Who was Barbara Mitchell?
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Canada’s Wasteful Plan to Regulate Plastic Waste

Canada’s Wasteful Plan to Regulate Plastic Waste is a new study that finds Ottawa’s plan to ban plastics by 2030 will have virtually no effect on the environment as only one per cent of Canada’s plastic waste is ever released into the environment as litter, but could ultimately cost Canadians $300 million a year.

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The Accumulated Debt and Economic Performance of Industrialized Countries during COVID finds that Canada had the second-highest increase in gross debt (as a share of the economy) out of 33 countries from 2019 to 2021 while actually underperforming economically compared to most of the same countries.

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Student Testing: An International Context

Student Testing: An International Context is a new study that finds more than 80 countries or jurisdictions are participating in this year’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a group of comparable, highly developed nations, including Canada. The OECD reports that about three-quarters of 15-year-old students in those participating countries attend schools in which mandatory standardized tests are used at least once a year.

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Why Educational Testing is Necessary

Why Educational Testing is Necessary is a new essay that highlights the importance of test standardization, and examines the benefits of objective testing versus grade inflation in the education system.

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This year, Tax Freedom Day is Wednesday, June 15. If you had to pay all your federal, provincial and municipal taxes up front, you would give government every dollar you earned from January 1st to Tax Freedom Day, when Canadians finally start working for themselves. In 2022, the average Canadian family (with two or more people) will pay 45.2 per cent of its annual income in taxes, including income taxes, payroll taxes, health taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, carbon taxes and more.

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Do Budget Deficits Matter?

Low Interest Rates and the Cost of Government Debt and Canada’s Budget and Deficit Cuts in the Late 20th Century: An Amazing Success Story are the latest installments in an essay series on government deficits that emphasize the risks of higher interest costs on government debt, and note the similarities between today’s federal fiscal situation and the mid-1990s when interest costs consumed one of every three dollars of government revenue. At that time, the government enacted major reforms—including spending reductions—to help dramatically reduce the federal debt.

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Understanding Universal Health Care Reform Options

Understanding Universal Health Care Reform Options: Cost-Sharing for Patients is a new study that finds Canada is only one of six (out of 28) industrialized countries with universal health-care that doesn't use any form of cost-sharing as part of the model, which can be used to incentivize more efficient use of scare health resources and potentially reduce wait times.

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