Who was Barbara Mitchell?
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Phasing Out Supply Management: Lessons from Australia's Dairy Industry

Phasing Out Supply Management: Lessons from Australia’s Dairy Industry finds that Canadian consumers and the dairy industry could both benefit from phasing out supply management. In fact, immediately following deregulation of Australia’s dairy industry in 2000, the price of milk dropped 12 cents per litre, and farm gate prices—the price farmers receive for their product—increased 56 per cent. Australian milk farmers now export about half their product, making dairy the country’s third most important agricultural export after beef and wheat.

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The Effects on Entrepreneurship of Increasing Provincial Top Personal Income Tax Rates in Canada

The Effects on Entrepreneurship of Increasing Provincial Top Personal Income Tax Rates in Canada finds that many provincial governments across Canada are discouraging entrepreneurship and preventing hundreds of new businesses from being created by increasing top provincial personal income tax rates, which reduces the incentives for entrepreneurs to start new businesses.

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Proportional Representation in Practice: An International Comparison of Ballots and Voting Rules

Proportional Representation in Practice: An International Comparison of Ballots and Voting Rules finds that any replacement of B.C.’s current First-Past-The-Post electoral system with a form of Proportional Representation will require trade-offs, an understanding of the impact that such changes will have on the way votes are counted and what impact the new system may have on the legislature and the party system.

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Protecting Government from Free Trade: The “Free the Beer” Case at the Supreme Court of Canada

Protecting Government from Free Trade: The “Free the Beer” Case at the Supreme Court of Canada argues that the Court effectively nullified section 121 of the Constitution, which states that goods from any province shall be “admitted free into each of the other provinces.” As a result, provincial governments may raise barriers to any products—including beer and wine—from any other province as long as they can identify a regulatory objective in the public interest.

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Comparing the Standardized Test Scores of British Columbia’s Public and Independent Schools

Comparing the Standardized Test Scores of British Columbia’s Public and Independent Schools finds that over a five-year period, students at non-elite independent schools averaged statistically significant higher scores than public students in 10 of the province’s 11 standardized tests in both elementary and secondary schools, even though after-tax incomes for families with children at both types of schools are the same.

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Specific Claims and the Well-Being of First Nations

Specific Claims and the Well-Being of First Nations finds that the federal government has paid nearly $6 billion over the past four decades to hundreds of First Nations in Canada to settle “specific claims” linked to historical treaties, but there has been no corresponding increase in living standards among those recipient First Nations.

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Increasing the Minimum Wage in Ontario: A Flawed Anti-Poverty Policy

Increasing the Minimum Wage in Ontario: A Flawed Anti-Poverty Policy finds that raising the minimum wage would do little to reduce poverty in Ontario because the vast majority of minimum-wage earners don’t live in low-income households. In fact, nearly 60 per cent of all minimum-wage earners in the province in 2017 were teenagers or young adults aged 15 to 24, almost all of whom (86.3 per cent) lived with their parents or other relatives.

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