Risk & Regulation

Housing Codes, Homelessness, and Affordable Housing

— Sep 16, 2021

Housing Codes, Homelessness, and Affordable Housing finds that governments in Canada often remove housing units from the market because they don’t fully comply with certain building code standards, thus reducing the supply of housing for low-income people and forcing them into potentially worse alternatives.

Generation and Management of Municipal Solid Waste: How’s Canada Doing?

— Jul 13, 2021

Generation and Management of Municipal Solid Waste: How’s Canada Doing? is a new study that finds Canadians, on a per-person basis, generated 959 kilograms of municipal solid waste in 2018 compared to 980 kilograms in 2002. Crucially, waste from residential or household sources is on the rise, comprising more than 40 per cent of total waste generation, while waste generated from non-residential sources—industrial, commercial, etc.—has declined in Canada.

Recent Risk & Regulation Commentaries and Blog Posts

Ford government should finally privatize liquor sales in Ontario

Jake Fuss, Alex Whalen

Appeared in the Financial Post, May 30, 2023

Alberta’s liquor product selection has grown from 2,200 in 1993 to more than 31,000 today.

Deregulation can help Canada avoid or shorten recessions

Vincent Geloso

Appeared in the Hub, May 5, 2023

Barriers to competition limit the incentives of firms to innovate, cut costs and expand their activities.

Mandatory ESG disclosures will impose substantial costs on companies in Canada

Steven Globerman, Elmira Aliakbari

Appeared in Business in Vancouver, May 1, 2023

The imposition of additional reporting costs will discourage many companies from going public.

If politicians called the shots in business we’d probably all starve

Matthew Lau

Appeared in the Ottawa Sun, April 12, 2023

When the government creates artificial scarcity, food prices increase.

Competition Bureau should support actual competition in the market

Steven Globerman

Appeared in the Globe and Mail, April 1, 2023

Governments in Canada have implemented many laws and regulations that discourage firms from entering a range of industries.

Government-mandated ESG disclosures—a reality check

Steven Globerman

Appeared in National Newswatch, November 23, 2022

The evidence casts doubt on the popular claim that ESG will make investors more money.

Costs of mandatory ESG disclosure likely would outweigh benefits

Steven Globerman

Appeared in the Hub, August 31, 2022

Individual rating services change their rankings of the same companies over short periods of time, sometimes dramatically.

Pandemic showed that Canada needs a thriving biopharmaceutical industry

Kristina M.L. Acri, née Lybecker

Government policies and regulations have created an environment hostile to research and innovation.

Ottawa should stay out of food labelling business

Matthew Lau

Appeared in the National Post, July 15, 2022

The federal government plans to mandate nutritional warnings on packaged foods.

Risk & Regulation Research Experts

Pierre Desrochers

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
Jock Finlayson

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
Kenneth P. Green

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
Marc Law

Professor of Economics, University of Vermont
Ross McKitrick

Professor of Economics, University of Guelph
Matthew D. Mitchell

Senior Fellow in the Centre for Economic Freedom, Fraser Institute
Finn Poschmann

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
Joel Wood

Associate Professor of Economics, Thompson Rivers University
Moin Yahya

Professor of Law, University of Alberta

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Risk & Regulation

Housing Codes, Homelessness, and Affordable Housing

Generation and Management of Municipal Solid Waste: How’s Canada Doing?

Risk & Regulation Research Experts