Despite a decline in the crime rate, crime cost Canadians $85 billion in 2009 (the latest year with comprehensive data) including $47 billion incurred by crime victims, finds a new study by Stephen Easton, Hilary Furness, and Paul Brantingham. The study, The Cost of Crime in Canada 2014, measures the overall costs of police, courts, prisons, rehabilitation and education. And the varied costs incurred by crime victims due to stolen or damaged property, crime prevention, lost health and productivity, and less tangible costs associated with anger, frustration and fear.

Once again, Canada ranks among the world’s most economically free countries, ranking seventh overall according to the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic Freedom of the World report, released today at an international event in Brussels. The report measures the economic freedom (levels of personal choice, ability to enter markets, security of privately owned property, rule of law, etc.) by analyzing the policies and institutions of 151 countries and Hong Kong.

If Ontario adopted British Columbia’s model for funding and delivering K-12 education, the province could save up to $1.9 billion per year, finds a new study by Deani A. Neven Van Pelt, Milagros Palacios, and Taylor Jackson. The study, Financial Savings: Restructuring Education in Ontario Using the British Columbia Model, estimates the financial benefits of Ontario adopting B.C.’s K-12 education model, with its publicly funded anglophone and francophone school systems, and partial funding for independent schools.