Opinions
Abolish the Senate? Forget it: Change the Senate? Maybe
May 24, 2013 in The Globe and Mail
As the Mike Duffy saga reaches its sad denouement, the more important issue remains: The federal government’s efforts to reform the Senate are dead. The Prime Minister can continue to chide opposition parties and provincial governments all he likes but the federal government’s Senate reform legislation has always been ill-conceived. Provincial...
Why we should say ‘no’ to the Canada Jobs Grant
May 1, 2013 in www.caledoninst.com
According to the Harper government’s recent Budget, thousands of jobs are going unfilled due to a shortage of skilled labour while at the same time more than a million Canadians are unemployed. Yet the Budget’s centerpiece initiative to address this mismatch between unemployed workers and the skills they need to fill jobs – the Canada...
Ottawa Should Say No to the Global Currency Casino
April 25, 2013 in Huffington Post
A debate has been raging in the City of Toronto about building a casino. Opponents say that a casino brings a guaranteed net loss for society. If the city gets some extra tax revenue, it will come at the expense of people who are unlucky enough to lose their money. Much of it will get skimmed off for overhead and the profits of the international casino...
How to curb precarious employment
Susan McIsaac & Matthew Mendelsohn
April 22, 2013 in The Toronto Star
There has been a growth in precarious work in Ontario in the past decade. This affects us all. Beyond the anxiety itself that comes with vulnerable work, many in the labour market do not have the same social and legal protections and security that other workers enjoy. This needs to change. Precarious employment is now found in all sectors of our economy...
New Canada/U.S. council will tackle problems of Great Lakes
Matthew Mendelsohn & David Kocan
April 11, 2013 in The Toronto Star
Water levels in the Great Lakes were at a record low in January. Like many issues affecting the Great Lakes Region, Canadians and Americans are affected equally. As a region, we have common interests but no common voice. That is why dozens of organizations from across the region are this week launching a new binational council to address our environmental...
Money still flows out of 'have-not' Ontario
March 30, 2013 in http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/03/30/money_still_flows_out_of_havenot_ontario.html
Over the coming weeks, Canadians will turn their attention to a familiar rite of spring...
Canada Needs a Digital Economy Strategy
February 28, 2013 in www.mowatcentre.ca
If Canada is to remain globally competitive, we need a digital economy strategy. While references to a strategy still appear in ministers’ speeches, and the Industry Canada website has information about the 2010 consultation process that was to lead to the adoption of a strategy, the government has lost its way in the digital forest. Most of...
Is there a thriving underground economy in Canada?
February 25, 2013 in www.theglobeandmail.com
For many years, pundits have predicted the demise of paper money. It turns out they were right, but not in the way they expected. The Bank of Canada is replacing the old paper bills with new high-tech polymer notes, to the irritation of people who have trouble counting the slippery new twenties and fifties. The prediction that cash money would be...
Who knew? In public services, less can be more
January 8, 2013 in iPolitics
Canada has a robust safety net for our most vulnerable citizens. Yet across a wide range of human services — including health care, childcare and social housing — governments are increasingly facing clients with multiple and complex needs. And departments and agencies are being asked to improve services for these clients with flatlined...
Ontario abandons voter equality
December 10, 2012 in National Post
The electoral boundary commission for Ontario is redrawing the province’s federal ridings at this moment. They must make moving closer toward voter equality a priority. Independent commissions redraw federal boundaries every 10 years, to keep up with changes in population. Because of serious underrepresentation of some regions in the House of...
The Solution to Homelessness Is In Our Hands
December 6, 2012 in The Toronto Star
Which level of government is responsible for homelessness in Canada? All of them. That’s the problem. Because all orders of government are directly involved in policy and programming in the area, no one jurisdiction can be held accountable for reducing and eliminating homelessness. Overlapping and competing government roles confound the sector,...
The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: A View From The Trenches
December 5, 2012 in Public Policy and Governance Review
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations between Canada and the European Union (EU) started in 2009 are scheduled to conclude within the next couple of months. Although the actual breadth and ambition of the agreement wil tl not be known until the deal is signed, its genesis, negotiation, and potential impacts present a number...
Looking to California for higher-education policy inspiration
November 28, 2012 in National Post
The Ontario government has asked for policy ideas to make its universities more productive. Here is one: Allocate a quarter of the province’s $3.5-billion university grant on the basis of faculty research performance with a view to getting closer to the teaching and research productivity of public universities in California. California’s...
