Oil and gas exports the path to prosperity, says Calgary reader
Wikipedia data shows Canadians are the ninth wealthiest people on Earth in terms of median wealth per adult. However, Canada lags such large, resource-rich, economic heavyweights as Switzerland, Iceland, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Belgium, and New Zealand on that metric. Canadians would, should, easily be the second or third or even wealthiest people on Earth if western Canadians were […]
Herd immunity, reinfection and the Great Barrington Declaration
LONDON, U.K.—After eight full months of the global pandemic, the pressure to keep the economies open and let the chips (or rather, the elderly) fall where they may is growing strong. The ‘Great Barrington Declaration’ of Oct. 4 was signed by three medical professors from Oxford, Harvard, and Stanford universities and by tens of thousands […]
Make the rich pay, one of these days
CHELSEA, QUE.—A wealth tax is one of those simple and beguiling ideas that resurfaces in times of economic turmoil, only to be forgotten as the economy rights itself. Meanwhile, the rich keep getting richer and everyone else is just relieved to be back at work. But in the midst of a pandemic, the proposal is […]
de Adder’s Take: 19-10-2020
Ottawa has the power to bring the temperature down in Nova Scotia
HALIFAX—Over my time in this business I have witnessed and written about many terrible things—the 1982 sinking of the Ocean Ranger with all hands lost, the 1998 crash of Swissair 111 with no survivors, the ghastly abuse of boys at Mount Cashel Orphanage uncovered in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the 2015 killing of […]
Feds need to provide the analytical basis for new programs, like the superclusters project
TORONTO—In predicting that the promised economic benefits from the centrepiece of the government’s innovation strategy will fall far short of what Industry Minister Navdeep Bains has promised, the Parliamentary Budget Office has turned the spotlight on the government’s much ballyhooed superclusters project. This provides an opportunity for the House Industry Committee to review the program—pluses […]
Time for Liberals to draw a line in the sand for borrowing
The federal Liberal government has promised another update on the state of Canada’s finances some time this fall. It should come soon, and it should include a clear signal that the government has a plan for stopping and reversing the growth of Canada’s national debt. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux called on the government to […]
Cost of inaction on low-carbon transition far outweighs the scale of investment
Ottawa residents, including myself, breathed a sigh of relief this spring when we saw only heavy rain and not a repeat of last year’s record flooding along the Ottawa River. Our relief, though, may only be temporary because once-in-a-lifetime floods, wildfires, and hailstorms are becoming much more frequent than 30 years ago. With Canada warming […]
The future of digital ID depends on earning the confidence of Canadians
Throughout this year, measures instituted to control the COVID-19 pandemic have placed a spotlight on the state of digital readiness and the ability—or inability—for citizens, businesses, and governments to access or provide key services, conduct business, and interact securely online. These events have exposed gaps in our system, revealing and emphasizing a disparity between organizations […]
How to fix the Canadian Forces’ grievance system
OTTAWA—The Canadian Forces grievance process has been in a shambles for years, mostly attributable to excessive delay. In 1998, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Antonio Lamer, in his first independent review of the National Defence Act wrote, “Soldiers are not second-class citizens. They are entitled to be treated with respect, […]
