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The provincial government has withdrawn $5 million of funding from First Nations University of Canada. The loss of 20 per cent of the school's funding is not good news for students in the short term, but may have been the only way the university would truly get its act together. The move by the province has actually met with widespread support across the political spectrum, something columnists have noted. The best rant on the topic can be found on the Newstalk blog where producer Tammy Robert recounts the FNUniv scandals from shortly after its inception right until...
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In 1997, Stephen Harper and Tom Flanagan jointly penned an essay titled "Our Benign Dictatorship" in which they laid out why the Liberal government of the time was essentially undefeatable, as well as what would be required for it's defeat. Namely, they pointed to electoral co-operation (between Reform and the PCs) in the form of not running candidates against one another in close ridings and a possible coalition government after the fact. Today, Philip Resnick and Reg Whitaker in The Tyee wrote an open letter calling on the Liberal, New Democratic and Green leaders...
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Even though Regina city workers' defined benefit pension plan has substantial unfunded liabilities, a switch to defined-contribution plans will only be considered as a last resort. That's unfortunate because without changes, taxpayers will be on the hook for pensions that guarantee city workers a retirement where they make a generous 70 per cent of the paycheck earned in their final five years of employment. In this blog post, Bill Tufts breaks down the numbers and suggests what taxpayers should be looking for.
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Did the devil make him do it? Did the NDP-Liberal-Bloc coalition? Did Flaherty run renegade? Or does Stephen Harper independently and objectively think that deficit budgets really are the way to go?These questions matter on many levels, but from a taxpayer advocacy perspective, only so much. Yes, a worldwide recession plus the Conservative government's minority status are both mitigating factors in Harper's defense. But when it comes to deficit budgets, it's better to doubt the benefit than to give the benefit of the doubt. Canadians need to demonstrate to both the...
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The federal government, which once snatched up 2500 tickets for 2010 Vancouver Olympic tickets, is now returning 75 to 80 per cent of them for sale to the general public. The value of the remaining tickets is about $300,000, which is less than the $1 million bought by the B.C. government, and the $340,000 of tickets bought by the City of Vancouver.Any temptation to give the federal government a round of applause should be tempered by a few other relevant facts. First, the "Feds' seat sale wins gold for good PR" as Don Martin of the Calgary Herald wrote. It always...
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Toronto taxpayers haven't had good news in many years. Although mayoral candidate George Smitherman recently announced his desire to reduce or eliminate the vehicle registration tax, he is not the mayor and has no chance of becoming one until the fall. In the meantime, Torontonians will have to deal with another city budget from tax-and-spend Mayor Miller. That will be introduced February 16. Rest assured, the CTF will continue to advocate for lower taxes and restrained spending instead of the 4 per cent tax hike and 10 percent spending hikes that occured last year....
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Newfoundland's premier is having surgery in the United States, leaving his political opposition to state the obvious: it's one more reason to doubt Canada's public health care system. The Globe and Mail reports.Premier Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador is undergoing heart surgery in the United States later this week because the treatment he is seeking was not available in his home province, his deputy premier said Tuesday. Mr. Williams, 60, decided to go to the United States for surgery after weeks of consultation with his doctors, Kathy Dunderdale said...
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Unless Canadian taxpayers cough up $90 million in the next two weeks, there will be an Olympic-sized lawsuit, says the CBC. Unfortunately taxpayer subsidies are nothing new to the 2010 Olympic games.The New York Post reported Monday that the parent of Intrawest ULC, the company which owns one of the venues for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, wants the Canadian government to put up $90 million US before the Games start or it will sue. The Post reported the parent firm, Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investments LLC, is negotiating with the Canadian government, with the...
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Eyebrows were raised early in January 2010 when the B.C. government posted a tender for $25,000 that some lucky BC bid lottery winner could get to study the impact on the B.C. coast of a one meter rise in sea level by 2100 due to climate change. Why one meter, though?  Why not seven meters, as claimed by Al Gore in his movie An Inconvenient Truth? After all, at Prince Rupert on B.C.'s north coast, the tide can rise up to 7.5 meters in 6 hours. Funnily enough, people have adapted to this rapid sea level rise without any government help. Maybe one meter seemed more...
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Canada's main socialist party is now getting its talking points from an organization that attacks the Conservatives for being too big a spenders? Stranger things have happened, but David Christopherson, MP for Hamilton Centre and the NDP democratic reform critic, attacked the Harper government for its five Senate appointments today as a farce" to see "who got the Cash-for-Life lottery tickets this year." Now where have I heard that before? Try flipping to page 13 and 14 of The Taxpayer, the flagship publication of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF). In the...
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