Canada’s federal equalization program is motivated by good intentions. However, the program has unintended consequences, and creates perverse incentives that have allowed at least two “have-not” provinces to shun sensible economic opportunities.
hydraulic fracturing
Décembre 23, 2014
10:00AM
Décembre 15, 2014
11:00AM
New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant, seems poised to follow through on a campaign promise to institute a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.
Octobre 2, 2014
6:00AM
In the recent New Brunswick election, an unremarkable engineering activity apparently took front and centre: hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, popularly known as fracking.
Septembre 26, 2014
10:00AM
Back in Canada’s pre-Confederation days, one selling point for uniting the then-disparate British provinces was to drop existing barriers to commerce. The hope was for a country with a free-flow of trade and services in which all could potentially prosper.
Septembre 18, 2014
11:33AM
Nova Scotia’s government recently announced it would table legislation to establish a moratorium on the practice of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) for the production of natural gas in the province. The ban, which follows a lengthy report on the safety of hydraulic fracturing, is indefinite, but not permanent. (One is reminded of the saying that there is nothing more permanent than a temporary tax.).
Septembre 6, 2014
6:00AM
From the fur trade to fisheries and forests, Canada was built on the toil and sweat of those who wanted to prosper. But these days, it’s harder to create opportunity. And sometimes, government is to blame. The latest example comes from Nova Scotia.
Octobre 25, 2013
2:00AM
The recent native protests in New Brunswick against proposed hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') are not only devoid of facts but harm the potential for prosperity and lower personal taxes. Add in the anti-fracking frothing in neighbouring Nova Scotia, and also in Quebec, and it adds up to ill-advised provincial policies, this despite the safety of fracking.
Before detailing the potential for a lighter personal income tax burden if more resource development was allowed, here are the facts on hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas.
Mai 20, 2013
2:00AM
Quebecs political leaders seem to have fallen for the Great Green Dream of economic prosperity without energy or natural resource production. Its a magical vision of a world powered by unicorns and rainbows, where consumer goods are somehow conjured out of thin air rather than being manufactured with resources extracted from the ground. But experience in Europe as well as in Ontario show that chasing the green dream is a path to financial ruin, not utopia.