Reforming Capital Gains Taxes in Alberta finds that Alberta should eliminate the provincial portion of the capital gains tax—lowering it from 24 to 16.5 per cent—to become more competitive with key energy-producing jurisdictions in the United States. Currently nine U.S. states do not impose a state-level capital gains tax, including several key energy-producing states—Texas, Wyoming and Alaska—which directly compete with Alberta for investment, entrepreneurs and even highly-skilled workers.

The Human Freedom Index, 2018 finds that New Zealand is the freest country in the world, followed by Switzerland and Hong Kong. Canada ranks 5th globally, and the United States ranks 17th in this year’s report. The index ranks 162 countries and jurisdictions based on 79 indicators of personal, civil and economic freedoms and is a joint project with the Cato Institute in the U.S. and Germany’s Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2018 finds that the median wait time for medically necessary treatment in Canada this year was 19.8 weeks. Among the provinces, Saskatchewan has the shortest median wait time this year at 15.4 weeks, and New Brunswick again recorded the longest wait time (45.1 weeks).