Fiscal Federalism: Why Municipal Leaders Should Care
October 2, 2012 in Mowat Centre
All those who follow public policy in Ontario are familiar with the main thrust of Don Drummond’s report on Ontario’s fiscal situation, released earlier this year. But few policy wonks have spent much time with Chapter 20, which may be the most important part of the report. This chapter on Intergovernmental Relations provides devastating,...
It's not in Quebec's best interest to take back EI from Ottawa
September 19, 2012 in The Montreal Gazette
In 1940, the provinces — including Quebec — agreed to a constitutional amendment putting unemployment insurance into Ottawa’s jurisdiction. Now Pauline Marois, Quebec’s premier-elect, wants to take what is now called employment insurance back from the federal government. Ottawa should respond in the same spirit of pragmatic...
How to take charge of Canada's energy technology future
September 7, 2012 in http://www.ipolitics
The dispute between Alberta and British Columbia over the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline highlights again that Canadian provinces do not have identical perspectives on energy. Ministers of Energy will no doubt find it challenging to agree to a common national energy strategy when they meet in Prince Edward Island this week. But there is hope....
More Reform Needed on Canadian Election Boundaries
Michael Pal & Matthew Mendelsohn
September 5, 2012 in http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1251311--more-reform-needed-on-canadian-electoral-boundaries
Electoral boundaries commissions have been hard at work drawing new electoral maps that would be in place for the next federal election, expected in 2015. These maps will have a huge impact on the distribution of power for the next 10 years. The boundaries being proposed by the commissions represent a huge step toward voter equality in all provinces...
Petrodollar really a loonie bubble
August 29, 2012 in Financial Post
One of the ongoing frictions between central Canada and the oil-rich provinces is the effect of oil prices on the dollar. Opposition leader Thomas Mulcair and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty have periodically blamed the Alberta oil sands for driving up the dollar and hurting exports of manufactured goods. I would argue that this is one source of national...
EI Reform - Aiming East, But Affecting Ontario
July 4, 2012 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Initial reactions to the reforms requiring frequent regular EI benefit recipients to take any “suitable work” offered to them may well turn out to be incorrect. In particular, the idea that EI regions within Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, and parts of New Brunswick will be most affected is probably off the mark. Many perceive the “suitable...
How do we pay for the regional transit network we so urgently need?
June 29, 2012 in Toronto Star
In recent days and weeks, it’s clear that transportation and “getting there” is becoming an increasingly intolerable daily hassle for people and organizations across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Through the latest polls, at hearings at Queen’s Park, in municipal forums and motions, or in a rant at home or around...
Governments can't ignore income security forever
June 12, 2012 in the National Post
There is an invisible elephant in the room in the debate around employment insurance reform. Coincidentally, it is the same large elephant hiding among the pots and pans of the Quebec student protest and can even be found on the edges of NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s angst about the West’s resource-based economic success damaging Ontario’s...
Regulating remittance fees makes sense for Ontario
June 8, 2012 in iPolitics
Last week, Ontario NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh (Bramalea-Gore-Malton) introduced a private member’s bill that proposes to regulate the fees that financial institutions levy on remittances, transfers of money from individuals in Ontario to people around the world. Among other requirements, the bill calls for a five per cent cap on these fees, which...
Changes to EI leave the job unfinished
June 4, 2012 in the Globe and Mail
The federal government has undertaken the biggest overhaul of employment insurance in two decades but has done almost nothing to address the big structural problems at the core of the system. The proposed changes have raised the ire of many in Atlantic and rural Canada – who rely disproportionately on the system – but will do little to...
Reinventing Canada's tax system
May 18, 2012 in the National Post
Most provincial governments are under severe fiscal pressure. In order to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates, provincial governments will need to increase revenues or reduce spending by an amount equal to 2.9% of national GDP. Put another way: The provinces will need to find an extra $49-billion...
Federal funding for job training shouldn't be linked to EI
April 17, 2012 in the Toronto Star
Most of Ontario’s unemployed are not eligible for government-funded training programs. Last week the Toronto Star highlighted the extraordinary barriers that workers face when trying to access training programs. The list of people excluded from programs is long: the self-employed, the long-term unemployed, those with multiple part-time jobs,...
