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.

Canadian cities such as Winnipeg and Windsor, Ont., burden taxpayers with overstaffed police departments, finds a new study by Livio Di Matteo. The study, Police and Crime Rates in Canada, analyzes policing levels, local crime rates and other socio-economic factors (i.e. median family income, unemployment rates, youth populations) using StatsCan data over a 10-year period to calculate the optimal number of police officers in Canada’s metropolitan areas. The actual number of police officers is compared to the optimal number in each metropolitan area.