Search

Search results

1. Fumbling the Alberta Advantage: How Alberta Squandered a Decade of High Energy Prices

   It is well-known that Alberta’s provincial budget is highly dependent on resource revenues. Over the last decade, as a proportion of total revenues, resource revenues have accounted for as much as 40% (2005/06) and as low as 19% (2009/10). In the most ...

2. Ralph Klein saved health care and education

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal Alberta Premier Jim Prentice and Finance Minister Robin Campbell have made it clear the province will reduce government spending in its March budget. In response, many people have alluded to the 1990s ...

3. Capitalism saved the world

   Appeared in the National Post, Calgary Herald and Vancouver Province In a recent column from a Toronto journalist on communism and capitalism, the writer made an astonishing claim: While “millions have been the tragic victims of communism,” he wrote, ...

4. Digging Alberta out of the deficit hole

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald, January 31, 2015 Alberta Premier Jim Prentice has warned Albertans that the current fiscal year’s projected surplus has turned into at least a $500 million deficit and that next year’s budget will sink deeper into red-ink ...

5. A low dollar and cheap oil didn’t rescue Ontario and Quebec before

   Appeared in the National Post One of the more persistent myths about prosperity is that it results purely from luck. Often, commentators credit the mere presence of oil, gas, potash and other natural resources for Western Canada’s recent (and presently ...

6. Ontario premier's fiscal imprudence is reckless

   Appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press and Flin Flon Reminder, Jan 25, 2015 How governments manage their finances matters a great deal. Spend and borrow too much and the result is a spiral of increasing deficits that create ever higher debt. Then, ever-more ...

7. Premier Prentice is wrong about Alberta’s single tax

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald and National Post After governments abandon fiscal prudence, they will soon search for any and all ways to tax people more. This is the reality playing out in Alberta where Premier Jim Prentice has floated multiple tax ...

8. Does Alberta need a sales tax?

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald, Jan 17, 2015 With oil prices plunging and provincial resource revenues expected to drop, Alberta’s red ink will rise. In response, Premier Jim Prentice has floated the notion of a provincial sales tax and/or hikes in other ...

9. Alberta already tried to diversify her economy—and failed

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald With the price of oil plunging to below $50 per barrel and the outlook for Alberta’s economy and provincial budget revenues falling in tandem, an oft-heard piece of advice is being recycled: Alberta should diversify its ...

10. Care about Cuba? Open up its markets

    Appeared in the Calgary Herald and Waterloo Region Record The pre-Christmas announcement by President Obama that the United States would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba will reignite a number of debates. One will be about the cause of Cuban ...