Calming the furor over equalization
March 19, 2012 in the National Post
In the last decade, equalization has attracted significant attention from politicians, commentators and think tanks. Federal and provincial government commissions have shed considerable political light on the program. And elected officials across the country have been quick to voice their concerns about the impact of equalization on their respective...
Ontario staggers under burden of fiscal federalism
March 7, 2012 in the Toronto Star
The Drummond report’s chapter on “Intergovernmental Relations” has received little attention so far. That needs to change. The chapter provides a devastating, evidence-based case that lays a lot of the blame for Ontario’s fiscal woes on the steps of the federal government. When Premier Dalton McGuinty complained on Monday...
Don't pit young against old
March 2, 2012 in the Globe and Mail
In trying to justify spending cuts in the coming federal budget, the Conservatives must be careful not to further fuel conflict between younger and older Canadians. Some intergenerational conflict is inherent in any society. The old may begrudge paying taxes to support school boards, while the young may dislike paying taxes that support health care....
Don't ask for our love, Alberta
March 1, 2012 in the Toronto Star
The national media have all sided with Alberta Premier Alison Redford over Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty on the impact of the oil sands on the Ontario economy. The Alberta premier went down to Chicago and chastised the Ontario premier for not loving the oil sands. When McGuinty declined to profess his love, the media piled on him for being ungracious....
There's a fairer (and cheaper) way to even the provinces' playing field
February 5, 2012 in the National Post
Equalization payments are intended to give all provinces the financial means to provide roughly equivalent services to their residents. This principle is embedded in our Constitution. But it doesn’t always work out that way. In fact, some provinces receive more than they need. Some receive too little. Manitoba has proportionally more school-age...
Innovation key to Ontario's prosperity
Len Crispino & Matthew Mendelsohn
January 26, 2012 in the Toronto Star
The 20th century was a good one for Ontario. Its prosperity was founded on a strong manufacturing base, its proximity to American markets, a rich natural environment and its position as the centre of Canadian economic and political power — power it was not afraid to wield in order to secure favourable federal policies. That era is over. The...
Employment Insurance for modern times
January 18, 2012 in the Financial Post
Last year turned out to be a disappointing year for employment growth in Canada. The year was also indicative of the broader structural changes that have been underway in our labour force for a long time. Unfortunately, the federal Employment Insurance system can't accommodate the "new normal" in our labour market. Premiers are meeting today in Victoria...
Federal health role is about more than money
January 10, 2012 in the Toronto Star
Jim Flaherty’s surprise health announcement last month was clear, principled and financially generous: 6 per cent through 2016-17, and then to 2024 increases at nominal GDP growth, but never below 3 per cent, even if economic growth lags. This provides known long-term funding and is more than provinces could have reasonably expected from the...
Providing shelter for the unemployed
November 30, 2011 in the Globe and Mail
Canada’s employment insurance system is a vestige of Old Canada, antiquated debates about national unity and outdated understandings of the labour market. Modern Canada needs a system consistent with new regional realities and the new world of work. Modern Canada needs a system that promotes a shared sense of citizenship. Canada once featured...
What can fiscally constrained governments do to improve undergraduate education?
November 11, 2011 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Anxiety about the quality of undergraduate education is much in the news. American studies like those described in the recent book, Academically Adrift, have suggested that, for many students, four years of university produces no measurable improvement in writing skills, critical thinking or complex reasoning. In Canada, class sizes keep increasing...
How To Reform Health Care
November 1, 2011 in the Toronto Star
The story has become too familiar: health-care spending is skyrocketing and governments are struggling to find money to pay the bills. With current trends, health care would account for 80 per cent of Ontario’s budget in 2030. These “straight line of death” projections lead quickly to the conclusion that we either need new revenues...
Canada's unequal voters
Matthew Mendelsohn & Sujit Choudhry
November 1, 2011 in the Toronto Star
Here’s a little-known fact: we don’t have real voter equality in Canada. And here’s another: last week, the federal government introduced the Fair Representation Act that will begin to correct this problem. Canadians in three provinces — Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia — live in ridings that are much larger than...
Only the Federal Government Can Beat Gridlock
October 28, 2011 in the National Post
Canada’s mayors want a national transit strategy. Prominent organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Urban Transit Association and the Toronto Board of Trade are all agitating for one. NDP MP Olivia Chow has proposed a bill in the House of Commons to create one. And critically, there are signs that the federal government...
