The government is trampling on the rights of ride-sharing businesses and their potential customers
Many British Columbians want rides from Point A to Point B and will pay somebody to drive them. Others have access to cars and want to earn money giving people rides. But the provincial government is preventing these mutually beneficial exchanges. The governing New Democrats promised during the 2017 election campaign that British Columbians would…
Carbon taxes discourage productive economic activity while rebate cheques do nothing to counteract this negative effect
Conservatives should oppose carbon taxes, despite arguments to the contrary. Last month, a pair of headlines questioned how conservatives could possibly oppose a carbon tax. One column, by political scientist Jim Farney, ran in the Calgary Herald under the headline: “Is there a conservative case against the carbon tax? Not really.” Then it was economist…
Raising taxes to fund spending on the poor discourages wealth creation and productive work effort, shrinking the economic pie
Instead of having government take more from the rich in hopes that it will go to the poor, a far better poverty reduction strategy is to encourage economic growth and innovation. Yale University economist William Nordhaus was one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in economics this year for his work on analyzing the…
Investment makes workers more productive, creates better jobs and drives income growth. Fracking offers a simple, safe solution
By Matthew Lau and Marco Navarro-Genie Contributors The new government in New Brunswick faces no shortage of challenges. One of the most important to address is the dearth of business investment in the region. Hydraulic fracturing offers a solution. On a per capita basis in 2017, investment in non-residential structures, machinery, equipment and intellectual property…
The economic damage of supply management to Canadian families is significant. But we failed to get rid of it in recent trade talks
The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a mixed bag for Canadians. The bright side is that it’s certainly better than having no trade agreement, and is more desirable than the massive uncertainty that comes with not knowing whether an agreement will be reached. On the down side, trade between Canada and the United States…
Adopting the Alberta charter school model would give parents and children more choice and allow them to enjoy the benefits of competition
Canadians experience the enormous economic benefits of competition daily. For most consumer goods, over time, Canadians pay less and get more. Businesses compete to offer customers the best products at the lowest prices; those with offerings that consumers judge unsatisfactory are eventually forced to go out of business. As long as there’s competition, consumers are…
The surest way to trim the bloated costs of municipal services is to privatize them. Competition drives costs down and quality up
Municipal spending in British Columbia is rising far too fast. According to a report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the cost of running municipal governments – even after accounting for price inflation and population growth – rose by an average of 28 per cent across the province from 2006 to 2016. The business…
Instead of climbing out of debt, federal and provincial governments are spending more, to the detriment of the economy
Recent employment data from Statistics Canada shows a troubling trend. In July, the ratio of private sector to public sector employees (excluding the self-employed) dipped to lows that – except for the period of massive ‘stimulus’ spending by the federal and provincial governments in 2009-10 – have not been seen since Canada’s fiscal crisis of…
Politicians treat successful Canadians as natural resources to be annually harvested and squeezed for as much money as possible
A few years ago, the federal Liberals told Canadians that they would help the middle class by raising taxes on the rich. According to the early evidence, the plan has flopped. This was entirely predictable. In 2015, the C.D. Howe Institute (formerly chaired by the current federal finance minister) called the policy a “losing proposition.”…
If government believes it should discourage alcohol consumption, why does it subsidize the beer and wine industries?
With much fanfare, the Ontario government has brought back “Buck-a-Beer” by lowering the government-mandated price floor on a bottle or can of beer (with alcohol volume below 5.6 per cent) from $1.25 to $1. Ontarians who don’t drink or who consume only more expensive alcoholic beverages won’t be much affected by this policy. But for…