Toward More Prosperous Cities
– April 16, 2013
Beyond the rule of law and security, the most important public policy objectives should be to achieve wide-spread affluence and eradicate poverty. Cities, urban policy, and urban transport are means to facilitate this objective, not ends themselves.
Options for the CBC
– April 1, 2013
Based on a historical analysis of the original role for a national public broadcaster, Roland Renner assesses how improving technology has affected the CBC and takes a look at five potential alternatives for bringing the CBC in to the modern world. Renner looks at five potential proposals, ranging from abandoning the idea of a public broadcaster entirely, to making only minor changes to the current system, before making a final recommendation.
More Police Does Not Equal Less Crime
– March 11, 2013
Canadian cities are very safe relative to American cities. Some cities could reduce crime with a targeted police presence in relatively dangerous neighbourhoods. However, simply increasing police levels does not appear to be an effective anti-crime strategy, and police services could free up resources by adopting more efficient staffing policies.
A New Crown Review
– March 1, 2013
In this study, Sheldon Schwartz, a former Crown Investments Corporation Vice President, examines the case for a new review of Saskatchewan’s Crown Corporations. He argues that much has changed in the 15 years since the last review, and the time has come to take another look at the provinces asset portfolio.
A New Policy is Required for Air Transportation
– January 11, 2013
Annually, five million Canadians opt to cross the border and depart from U.S. airports when they fly, because they save on average $428 per person per round-trip. The Canadian government needs to facilitate and encourage competition in the air transportation sector or continue to lose to the U.S.
Treasury Yields Forecast a US Future
– October 5, 2012
This backgrounder offers an analysis of recent conditions in interest rates and bond markets among industrial states. Notwithstanding the United States’ current economic woes, the paper concludes that while it is positively the best major market in comparison to almost all others, it risks of drifting into Spain-like conditions without an active set of policies to redress its debt burden.
Failing to Make the Roads Safer
– July 13, 2012
This backgrounder argues that distracted driving laws do more harm than good.
A Workable Voucher System for Aboriginal Students
– June 20, 2012
This backgrounder describes how Aboriginal education in Canada could improve significantly if Indian bands and parents took a greater role in the education of the children in their communities, insuring prompt remedial literacy and numeracy.
How to Improve Undergraduate Teaching
– May 31, 2012
This paper proposes a performance-based accountability system for university professors to improve the quality of undergraduate education in Canada.
Resource Consumption and Economic Production in Canada and the United States:
– March 29, 2012
Ben Eisen and Kenneth Green show that high levels of resource consumption in North America enables economic production and wealth creation that brings benefits to people all over the world.
Centralized Planning Poses Significant Challenges for First Responders to Disaster Situations
– December 7, 2011
Bureaucratic, centralized disaster responses have a long history of failure.
The Case for Voluntary Student Unionism
– November 16, 2011
Student unionism in Canada is falling short of the mark of representing all students.
Smart Growth Hurts the Urban Poor
– November 2, 2011
The idea of containing urban populations through Smart Growth strategies has typically sent housing prices soaring and has hurt those least able to afford buying a house of their own, the urban poor.
Natural Gas-to-Liquids Coming to the U.S.
– October 6, 2011
Few “alternative fuels” hold the promise of abundance, reliability, high-yield, portability, compatibility, and strategic enhancement that the transformation of natural gas to liquid does. This backgrounder examines the economic, strategic and environmental implications of a market capable of delivering millions of tons of transport fuel derived from natural gas.
Who Determines Entrepreneurship?
– June 9, 2011
When self-employed individuals are forced to convert into employees by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), individuals lose portions of their freedoms and the Canadian economy suffers.
Can the Winnipeg Model Save Detroit?
– May 30, 2011
Through targeted immigration policies Detroit can find its way back to prosperity and turn away from greater urban decay.
Ngâi Tahu
– April 6, 2011
New Zealand’s treaty settlement process has been surrounded in controversy and bad racial relations, but the Ngâi Tahu stands out as a successful model.
Harper’s Tax Boutique
– March 17, 2011
This backgrounder scrutinizes two specific federal government tax expenditures (the Public Transit Tax Credit and the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit), and finds that at a combined cost of $164 million they are not meeting their targets, and calls for their elimination.
Saskatchewan! Connected?
– March 3, 2011
A Frontier Backgrounder on free government wireless Internet in the downtowns and tertiary institutions of Saskatchewan’s major cities, arguing that this program is a policy failure that the provincial government should reform.
Toronto: 3 Cities in More Than One Way
– February 23, 2011
Since the 1998 municipal amalgamation of the Megacity of Toronto there has developed a culture war: The culture war between the suburbs and the core is an acknowledgement of the zero sum game created by the megacity. |
