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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.

The Centre is a non-profit educational charity which was registered in April 1999. The chart below provides a detailed breakdown of the Centre's sources of funding in 2005. In order of importance, the majority of funding comes from private charitable foundations, followed by corporations, local businesses and individuals. The Centre does not accept any funding from governments to maintain its independent and fresh perspective on public policy.

2008-10-06 - Energy, Climate Change and The War on the Poor (Winnipeg) with Niger Innis, Co-chair of the Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor

2008-10-07 - Energy, Climate Change and The War on the Poor (Calgary) with Niger Innis, Co-chair of the Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor

2008-10-08 - Energy, Climate Change and The War on the Poor (Regina) with Niger Innis, Co-chair of the Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor

2008-10-15 - Opening Up Winnipeg’s Taxi Monopoly (Winnipeg) with Terri Proulx, Project Coordinator for Supporting Employment & Economic Development (SEED)

2008-10-28 - The Coming Healthcare Reform Revolution (Regina) with Dr. Jacques Chaoulli, General Practitioner

2008-10-31 - Sun & Pacific Ocean: Elephants in the Room for Prairie Grain? (Winnipeg) with E. Ray Garnett, Consulting Agro-Climatologist

Charting the Course of Canadian Healthcare Reform
Speaker: Rebecca Walberg, Director of Health Policy
Date: 2008-11-12
Time: 11:30 a.m..
Place: Brandon Chamber of Commerce, Royal Oak Inn & Suites, Brandon, MB.

Canada's healthcare system outspends and underperforms, compared with the range of systems we see in the European Union. Within Canada, some provinces spend their budgets much more wisely than others, and see better results. How can we take the lessons learned from international and inter-provincial assessments of healthcare performance to design effective reforms that will improve healthcare for all Canadians? Please contact Carolynn Cancade for more details at 204.571.5343.

2008-10-05
Canada's Health Care System-- Poor Value For Your Tax Dollars
Canada's taxpayers are not receiving the same sort of value that their counterparts in other nations are when it comes to universally accessible health care insurance, says Nadeem Esmail, of the Fraser Institute.

For example:

o Canada has the third most-expensive universal access health insurance system; only Iceland and Switzerland spend more as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) on their universal access health insurance systems than Canada did.

o In 2007, waiting lists for access to health care in Canada reached a new all-time high of 18.3 weeks from a general practitioner referral to treatment by a specialist; this wait time is 54 percent longer than the overall wait time of 11.9 weeks back in 1997.

o The number of Canadians without a regular physician is estimated to be around 5 million.

The journal "Health Affairs" recently published a study of six universal access nations, which found:

o Canadians were more likely to experience waiting times of more than six months for elective surgery than Australians, German, the Dutch, and New Zealanders, but slightly less likely than patients in the United Kingdom.

o Canadians were least likely to wait less than one month for elective surgery.

o Canadians were the most likely to wait six days or longer to see a doctor when ill, and were least likely to receive an appointment the same day or the next day.

Access to medical technologies is also relatively poor in Canada:

o Canada ranked 13th of 24 nations in terms of MRI machines per million population.

o Canada ranked 18th of 24 nations for CT scanners per million population, 7th of 17 for mammographs per million population, and tied for second to last among 20 nations for lithotripters per million population.

Source: Nadeem Esmail, "Canada's Health Care System - Poor Value for Your Tax Dollars," Fraser Institute, June 2008.