Who was Barbara Mitchell?
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This year, Tax Freedom Day is Monday, June 19. If you had to pay all your federal, provincial and municipal taxes up front, you would give government every dollar you earned from January 1st to Tax Freedom Day, when Canadians finally start working for themselves. In 2023, the average Canadian family (with two or more people) will pay 46.1 per cent of its annual income in taxes, including income taxes, payroll taxes, health taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, carbon taxes and more.

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The Road to Socialism and Back: An Economic History of Poland, 1939–2019

The Road to Socialism and Back: An Economic History of Poland, 1939–2019, part of a multimedia project (which includes an interactive website), finds that according to many key metrics including incomes and life expectancy, life in Poland improved dramatically after the country transitioned from socialism to a market democracy.

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Analysis of Changes in Median Employment Income in Canada’s Census Metropolitan Areas, 2008–2019

Analysis of Changes in Median Employment Income in Canada’s Census Metropolitan Areas, 2008-2019 is a new study that ranks Canada's 41 major cities by their rate of growth in median employment income, using data from 2008 to 2019. The median employment income growth, in inflation adjusted dollars, for all of Canada was 5.4 percent.

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Making Room for Growth: Housing Intensification in Canada's Cities, 2016-2021

Making Room for Growth: Housing Intensification in Canada’s Cities, 2016-2021 is a new study that finds despite a housing shortage in many cities across the country, the number of housing units in 26.4 per cent of Canada’s urban neighbourhoods—more than one-in-four—actually declined from 2016 to 2021. What’s more, half of all neighbourhoods in Canadian cities saw the number of housing units increase by less than one per cent.

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Repeating the Past: Provinces Accept Federal Money at their Peril

Repeating the Past: Provinces Accept Federal Money at Their Peril draws on the experience of Canada in the 1990s, when the federal government reformed and reduced transfers to the provinces to tackle the federal deficit and mounting debt—and how that comparison can be used to inform the decisions of policymakers today.

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Canada’s GHG Cap on the Oil and Gas Industry Is All Pain With No Gain

Canada’s GHG Cap on the Oil and Gas Industry Is All Pain With No Gain finds that the federal government’s planned cap on greenhouse gas emissions, which will inevitably reduce oil and gas production in Canada, will cost the Canadian economy at least $44.8 billion in 2030—without any substantive effect on global emissions.

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From Reconciliation to Reparations: Exploiting a Noble Idea

From Reconciliation to Reparations: Exploiting a Noble Idea is a new study that documents how the current judicially driven approach of the federal justice department to negotiate financial compensation with First Nations to settle lawsuits—instead of litigation—means elected representatives have no meaningful oversight of the large sums of money being paid out. And contrary to Canadian legal tradition, individual claims of mistreatment are not merely leading to compensation, but are being used to overturn core government policies enacted by previous Parliaments.

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