Canada's Innovation Underperformance: Whose Policy Problem is It?
October 18, 2011 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
For three decades Canada has been supporting innovation primarily through one of the most generous tax incentive policies in the world, one that currently represents about C$ 4.7 billion in foregone federal tax revenue per year. The failure of this policy, however, is clear to anyone who has been paying attention to the many published reports. They...
Economy, Ontario: Have not province
September 20, 2011 in the Toronto Star
Ontario’s recent descent into equalization-payment receiving, or “have-not” status is not due to the state of its revenues alone. It is due to other provinces’ revenues, as well. Ontario is a manufacturing powerhouse, operating largely in North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) economic space. It has suffered from both...
A good start toward rational health-care billing
August 16, 2011 in the Toronto Star
Last Friday, Ontario’s Ministry of Health made a low-key announcement: “The province and the Ontario Medical Association have improved the final year of the four-year Physician Services Agreement by making changes that will deliver better health-care results for families, reduce the use of unnecessary medical procedures and allow for health dollars...
Boosting the Great Lakes International Economy
July 18, 2011 in The New Republic
The regions on both sides of the Great Lakes international border need to team up to strengthen their highly integrated economies. That was the conclusion of over 250 public and private leaders from both the United States and Canada recently brought together by Brookings and the University of Toronto Mowat Centre in Detroit-Windsor. The tone was...
The Great Lakes can lead the world
June 17, 2011 in the National Post
The Great Recession ended two years ago this month, but many countries around the world are still reeling from its economic devastation. Moving forward, every country must fundamentally re-examine its economic growth model, and build a different kind of economy. For the United States and Canada, this means transitioning to a "next economy" that...
Overcharged for health care
June 15, 2011 in the Toronto Star
One of the biggest challenges facing our health-care system is what to do about declining costs. No, that was not a typo. The actual cost of many services and procedures has been spiralling downward — yet the amount provincial governments spend on health care has been spiralling upward. How can this be? Let’s take a look at one...
Budget 2011 continues inequities in federal support for working Canadians
June 9, 2011 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
As promised, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has re-introduced the pre-election 2011 federal budget with “minor tweaks.” This is bad news for those who care about fairness in the EI system and federal support for working Canadians. The present approach is at odds with a modern, equitable Canada. Working Canadians with equivalent yearly incomes...
The best investment in the world
John Austin & Matthew Mendelsohn
June 6, 2011 in the National Post
Regions will be just as important as nation-states in ensuring the wellbeing of communities in the coming decades. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region - made up of the eight states and two provinces (Quebec and Ontario) that surround these great waters - has everything necessary to succeed in this new world. Regions are becoming more important because...
The sun is setting on Sunbelt hockey
May 24, 2011 in the Ottawa Citizen
The National Hockey League's 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was supposed to have fixed all of this. A lockout cost the league its 2004-'05 season, but at the end of the day the owners and the players reached a deal that promised labour peace and financial stability. Labour peace they got, but financial stability? Not so much. The NHL finds...
Self-fulfilling prophets of health-care doom
May 15, 2011 in the Toronto Star
During the election campaign, all federal party leaders agreed that spending more money on health care is good. They fell all over themselves proclaiming their party was most likely to continue increasing spending by 6 per cent a year. There was no real debate about how to improve or reform health care, just a political argument about who is best...
Finally, good news for Ontario
May 9, 2011 in the Toronto Star
The federal election results are good news for Ontario. The province is in play for federal parties. We should use that power. Real damage has been done to Ontario’s economy over the past 20 years by Liberals who have taken the province for granted, Conservatives who had active contempt for the GTA and the NDP, which was not a serious...
When is $500 not $500?
May 9, 2011 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
When it is a tax credit introduced in a federal Budget. Most tax credits, including the ones just announced in the 2011 Budget, are designed as ‘non-refundable credits.’ This design means that recipients of these tax benefits do not receive any direct cash payment. Rather, they obtain their benefit in the form of an income tax reduction...
The Lessons From the Election
May 8, 2011 in La Presse
Il existe deux règles irréfutables dans la politique électorale canadienne: une vieille règle et une nouvelle. Et les libéraux n'ont compris ni l'une ni l'autre. L'ancienne règle, c'est que les partis doivent posséder une base régionale solide... quelque part. Les conservateurs ont une base...
