The Economic Freedom of the World: 2016 Annual Report is the world’s premier measurement of economic freedom, ranking countries based on five areas: size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labour and business. This year’s report compares 159 countries and territories. In this year’s ranking, which is based on 2014 data, Hong Kong is again number one, Canada is tied for fifth, and the United States ranked 16^th for the second year in a row.

Education Spending and Public School Enrolment in Canada, 2016 Edition, finds that spending on public schools in Canada has increased dramatically over the past decade even as the number of students has declined. Across the country, spending on public schools increased more than 40 per cent, from $44.3 billion in 2004/2005 to nearly $62.6 billion in 2013/2014, a decade that saw a 4.2 per cent decline in the number of students enrolled in public schools in Canada. On a per-student basis, spending increased from $9,876 to $12,427 (after accounting for price changes), a dramatic 25.8 per cent increase over the same time.

Canadian Consumer Tax Index 2016, finds that the average Canadian family spends more on taxes than on housing, food and clothing combined with 42 per cent of income going to taxes, and 38 per cent being spent on the basic necessities of life. The annual study tracks the total tax bill of the average Canadian household from 1961 to 2015, and looks at both visible and hidden taxes that families pay to the federal, provincial and local governments, including income, payroll, sales, property, health, fuel and alcohol taxes, and more.