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Since 1990, Canada's annual rate of immigration has been extremely high-the highest in the world, averaging 0.75% of the population-and has had a significant impact on the size of the population, adding, between 1990 and 2006, 3.9 million (14.2%) to the 1990 level of 27.4 million. Such mass immigration has profound effects on economic, demographic, social, and political conditions in Canada that affect the well-being of all Canadians, including past immigrants. Unfortunately, Canadians are insufficiently aware of these effects partly because a code of political correctness tends to identify any examination of immigration policies with racism and partly because Canada's electoral system rewards politicians who are in favor of the current high intake. As a result of these conditions, during the 2008 federal election, politicians typically promised to maintain or even raise this rate of immigration without any public discussion of the consequences of such policies or any significant input from Canadians affected by them.

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Canadian health policy is increasingly failing patients and taxpayers. Canadians spend a lot on health care relative to comparable countries. Yet our high relative level of spending does not buy Canadians as many health care resources as patients in other countries enjoy. Shortages of medical resources, as well as improper economic incentives within the Canadian health system have resulted in growing waits for access to publicly funded, medically necessary goods and services. The available evidence indicates that wait times are longer in Canada than in almost all other comparable countries. Not only has our high level of spending not produced better access to health care, government health spending has also been growing at rates that are faster than our ability to pay for it through public means alone. This has resulted in health care consuming ever greater shares of the revenue available to governments, leaving proportionally less available for other public responsibilities and obligations.

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The index published in Economic Freedom of the World measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property. Forty-two data points are used to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas: (1) size of government: expenditures, taxes, and enterprises; (2) legal structure and security of property rights; (3) access to sound money; (4) freedom to trade internationally; and (5) regulation of credit, labor and business.

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According to Health Canada, Canadian sales of natural health products (NHPs) were estimated to amount to about $4.3 billion and to number around 40,000 to 50,000 products in 2004. A 2006 survey on the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) found that more than one-half of Canadians had used at least one alternative therapy in the year prior to the survey, a four percentage-point increase over the rate of use in 1997.

The fact that more people are using NHPs and CAM-and thus more people are exposed to the potential adverse effects of such treatments-is the main reason given by Canadian and other governments for broadening the regulatory framework covering these products and therapies. However, the data do not support a public safety argument for government regulation of either NHPs or CAM practitioners.

This study examines the validity of the public safety argument for licensing NHPs and CAM practitioners. It concludes that the cost of licensure far outweighs the benefits and recommends that:

  • The Natural Health Products Directorate, which regulates NHPs, be abolished and the monitoring of NHP safety and effectiveness be left to various nongovernmental organizations.
  • All current health practitioner licenses, including physician licenses, be replaced with certification, with the opportunity for various organizations to become certifying agencies.

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Measuring Labour Markets in Canada and the United States: 2009 Report is the fifth installment in our ongoing research to assess the performance of labour markets and explain why results differ among jurisdictions. Indicators of labour performance such as job creation, unemployment, and productivity are used to assess Canadian provincial and US state labour market performance.

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The Report Card on Washington's High Schools 2009 collects a variety of relevant, objective indicators of school performance into one easily accessible public document so that anyone can analyze and compare the performance of individual schools.

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The Report Card on Washington's Middle Schools 2009 collects a variety of relevant, objective indicators of school performance into one easily accessible public document so that anyone can analyze.