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1. Senate expense scandals just one small example of government's failure to manage our money

   Appeared in the National Post Allegations of expense scandals in the Senate have shocked many Canadians and rightfully so. Although unsettling, such antics are not an isolated case; they are part of a larger institutional problem with government. A ...

2. Too early to declare the deficit slain(2)

   Appeared in the Vancouver Sun, Kelowna Daily Courier, and Penticton Herald, November 2013 After federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty unveiled his latest financial plan Tuesday, much of the media hype centred on the government's larger than expected ...

3. Super-sized Fiscal Federalism

   In 2012/13, the federal government?s total transfers to the provinces amounted to $60.1 billion, or $1,725 per capita. This study examines one of those federal transfer programs, equalization. Equalization is an unconditional transfer of federal funds to ...

4. Federal Government Failure in Canada, 2013 Edition: A review of the Auditor General's reports, 1988-2013

   The discussion of the limitations of government and subsequent government failure is wholly absent from debate in Canada where, unfortunately, we still assume that governments act benevolently and without institutional constraints. That this is not true ...

5. Spending Beyond Our Means; Sticking it to the Next Generation

   Appeared in the National Post Over the course of the past several months, outgoing Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have repeatedly warned that Canadians are spending beyond their means and taking on too much ...

6. The stimulus spending never stopped

   Appeared in the Financial Post The key litmus test for the Harper government’s 2013 budget was always going to be how realistic it was with respect to achieving a balanced budget by 2015-16. The governing Tories have staked both their economic and ...

7. Provinces follow Ottawa's pattern of rosy revenue forecasts and unrealistic spending projections

   Appeared in the Financial Post When Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced last week that the Conservative government will miss its target for balancing the budget, he confirmed something that should be obvious to all students of recent Canadian economic ...

8. Learning from the Past: How Canadian Fiscal Policies of the 1990s Can Be Applied Today

   Learning from the Past: How Canadian Fiscal Policies of the 1990s Can Be Applied Today provides a historical overview that identifies parallels between the fiscal challenges facing Canadian governments in the 1990s and those facing governments in 2011.  ...

9. Government Lovers: Paid by Canadian Governments and Taxpayers

   This study presents information about the size of government in Canada by accounting for the number of Canadians who are paid by governments as civil servants and beneficiaries of social insurance programs. It supplements the annual Tax Freedom Day ...

10. Government Failure in Canada, 2007 Report: A Review of the Auditor General's Reports, 1992-2006

    This publication was written to inform Canadians about the theories and insights of Public Choice Theory, to document government failure from the reports of the Auditor General, to calculate a reasonable estimate of the costs of government failure, and to ...