus, less so in the most congested cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, transit will continue to decline and a small tax writeoff will make little difference.

Mr. Harper might get more traction by offering to simply transfer gas tax revenues to the provinces and allowing them to make their own choices. Ontario and B.C. might then choose to put the monies disproportionately into mass transit infrastructure. For places like Manitoba and other small provinces the money would go into under capitalized road systems that need upgrading and repair.

RE: Redford’s Proposed Energy Strategy is Wrong for Alberta — February 21, 2012

Who are Alberta's friends? America - they don't want your dirty oil and President Barack Obama is going to get a second term. B.C. - I lived there for eight years, and even if those greenies let you build a pipeline, they're going to charge you a lot of green for it. Quebec, not! Ontario? With the release of the Drummond report, the man on the street here knows the petro-dollar is one major reason manufacturing Ontario is bankrupt.

Our hatred of you has evolved from competitive to outright survival. Ontario Conservative MPs have sold us out - supporting Stephen Harper was a one-term mistake.

Even though we are more culturally tied to Alberta, we are more economically tied to Quebec. With the right leader, I can see an Orange Crush overflowing into Ontario where the NDP are no lovers of Big Oil. Manitoba is NDP, Saskatchewan may be but is known to support the NDP and its leader has national ambitions.

As an Ontarian with deep Alberta roots, meddling is the thing I would advise you to worry about the least. Premier Alison Red-ford is ahead of the pack.

She realizes that if this dirty oil is to survive, she is going to have to work on a national level. Landlocked Alberta is surrounded by political and personal enemies. Albertans would be wise to negotiate because there are far more of us than there are of the Marco Navarro-Genies in the oilpatch. By the time we're done with you, it will make the theft by Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Program look like a joke.

Ontario is desperate and we are out of time and patience! - Letter from Arthur, Peterborough, Ont.

RE: Let's Dance the Dutch Minuet on Schools — March 31, 2003
The Frontier Centre's highlight on the Dutch Education System demonstrates that our current education model and governance structure can be changed to achieve better performance, accountability, and value for both students and taxpayers. Only those with vested interests, fear of change, and/or disbelief in the room for improvement would be afraid of learning from the success of others. - E-mail from S. Mark Francis, Winnipeg

The Shape of Tomorrow's Farming
World food production must double by 2050, and production of meat and milk will more than double. Children need the key micronutrients of livestock products to prevent such diseases as pellagra and blindness due to severe Vitamin A deficiency. Their cognitive development also seems to benefit from high-quality protein. Farming intensity must triple on the best land, in order to protect the poorer land which houses three-fourths of the wild species. Good farmland will become even more important, as one of the scarcest resources.

Seven Myths about Green Jobs
“Advocates promise not only a revolution in our relationship with the environment but to employ millions in high paying, satisfying jobs. Unfortunately, the analysis provided in the green jobs literature is deeply flawed, resting on a series of myths about the economy, the environment and technology.”

Helping The Obese Help Themselves
Rather than waste energy and resources limiting “unhealthy” foods or trying to limit fast food restaurants, those concerned about obesity and health challenges should look into expanding options like the North End Food Security Network for more groups of people, especially families with lower incomes. Respecting freedom and expanding health are not mutually exclusive goals.

California Contract Cities
Unsurprisingly, the contract city model requires a smaller, probably more professional staff. Only twenty-five civic managers run Dana Pointe. They design, monitor, and manage contracts to provide services to their customers-the residents. A traditional, full service city would employ hundreds of full-timers at significantly higher cost to citizens.

Media Release - The Folly of Saskatchewan’s “Free” Public Wireless Internet
The study’s author, David Seymour, says the program is a poor use of government funds and a source of frustration for would-be users. “Anyone who’s seen the Saskatchewan! Connected stickers advertising free internet at a venue and tried to use it will likely be familiar with the frustration of such poor service. It would almost be better if the promise was never held out; at the moment it seems as if it’s a bad practical joke

Doing More of the Same Won’t Improve Test Results
Ontario could break this cycle of hopelessness by allowing parents to send their children to any school of their choice. The per-pupil funding provided to school boards for each student enrolled in their jurisdiction should instead be controlled by parents and follow their children to whatever school they attend. In this way, parents could use information about the academic success of schools to help them choose an appropriate school for their children.

How the Information Technology Revolution is Changing the Rules
Although IT isn't solely responsible for lean thinking and transportation improvements, it has played a role in implementing both. Sophisticated IT now lets companies reroute trucks while they're on the road so that they can deliver shipments to a higher-valued customer and let a lower-valued customer wait a little longer. And improvements in manufacturing often involve the use of computers. Lumber mills, for example, have changed dramatically. Almost no one works there anymore. Computers instead of human sawyers size up trees and estimate the best cuts to make to minimize waste, then guide lasers in making the cuts.

Voters Choosing Alienation
… the plurality of the people of Berthier-Maskinongé willingly embraced a ghost candidate who chose to be distant from them. And from the ashes of that mutual indifference, an unknown has ironically been born to national notoriety.

How The World Was Bullied Into Silence
Cold weather is doing more to raise questions about the theory of global warming than all the appeals to scientific reason. Even people who don’t understand the science recognize the illogic of arguing that colder temperatures are due to warming. This is causing advocates of human caused global warming to take increasingly ridiculous positions to defend the indefensible.