Canada's EI regional lottery
Vuk Radmilovic & Josh Hjartarson
April 19, 2011 in the Toronto Star
Canada’s employment insurance program is a postal code lottery — your winnings (if any) largely depend on your address. In this respect, the program is unique internationally. A recent study done for the Mowat Centre Employment Insurance Task Force compares Canada with 17 OECD countries. It is only in Canada that your region plays an integral...
Double standard on energy
April 15, 2011 in the Toronto Star
The federal government spends billions of dollars every year on the nation’s energy sector, except, that is, on the portions that happen to be in Ontario. It is in Canada’s interest that the federal approach to energy support the sector in all regions, including Ontario. Right now, the federal government’s energy strategy is heavily...
Ontario Budget: It Takes Two to Untangle
April 6, 2011 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Ontario’s recent budget announcement contains a not-so-subtle hint at future government savings. The message: now is the time to reduce the costly and inefficient duplication of federal and provincial programs. A subsection of the March 29 budget, titled Reforming Public Service Delivery, signals that the province is finally ready to take a hard...
Ontario's 3 simple questions
March 27, 2011 in the Toronto Star
Many Canadians apparently don’t want this federal election. The risk is that voters tune out. This could yield tragic results for Ontarians because it may be the most important election for Ontario since the free trade election of 1988 — which fundamentally altered Ontario’s economic landscape. Ontario’s economy is again under...
A New Agenda for Non-Profits
Elizabeth Mulholland & Matthew Mendelsohn
March 14, 2011 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Last week, the Government of Ontario announced measures to help put charities and non-profits on firmer financial footing. This includes allowing them more ways to generate revenues through entrepreneurship or "social enterprise." A Minister responsible for the sector is being created. A number of other provinces, like BC, are undertaking similar...
Bringing coherence to our fragmented EI system
January 24, 2011 in the National Post
Canada's Employment Insurance program is beset with many problems. While the program has evolved substantially since its introduction, its modern iteration has been distorted by partisan politics and ad hoc adjustments designed to put out small, often regional, fires. Most experts agree that the system is broken and needs an overhaul. If the EI system...
Fixing EI: Getting beyond regionalism
January 20, 2011 in the National Post
Debate over what's wrong with Canada's EI system often drips with regional animosities. The East is frequently painted as a bloated, slothful sponge for the resources of the hardworking provinces west of Quebec. It's time to get beyond that perception and down to the real business of EI reform. Although the EI system does represent a real transfer...
Take the politics out of Employment Insurance
January 19, 2011 in the National Post
In the midst of the recession last year, the federal government decided to ignore the spirit of its own legislation (enacted only a year before) and froze the premiums that workers and employers pay to fund the Employment Insurance (EI) program. This was the right call. Increasing EI premiums -- as was legislatively required -- would have hurt the...
The price of Canada's fraying safety net
January 19, 2011 in the National Post
Many Canadians like to feel smug about the deficiencies of the American health-care system. Yet we shouldn't feel so smug. There are large parts of Canada's own social safety net that millions of Canadians slip through every day. Our federal government delivers many social benefits through the Employment Insurance system. These include sickness, compassionate-care,...
Yesterday's EI is failing today's Canada
January 17, 2011 in the National Post
Employment Insurance in Canada is broken. The Ontario government has said this for two decades. Many groups across the country have joined in this chorus, urging the federal government to fix the program. But attempts at serious reform, such as Lloyd Axworthy's Social Security Review in 1994, always come up against the same old story in Canada: regional...
The Real Evidence on a National Securities Regulator
December 16, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
In assessing the merits of a national securities regulator, it is important to be guided by rigorous analysis, not selective citation. In his report, “The National Securities Commission Proposal: Challenging Conventional Wisdom,” Pierre Lortie appears to prefer the latter. Lortie seeks to discredit federal initiatives, aimed at creating...
Fix the Transfer System
December 3, 2010 in the National Post
Canadians know that health care is a ticking time bomb. The fiscal and demographic pressure on the Canadian health-care system is one of the reasons why many provinces are posting large deficits. It's a problem that must be addressed sooner rather than later. As a result, provincial governments are becoming increasingly worried that the federal government...
