Who was Barbara Mitchell?
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This year Tax Freedom Day falls on June 7.  Tax Freedom Day measures the total yearly tax burden imposed on Canadian families by all levels of government:  If you had to pay all your taxes up front, you’d give government every dollar you earned before June 7. This year, the average Canadian family (with two or more people) will pay $45,167 in total taxes or 42.9 per cent of its annual income.

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Expanding the Canada Pension Plan Will Not Help Canada's Most Financially Vulnerable Seniors

Expanding the Canada Pension Plan Will Not Help Canada's Most Financially Vulnerable Seniors finds that seniors living alone — especially single seniors with limited or no work history  — are the most financially vulnerable in retirement, and that an expansion of the Canada Pension Plan won’t benefit them.

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The Sustainability of Health Care Spending in Canada

The Sustainability of Health Care Spending in Canada spotlights projected government spending on health care over the next two decades. It finds that, in every province, health care spending is expected to consume an increasing portion of total program spending  triggering higher taxes, larger deficits, reduced spending or some combination of these three.

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Duty to Consult with Aboriginal Peoples

The Duty to Consult with Aboriginal Peoples: A Patchwork of Canadian Policies spotlights the legal duty to consult – a principle in Canadian law that obligates federal and provincial governments to consult Aboriginal peoples prior to making decisions that could affect Aboriginal or treaty rights. The study finds that the duty to consult has been implemented by provincial governments in different ways:  This has resulted in a patchwork of policies that can be difficult to navigate for Aboriginal people and for project proponents who are trying to advance development projects that cross provincial boundaries.

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Technological Change and Its Implications for Regulating Canada's Television Broadcasting Sector

Technological Change and Its Implications for Regulating Canada’s Television Broadcasting Sector finds that the low-cost methods of creating and distributing broadcasting content means that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) traditional policies to protect and subsidize Canadian content are increasingly unsustainable.

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Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2016

Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2016 ranks 812 public, separate, francophone, private, and charter schools based on seven academic indicators derived from provincewide test results. In addition to five years of academic results, the report card shows which Alberta elementary schools have improved, or fallen behind, in terms of language arts, mathematics science and social studies over the past five years.

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Moving Targets: Re-estimating Federal Deficits and Debt-to-GDP

Given the government’s rapidly evolving deficit and debt targets, the study, Moving Targets: Re-estimating Federal Deficits and Debt-to-GDP through 2020/21, spotlights the federal government five-year budget plan and raises questions about the government’s fiscal targets. It finds that federal deficits could reach nearly $200 billion over the next five years along with a corresponding increase in the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio.

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