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The Fraser Institute's sixteenth annual waiting list survey found that Canada-wide waiting times for surgical and other therapeutic treatments increased slightly in 2006. Total waiting time between referral from a general practitioner and treatment, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provinces surveyed, increased from 17.7 weeks in 2005 to 17.8 weeks in 2006.

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The Canadian-US oil and gas sector has become deeply integrated over the last two decades. This is a success story in which competitive market forces by and large have displaced various attempts at government intervention on both sides of the border. Deregulation here does not mean the end or absence of regulation but rather regulatory measures that are geared to optimize free-market exchanges. Without much formal governance, Canada and the United States enjoy the world’s most integrated and efficient energy border. In fact, the border is usually invisible as trade in oil, gas (and also electricity) flows in a patchwork of densely interconnected regions.

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The first section of this publication provides an overview of cash transfers from Ottawa to the provinces along with an analysis of the level of provincial dependence on federal cash transfers. The second section outlines the need for rebalancing within the federation based on greater accountability. The final section gives the recommendations for reform.

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Sala-i-Martin's summary assesses world poverty and income inequality using a new measurement tool that estimates the distribution of income among individuals in 138 countries between 1970 and 2000. After reviewing past research on poverty and inequality, the study presents the World Distribution of Income (WDI) in order to analyze global trends in poverty and inequality. The results show that despite the growing income gap between rich and poor countries, world poverty and income inequality fell markedly between 1970 and 2000.

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This study is the first effort by The Fraser Institute to measure and compare the performance of auto insurance markets across international jurisdictions.

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This study is The Fraser Institute's third annual report on the financial sustainability of provincial public health insurance. Every year the data are updated and new projections generated. This year's analysis again uses the most recent five-year trends in the annual growth rates for total provincial public expenditure on health care and total provincial government revenue from all sources to project future growth in these measures. The results confirm that health-care financing, as it is currently structured in Canada, is not financially sustainable. Health spending has been growing faster on average than revenue in all provinces for a long time and has also outpaced inflation and economic growth. This has resulted in health care taking up an increasing share of provincial revenue over time, despite higher tax burdens in each of the provinces as well as government policies that restrict access to medically necessary goods and services.

The analysis in this study show that, if provincial governments continue to pursue policies that lead to the same rates of growth in health spending and revenue that have been observed in the recent past, public health-care expenditures will soon exceed the capacity of governments to pay for them. Based on the most recent five-year trends, public health spending in six of 10 provinces is on pace to consume more than half of total revenue from all sources by the year 2020, two thirds by the year 2035, and all of provincial revenue by 2050. Last year, public spending on health care in seven of 10 provinces was on pace to consume more than half of total revenues by 2022, two thirds by the year 2032, and all of provincial revenue by 2050.

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Fraser Institute submission to Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance for 2007 federal budget.