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1. From the welfare state to the entitlement state

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald Question: If someone made $62,000 last year, had $187,000 in their bank account, and yet sought a $5,360 subsidy from government, what would the common sense response be? Most people would say that person possesses chutzpah ...

2. Governments go subsidy-wild with $684 billion spent on subsidies since 1981

   Appeared in the Victoria Times Colonist and Trail Daily Times Ever wonder how Canada's net federal debt reached $671 billion by 2013? Or how net provincial debt among the provinces ended up at $509 billion that same year? Wonder no more. It's ...

3. Government Subsidies in Canada- A $684 Billion Price Tag

   This study attempts to measure the scope of government subsidies in Canada using three data sets. The first is from Statistics Canada from the 1981 to 2009 fiscal years. This data shows that between April 1, 1980 and March 31, 2009, federal, provincial, ...

4. Equalization, Ontario, and the politics of division

   Equalization is a federal transfer program that is explicitly designed to subsidize provinces with weak own-source revenues and to be politically unifying. However, the flip in Ontario?s status from a?have? to a?have-not? province has had, and will ...

5. Corporate Welfare at Industry Canada since John Diefenbaker

   Between April 1, 1961 and March 31, 2012, and adjusted for inflation to 2012 dollars, Industry Canada disbursed $34.3 billion through to other governments, foundations, and businesses. $22.1 billion of that money was disbursed to business, $8.8 billion ...

6. The Harper government's crony capitalism

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald You might think the federal Conservatives, who added $125-billion to the federal debt since 2008 and will add another $21-billion by the end of March, might be shy about unnecessary expenditures. Alas, that’s not the case, ...

7. Cities thrive when governments focus on parks, not mega-projects

   Appeared in the National Post and Calgary Herald Mayors and councillors across North America regularly spend taxpayer cash trying to revitalize neighbourhoods or entire cities. They often do so in expensive and ineffective ways: grand schemes that wipe ...

8. Industry Canada loses $5B; Access request finds $7.4B lent, just $2.1B repaid

   Appeared in the Financial Post and Calgary Herald The well-known quip- The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results- is often attributed to Albert Einstein or Mark Twain. Accurate attribution has ...

9. Corporate Welfare Bargains at Industry Canada

   This Alert reviews payments made to businesses over the last 30 years by Canada's federal department of industry, a practice known as corporate welfare. The information was gathered through an Access to Information request to Industry Canada. This ...

10. Santa Claus governments- Appeared in the Calgary Herald

    Appeared in the Calgary Herald For those who look back on 2011 and wonder how European and American governments dug themselves into such a deep debt hole, consider this image as an explanation: Santa Claus. Over the decades, governments have promised ...