Thinking Like an Ontarian
November 15, 2010 in the National Post
Next week, academics and representatives from government, business and civil society are gathering from across Canada to discuss Ontario, its politics and its relationship with the rest of the country. This is unusual. Ontario, despite being home to nearly 40% of Canada's population, barely registers as a topic of conversation among Canada's opinion...
Big Brother No More
October 13, 2010 in the Literary Review of Canada
In 2006, all governments were staking out their positions on the renegotiation of the equalization formula. Most provinces wanted the program expanded, but Ontario had publicly stated that federal programs, like equalization, that drained money from Ontario to support other provinces were unsustainable for the Ontario economy. In an attempt to come...
An Exaggerated Demise
October 12, 2010 in the Literary Review of Canada
Let us, for a moment, pity poor Ontario. The litany of affronts, indignities and embarrassments over the last two decades is long and inglorious: free trade agreements foisted upon it, careening business cycles and a roller-coaster dollar, wrenching and radical changes in government, ever-increasing taxes and an end to cheap power, never-ending sporting...
The Census: A Compromise and the Seeds of Long-Term Change
August 5, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
As the provincial premiers gather for the Council of the Federation meeting in Winnipeg, there is undoubtedly some discussion of the census long form controversy, even if it is not on the formal agenda. Both short and long-term issues are at play and there are important, but quite different, considerations in the two time frames. In the very short...
Ideology, Autonomy and the Census
August 5, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
After Tony Clement announced that the census long-form would now be voluntary, the Conservative government’s decision was quickly denounced as being value-driven. The ensuing firestorm of contention over whether the census long-form should be voluntary or mandatory strikes at the heart of that which is truly at stake: how to balance the whims...
Securities Reform: Will Region Trump Reason?
July 21, 2010 in the Globe and Mail
George Orwell famously quipped that the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent people. With respect to securities regulation in Canada, there are two obvious observations: The current patchwork of 13 regulators in the highly sophisticated securities sector does not serve the national interest and is an obstacle to the smooth functioning...
Marchés Financiers: Vive Toronto!
July 21, 2010 in La Presse
La mosaïque canadienne actuelle dans le secteur hautement sophistiqué des valeurs mobilières est composée de 13 organismes de réglementation distincts. Elle sert mal les intérêts du pays et est un obstacle au bon fonctionnement de l'union économique canadienne. L'existence de tous ces organismes...
Re-Inventing Regional Economic Development
Neil Bradford & David A. Wolfe
July 6, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
For most of Canadian history, southern Ontario has been the nation’s economic powerhouse with many strengths across sectors, cities, and communities. However, recent years have brought complex and large-scale challenges to the region. Continental free trade, the global financial crisis, and a volatile exchange rate now demand creative adaptation...
Getting the Feds Out of Immigrant Settlement Services
July 5, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
The Greater Toronto Area is amongst the most diverse places on earth. Approximately 30% of people living in Ontario were not born in Canada and fully 50% of those in the Toronto area are foreign-born. Because of this good fortune, Ontario has often just assumed that people from around the world will keep coming here – and settling, integrating...
Municipal Voting Rights for Non-Canadian Citizens
July 5, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Imagine a Canadian city with a population of 380,135 people. That would make it the same size as Halifax, and larger than half the provincial capital cities of Canada. What if none of its residents could vote in civic elections to choose their municipal mayor or council or school board? Outrageous? Impossible, you say? Well...it happens every time...
Why We Need to Raise the Retirement Age
Thomas Klassen & Martin Hering
April 14, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Canadians can expect to live longer and healthier lives than ever before. Believe it or not, there is a downside. The recent economic crisis highlighted the troubles facing pension plans worldwide. Both private and public pension plans are facing shortfalls not only because of plummeting returns on investments and depressed stock markets, but also...
Why Canada Needs a New Approach to Child Care
April 7, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Canada has one of the worst early childhood education and care systems among advanced industrialized countries. It spends significantly less than most countries, not only compared to countries like Sweden and France, but also less than the United States and the United Kingdom – countries not known for large public investment in social programs....
Who's Afraid of Rep-by-Pop?
April 6, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Last month, the federal government honoured its campaign commitment to address the under-representation in the House of Commons of Canadians living in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. By introducing legislation to add new seats for provinces with rapidly growing populations, Canada will come closer to living up to its constitutional commitment...
Are National Standards Necessary?
