Who was Barbara Mitchell?

Printer-friendly version

Minimum wages have long been the subject of considerable attention and debate. The controversy surrounding minimum wages arises from the tension between well-intentioned efforts to increase incomes for lower-income workers and the significant negative economic costs associated with increasing minimum wages. This controversy is also fuelled by a general misunderstanding of what kinds of workers actually earn the minimum wage. The purpose of this study is to provide British Columbians, and indeed all Canadians, with an up-to-date account of these realities and other economic costs of the minimum wage. The study also aims to empirically assess the employment losses associated with increasing the minimum wage in British Columbia. Together, these analyses will help inform the public and policy makers about the impacts of increasing minimum wages.

read more

Printer-friendly version

When the Fraser Institute published the first study on corporate welfare one year ago, the tally between April 1, 1994 and March 30, 2004 amounted to $144 billion. One year later, and with two more years of data available, that figure has climbed to over $182 billion for the 12 years between 1994 and 2006.

read more

Printer-friendly version

The Fraser Institute's annual Generosity Index measures this private monetary generosity using readily available data on the extent and depth of charitable donations, as recorded on personal income tax returns in Canada and the United States. As in previous years, the 2008 index reveals a substantial generosity gap between these two countries.

read more

Printer-friendly version

The allocation of investment capital, both internationally and domestically, is increasingly acknowledged as a leading contributor to a jurisdiction's economic success or failure.

read more

Printer-friendly version

This 2008 edition of How Good Is Canadian Health Care? provides answers to a series of questions that are important to resolve if Canada is to make the correct choices as it amends its health care policies. In this study, we primarily compare Canada to other countries that also have universal access, publicly funded, health care systems.

read more

Printer-friendly version

This study estimates and compares the average cost of personal passenger automobile insurance premiums in each of the 10 Canadian provinces for the year 2007. Other studies have examined the price of auto insurance by selectively comparing individual cases across provinces (CAC, 2003). It is often mistakenly believed that such comparisons reflect actual average premiums in each province. This error can lead to false conclusions regarding the relative cost of auto insurance.

read more

Printer-friendly version

The government of Quebec is proposing to abolish all private property rights to water and to empower regulators to dictate who may use water, how much they may use, and how they may use it. Proponents claim that such measures are necessary to protect the natural resources of the province. But such overzealous regulation offers no guarantee that water will be apportioned wisely. Instead, it promises to politicize every aspect of water use, dissuade industrial investment, and deprive citizens of basic rights.

read more