Bracket creep has cost taxpayers too much for too long
If a business overcharged you by $450, you might want an explanation. The least that business could do is stop overcharging you in the future. Prices for everything from groceries to gasoline are going up fast enough without overcharges on top. Prince Edward Island MLAs owe Islanders an explanation about their income tax bills. The…
Prince Edward Island has to stop digging into Islander families’ pockets
The government of Prince Edward Island seems happier to acknowledge inflation’s impact on your wallet than to do something about it. Prince Edward Island is one of only three Canadian provinces – along with Alberta and Nova Scotia – that does not index any tax brackets to inflation. As a result, the tax code pushes…
Energy sector created more than 20,000 jobs and nearly $7 billion in GDP in 2017 alone
By Ven Venkatachalam and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre Next year will mark 30 years of offshore oil and natural gas production in Atlantic Canada. In that time, Atlantic Canada has been the primary source of human capital for the oil and gas industry in other parts of Canada, while being a significant recipient of…
Paul Coles has won eight City of Charlottetown Heritage Awards for his restoration work
Troy Media publisher Doug Firby is part of a group of Canadians who call themselves ConnecTour. Starting last May in British Columbia and ending in October in Newfoundland, they hope to make an 8,000-km bicycle journey across the country, discovering how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives and sense of community. Watch for their…
Taxpayers from so-called have provinces can no longer afford to subsidize the Atlantic provinces
For many years, there has been debate about equalization and other transfer programs and their impact on Atlantic Canada and other regions. Much of this discussion has been technical and difficult to follow. The debate has also been misleading because it focused on equalization even though equalization is only about a quarter of the net…
If Canada continues to subsidize areas that aren’t economically viable, the standard of living in our country will continue to erode
An unusual amount of international attention was given to the Greenland election earlier this month due to plans for a rare-earth mine. This vast country has a population of only 50,000 and is an autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark. Denmark transfers US$740 million to a year to help fund Greenland’s government. This huge…
Non-Indigenous fishers in Atlantic region need not be worried that Indigenous rights will come at the expense of conservation
A dispute in Ontario may help us understand ongoing tensions over the lobster fisheries on the East Coast and offer a solution. The war over Indigenous fishing rights has played out before in Canada. As we reflect on recent violence in Nova Scotia over the lobster fisheries, it’s important to know if there are any…
The government should be bolder on reform commitments and less grandiose in its promises
Canada and its Indigenous communities should finally commit this year to making the systemic reforms needed to ensure First Nations drinking water standards are the same as the rest of the country. For starters, Indigenous communities ought to experiment with more regional water authority agreements to deliver safe drinking water. In late 2020, Indigenous Services…
Governments have more resources and delays can drag on for years. Indigenous peoples pay heavily for the delays in resolving their claims
At any given time, the government of Canada is dealing with hundreds of legal matters with Indigenous Canadians. This is inevitable given the complexity of Indigenous rights, the history of Canadian policy and patterns of government ‘lawlessness’ that left the country liable for the administrative misdeeds of the past 150-plus years. The number, diversity and…
A number of restrictions inhibit labour mobility, as well as the free trade of goods and services. And trade barriers add regulatory burdens on businesses
By Ben Eisen and Alex Whalen The Fraser Institute When many people think about threats to free and open trade to Canada, they immediately consider the protectionist outlook of departing U.S. President Donald Trump. In 2020, another obstacle to the free movement of products and people across boundaries has been the COVID-19 pandemic. However, even…
Fiscal federalism, the lifeblood of the region's economy, faces increasing pressure for reform, especially in the post-COVID-19 world
Massive government spending has landed the four Atlantic provinces at the bottom of economic freedom rankings among the 10 provinces and 50 U.S. states, according to the new Economic Freedom of North America report. Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island are tied at the bottom, just below Nova Scotia (58th) and New Brunswick (57th).…
By Mark Milke and Ven Venkatachalam Canadian Energy Centre Atlantic Canada struggled to create good-paying jobs long before the COVID-19 pandemic. The multiple reasons include poor policy and high taxes on businesses and individuals. Poor policy reinforces other lousy policy, leading to a self-reinforcing downward economic spiral. For instance, previous governments formed policy forbidding fracking…
Eliminating trade barriers can help accelerate the economic recovery
By Alex Whalen and Ben Eisen The Fraser Institute Earlier this summer, the four Atlantic provinces formed the “Atlantic Bubble” as the region works toward freer movement of people amid the COVID crisis. And clearly, the pandemic’s effect on the economy underscores the value of free movement of people and goods, which – on the…
It’s time to reduce funding to police and reallocate those dollars to more proactive ways to reduce crime
Here’s a couple of questions that might have seemed crazy to many people just a few short years ago but are gaining purchase today. Do we really need as much policing as we have? Or are the ever-growing police budgets actually inadvertently leading to greater violence? A lot of us have believed that police exist…
By Aaron Wudrick and Franco Terrazzano Canadian Taxpayers Federation Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has chosen to make life more expensive for Canadians by increasing the federal carbon tax by 50 per cent amidst the COVID-19 economic and health crisis. Meanwhile, governments around the world are moving in the opposite direction because hiking taxes during a…