February 24, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
There is a tension between federalism and the welfare state. Federalism, which preserves diversity by allowing provinces to pursue alternative policies, may compromise the achievement of the shared social citizenship fostered in a federation when the welfare state offers comparable programs and benefits accessible to all citizens. The fear is...
Goodbye to "National Unity" -- It's Time for a New National Policy
Robert Wolfe & Roderick Macdonald
February 22, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
When the global economic crisis hit last fall, Canadian politicians were consumed with debates about separatists under the bed. Now when the world is tottering towards the edge of the climate change cliff, the Canadian response is to worry about the costs to Alberta of shifts in policy, or about how Hydro Québec might get too big for its britches....
Speaking Truth to Academics: The Wisdom of the Practitioners
February 21, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Governments are paying increasing attention to the inter-generational transfer of knowledge within the public service and to the threat posed by what has been termed “institutional amnesia” or “organizational Alzheimer’s.” The large number of impending retirements from the public service and the consequent loss of organizational...
Non-citizen Voting in Toronto: A Case of Too Little, Too Soon?
February 20, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Should non-citizens be given the right to vote in municipal elections? A good many people, including the Mayor of Toronto, think they should. There are strong arguments for expanding the municipal franchise to include non-citizen permanent residents, drawing as they do on deep democratic traditions. It is hard to deny the logic of “no taxation...
The Three Ghosts of Poverty
January 11, 2010 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
The Three Ghosts of Christmas Past are a familiar holiday image, and they ask us to think about what kind of lives we’d like to live and what we owe our fellow citizens. But there are also three ghosts that haunt millions of Canadians every day. These ghosts of poverty stalk far too many households that provide support to sick and aging parents,...
The Insurmountable Problem of Cities
November 18, 2009 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
It is no secret that cities are becoming increasingly important as sources of innovation and wealth in our society. This is particularly true in Canada, where six large city-regions are expected to account for 80% of our country’s future economic and population growth. Does this mean that the governments of our urban centres will eventually grow...
Pour un Ontario fort
November 10, 2009 in La Presse
Le Québec a longtemps souhaité que le fédéralisme devienne plus souple et que le principe même du fédéralisme soit davantage respecté, c'est-à-dire que tous les gouvernements respectent les juridictions constitutionnelles de chacun. Bien que l'autonomie du Québec se soit immensément...
Why Just Focus on Quebec-Windsor When Talking About High Speed Rail?
October 30, 2009 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
It’s rare that an opportunity presents itself to simultaneously tackle some of our country’s biggest challenges: pollution and climate change, slow economic growth, the need for more private-sector-driven innovation and the requirement to deliver people quickly and efficiently to and from home, work and play. But that opportunity is here....
Will the Federal Government Listen to Ontario, BC and Alberta -- and Visible Minorities?
September 22, 2009 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
In Canada, the worth of one's vote depends on where one lives. The situation is especially unfair for Canada’s visible minority population, who are seeing their voting power diluted, even as their population expands. Section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives all adult Canadian citizens the right to vote, but wide variations...
A Bold Proposal to Renew Confidence in our Retirement Income System
September 22, 2009 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Last winter, governments and central banks rediscovered John Maynard Keynes and saved us from a depression like that of the 1930s. Even so, restoring employment will be slow. And the great financial meltdown of 2008 has left other troubles. Among the worst is shattered confidence in retirement incomes. But correcting it is complicated by the imminent...
Why is Our Immigration System Delivering Short-Term, Ad Hoc Responses?
September 17, 2009 in Mowat Analysis and Opinions
Immigration to Canada is fundamental to the nation's social and economic well-being. Immigration can fill jobs, promote trade and innovation, generate investment and grow our population. It is particularly important in Ontario, where nearly half of the immigrants to Canada settle. But the system is in trouble. Upon arrival, too many immigrants have...
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Analysis and Opinion
Abolish the Senate? Forget it: Change the Senate? Maybe
As the Mike Duffy saga reaches its sad denouement, the more important issue remains: The federal government’s... Read More
Why we should say ‘no’ to the Canada Jobs Grant
According to the Harper government’s recent Budget, thousands of jobs are going unfilled due to... Read More
Ottawa Should Say No to the Global Currency Casino
Peter Spiro
A debate has been raging in the City of Toronto about building a casino.
Opponents say that a casino...
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