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"For affordable housing: Have Ottawa pay the rent" by Tom Kent Municipalities are created by the laws of a province. They administer such services as the province decrees or leaves scope for them to provide, from limited finances. This thraldom is increasingly resented, particularly in cities whose populations far exceed those of smaller provinces. It seems natural to seek relief by appeal to Ottawa, but that would require public money to be used in defiance of the Constitution, which neither the provinces nor the courts will allow. The unrealism is tragic because there are in fact ways in which federal resources can be deployed to correct the deficiencies of urban living. Those ways would not put federal money directly into the hands of municipal administrations. Rather, they would enable individuals to pay for specific improvements to their cities and towns. The priority proposed is a program to make housing affordable. "Comment ne pas « stimuler » l'économie" by Jean-Luc Migué The source of Canada’s continuing slow economic growth is not any deficiency on the “demand side,” which Canadian governments have been dutifully massaging for half a century, but on the supply side of the economy. Keynesian stimulus does not create new wealth: it redistributes it from one group of taxpayers to another. To persuade people to undertake new job-creating, wealth-building activity you need to allow them to keep more of the fruits of their effort. Canada needs a smaller government and lower taxes. The latest budgets from the Quebec and federal governments do not provide that. "TV news after September 11" by Peter Mansbridge [article summary not available] "Le cyber-gouvernement : un modèle d'efficience" by Yves Rabeau The electronics revolution has caused many businesses to radically change the way they structure their operations and relate to clients. Regulated monopolies and other institutions long accustomed to a dominant market position have often had difficulty adjusting to the new ways of doing business. Although many governments have made impressive strides in using the Internet to make information available to citizens, few have yet undergone the radical restructuring that technology now makes possible. Governments should offer citizen/clients a single portal from which to access public services, and should deploy their resources, not in silos along departmental lines, but according to purpose and by working cooperatively across what once were different administrative units. Governments that do so will provide better service for less money and thus create both greater benefits for citizens and a competitive advantage for their economy. "Canada-U.S. relations after September 11: Back to basics" by David Jones Canada has long since given over responsibility for North American defence to the United States. This fact of Canada’s foreign policy was in the background before September 11 but is now centre stage. Managing the U.S. relationship skillfully is therefore crucial. The first nine months of the Chrétien-Bush II era did not go smoothly and the Prime Minister, by playing his hand artlessly, lost a rare second opportunity to make a first impression following the terrorist bombings. The United States has set down markers for North American security and, given its strategic helplessness, Canada has little choice but to accept them. "The Aboriginal Industry's new clothes" by Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard The official view that aboriginal "traditional knowledge" is a useful supplement to scientific research provides a good illustration of how the development of native policy in Canada resembles the fable of the Emperor's New Clothes. As is the case with other aboriginal initiatives, any public questioning of traditional knowledge is likely to be met with accusations of racism. The main beneficiary of this extreme form of political correctness is the Aboriginal Industry that has grown up around the negotiation of land claims and self-government agreements. Its victims are aboriginal people, whose dependency and severe social problems are never seriously analyzed. "Aboriginals and archaeologists: Is collaboration possible?" by Nathalie Piquemal and Bret Nickels The excavation of sacred burial sites by non-native archaeologists is often resisted by Aboriginal communities. The experience of Manitoba’s Human Remains and Associated Artifacts Repatriation Program shows that close collaboration between archaeologists and communities can allow recovery of remains to proceed smoothly. Communities have to be involved at every stage, however, and once the research is finished both the knowledge gleaned from it and the remains themselves should be returned to the communities. "Trade and culture: Rhetoric and reality" by Christopher Maule Canada’s policies on trade and culture are complex and confusing. We want to increase cultural exports to countries whose own cultural exports we regard as threatening. Our various ministers make conflicting statements about whether cultural diversity should be protected inside or outside NAFTA. And we have made different commitments in different trade agreements. More countries, even those that traditionally have been regarded as stalwarts on the question of cultural diversity, have begun to appreciate that subsidies and tax favours do not necessarily make for great culture. We need to figure out exactly what we wish to support and how to do it effectively and in accordance with our trade commitments. "Tax filing should be as easy as 'A minus B'" by Fred Donnelly [article summary not available] "Do immigrants catch up economically?" by Derek Hum and Wayne Simpson If immigrants are to catch up to the economic status of native-born Canadians, then at some stage their wages have to grow more quickly than those of the nativeborn. Most studies of immigrants’ economic status have been cross-sectional, that is, have looked at different people at a given point in time. Statistics Canada’s new Survey of Labour Income Dynamics now allows an examination of individual immigrants’ wages through time. Between 1993 and 1997 male immigrants’ wages did grow more quickly than the wages of native-born Canadians, but the difference is entirely explained by differences in education and experience acquired both before and during the period. The same is true for women. It therefore appears that during the mid-1990s immigrants were not assimilating economically. "Are the polls biased against Quebec Liberals?" by Claire Durand During the Quebec provincial election campaign of 1998, an apparent bias in the polls led to a systematic underestimation of voter intent for the Quebec Liberal Party. Did this bias recur in the 2000 federal election? A statistical analysis suggests that for Canada as a whole the polls did a fairly good job at estimating overall voter intent. In Quebec, however, the experience of 1998 appears to have been repeated. It would be prudent to bear this in mind when examining various polls conducted in Quebec. Bias apart, some polls seem to produce systematically higher variability in their estimates. This may reflect shortcomings in the polls’ design rather than substantial variations in voter intent. Book review: Andrew Parkin reviews Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset by Edward Greenspon and Darrell Bricker [article summary not available] |
