When the conference How to Spend the Fiscal Dividend: What is the Optimal Size of Government? was planned in the summer of 1997, the Government of Canada was expected to present a balanced budget in the upcoming fiscal year 1998/99 and, if tax rates and spending programs remained unchanged, large annual surpluses in the following years. These expected surpluses have become known as the fiscal dividend because they are the return on the investment of fiscal restraint practised since 1993.

I/M programs were developed during the 1970s in the United States, where government regulations imposing I/M programs spawned a billion-dollar vehicle-testing and consulting industry. In spite of the fact that in the United States, I/M programs have never been shown to provide anywhere near the benefits its supporters promised, the programs continue to be very popular with industry, government bureaucrats, and non-profit organizations.

Waiting Your Turn presents the only comprehensive measure of hospital waiting lists across Canada. The survey measures the extent of health care rationing in the provinces from year to year.