It really comes down to your comfort level, belief system and what you want to do until instructed otherwise
Toronto Mayor John Tory announced on June 30 that face masks would become mandatory inside enclosed public spaces in the city. This would include grocery stores, shops, malls and on public transit. Children under the age of two and people with medical conditions that make it difficult to wear a mask would be the only…
It’s time to reduce funding to police and reallocate those dollars to more proactive ways to reduce crime
Here’s a couple of questions that might have seemed crazy to many people just a few short years ago but are gaining purchase today. Do we really need as much policing as we have? Or are the ever-growing police budgets actually inadvertently leading to greater violence? A lot of us have believed that police exist…
Toronto Mayor John Tory announced he’d have to make “terrible and devastating” cuts if the federal and provincial governments didn’t pony up cash to help the city fill its $1.5-billion budgetary void left in the wake of COVID-19. Astonishingly, after begging for money, the mayor’s pet project, Rail Deck Park, is still going ahead. Tory’s mega-park scheme is…
The Ontario government must take decisive action to get the budget under control when the COVID-19 crisis has passed
Ontario is the most indebted sub-sovereign borrower in the world. Interim financial results for the 2019-20 fiscal year show that the Ontario government ran a $9.2-billion deficit. According to estimates from economists, the deficit is likely to more than triple, largely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown, to around $29.3 billion…
By Aaron Wudrick and Franco Terrazzano Canadian Taxpayers Federation Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has chosen to make life more expensive for Canadians by increasing the federal carbon tax by 50 per cent amidst the COVID-19 economic and health crisis. Meanwhile, governments around the world are moving in the opposite direction because hiking taxes during a…
Blame economic contraction due to COVID-19 and increased government spending at the provincial and federal levels
Ontario’s provincial government now carries more net debt per person than any province except Newfoundland and Labrador. In a reversal of historical norms, Ontario carries significantly more debt – almost $4,000 more per person – than Quebec. Of course, debt (financial assets minus total liabilities) means interest payments. But Ontarians aren’t just responsible for interest…
The plan is based on unrealistic assumptions that pose real risks to Ontario finances and includes spending likely to be ineffective
By Jason Clemens and Niels Veldhuis The Fraser Institute With all the announcements last week by the federal government, and the drama surrounding the passage of the federal spending bill, the Ontario fiscal update went largely unnoticed. But since Ontario is Canada’s largest province – in population and the size of its economy – so…
Thousands of patients are on wait lists. Meanwhile, the human and economic costs of mental illness keep rising
For the past decade, Bell Canada has used the month of January to support awareness of mental health issues. Its extensive media campaigns have encouraged Canadians to talk openly about mental health and break the uncomfortable stigma that still tends to hover over such conversations. There’s plenty of data to document the prevalence of Canada’s…
Toronto and Ottawa are thriving but as long as large regions of Ontario struggle, the province and the country won’t meet their full economic potential
By Ben Eisen and Steve Lafleur The Fraser Institute Ontarians have suffered more than their share of economic pain over the past 15 years. For much of the 2000s, the province’s manufacturing sector was struggling and then the 2008-09 recession made things much worse. In the years that followed, the province’s recovery was unfortunately tepid.…
Over the past two weeks, my wife and I have twice encountered Wet’suwet’en protesters in the B.C. Lower Mainland. I wondered what the hell was being accomplished if people like me were getting angry? The first encounter saw us turned away from the 9 a.m. ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay – we had important…