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1. What to do now that the panic has ended

   Appeared in the National Post It seems that the financial panic is over. Stock markets are finding a floor, inter-bank credit is thawing, medium term leading indicators are improving, and all of the likely bad news is generally anticipated. Therefore, now ...

2. Danger in Rigid Labour Laws: Ministers Propose Prescriptive Changes to Labour Market Regulation

   Appeared in the Financial Post, 11 November 2004 Recent announcements by the Ontario Minister of Labour, Chris Bentley, and his federal equivalent, Joe Fontana, indicate big changes to the regulations governing labour markets. Both ministers are pushing ...

3. Raising the Wage Will Hurt Our Youth

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald, 31 October 2004 There is perhaps no other area of public policy in which the tug-of-war between the heart and the mind is so fierce as the debate over minimum wages. Unfortunately, too many well-intentioned people take an ...

4. To Fix Health Care, Follow the Money

   Appeared in the National Post, 14 September 2004 Health spending is booming across Canada-- especially in Ontario. To appreciate the magnitude of the surge, consider some basic data: Total public-sector spending in this province is approaching $32-billion ...

5. Tell Health Care Truth: Health Care is an Economic Activity Like Any Other

   Appeared in the National Post, 30 June 2004 Stockwell Day unwittingly threw the 2000 federal election with three words handwritten on a piece of paper: No Two Tier. That action, following unrelenting media questions about the then-Canadian Alliance’s ...

6. Flat Bubbly on Tax Freedom Day

     Pop the champagne, Tax Freedom Day is at hand. This year’s release from the taxman’s icy grip will occur on Monday, June 28th. That is the day when the total tax bill for the average family is finally paid off-- one day later than last year-- and ...

7. Ontario's New Health Spending: Threat to Patients or to the Province's Fiscal Health?

     Last week’s Ontario budget announced a $2.4 billion increase in health-related funding, an increase that is supposed to create a better health care system for the province. In fact, the increase is mostly in new areas of expenditure, while existing ...

8. Do Taxpayer Protection Laws Work?

     Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara’s first kick at the fiscal can resulted in what can only be described as a classic 1960s budget: major-league spending increases financed by tax hikes and deficits. By raising taxes and running a deficit, the ...

9. Ontaxario!

   Appeared in the Financial Post, May 17, 2004 The leaks are out and they are ugly. Portions of the Ontario provincial budget appeared in Toronto media over the weekend and a big tax increase is on its way. Not only are new taxes not needed to reduce the ...

10. Ontario Tax Policy Strangles Business

    Appeared in the Financial Post, 03 March 2004 Ontario’s provincial government has put forward key priorities to judge its performance in four years. Better student achievement, healthier Ontarians, better workers, safer communities and more active ...