Ontario had two states of emergency in 2003 and a third has now arrived. First, SARS arrived and led to an official declaration of emergency between March 26 and May 17.

Many Canadians see motor vehicle ownership and operation as a necessity of modern life. For example, usages rates (the ratio of drivers to population) are very high, averaging over 90 percent for most driving age groups.

This report is a first attempt at quantifying labour-market performance and the characteristics that affect it across Canadian provinces and US states. It includes comprehensive measures of how well labour markets across Canada and the US have performed over the last five years and critical characteristics such as unionization rates and public-sector employment rates, which affect performance.