Economy

Getting Better Grades

Roslyn Kunin of the Canada West Foundation responds to the recent Conference Board of Canada report “How Canada Performs 2008: A Report Card on Canada,” in which Canada receives a C for environment, and a D for innovation. He explains how the lack of innovation seriously hurts the Canadian economy and competitive edge, and what can be done to improve it.  Canada is not doing badly in providing its population with post-secondary education, he writes, but can do much more to inculcate an entrepreneurial spirit among its workforce, especially among young people.

http://www.cwf.ca/V2/cnt/commentaries_200903021531.php

Read the Conference Board study: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/HCP/default.aspx

 

How Will the Budget Stimulus Work When Central Bank Rates Are Close to Zero?

With Bank of Canada interest rates heading towards zero, tax cuts are the worst possible economic stimulus, argue Arthur Donner and Doug Peters in a report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Donner and Peters examine how tax cuts will work with close-to-zero central bank rates. By reinforcing deflationary pressure and thereby increasing real interest rates, the authors predict that tax cuts may well be contradictory, causing GDP to fall. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/

 

Simpler, Fairer Tax System Needed for Corporate Group Taxation

Providing a comprehensive group-taxation regime would bring fairness, simplicity and certainty of tax outcome for Canadian corporations, says a study recently released by the C.D. Howe Institute. Author Alexandre Laurin says Canada's current approach leads to higher administrative and transaction costs, unfairness among different types of corporations, uncertainty, and weakened international competitiveness. These concerns, he says, point to the need to consider a statutory framework allowing for the transfer of profits and losses among domestic members of a corporate group for federal and provincial tax purposes.

http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/commentary_284.pdf

 

Oil and Gas Incentives Deliver Poor Returns

Alberta Energy Minister Mel Knight recently announced the government would reduce royalty rates and introduce royalty credits for oil companies embarking on new drilling projects over the next year. Diana Gibson and Ricardo Acuna of the Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta question whether investing $5 billion in the oil and gas sector is the best way to encourage investment and create new jobs in Alberta. They demonstrate instead how funds for health and schools would create more jobs. http://www.ualberta.ca/%7Eparkland/research/perspectives/GibsonAcunaOilIncentives09OpEd.htm

 

 

Public Policy

Canada's Hidden Deficit

Low literacy is Canada's hidden deficit and a barrier to full participation in society for about 9 million people, assert Judith Maxwell and Tatyana Teplova of the Canadian Policy Research Networks. The authors explore the social costs of low literacy, describing the burden it places on individuals and on Canada's social fabric. Most important, they say, low literacy skills limit individual achievement, wealth creation and social and economic development. http://www.cprn.org/documents/51094_EN.pdf

 

Collateral Damage

Work stoppages in Ontario elementary schools have measurable and significant negative impacts on student performance, according to a study from the C.D. Howe Institute. David Johnson assesses the effects of strikes and lockouts on student performance in Grades 3 and 6. According to Johnson, strikes by elementary teachers have a significant impact on student performance in Grade 6, particularly in mathematics, while strikes are less harmful for Grade 3 students. The study also found the negative effects of work stoppages in Grade 3 and Grade 6 are much larger at schools where students arrive with social and economic disadvantages. http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_74.pdf

 

Report Card on Alberta's Elementary Schools

Ten of the fastest improving elementary schools in Alberta are found in neighbourhoods that have among the lowest average parental incomes, according to a report recently released by the Fraser Institute. Author Peter Cowley concludes that these results weaken the conventionally accepted link between quality of education and socio-economic status. According to the Albertan case, elementary schools do not need to be located in wealthy neighbourhoods to improve and be successful. The Report Card on Alberta's Elementary Schools is part of a series of studies on provincial education policy.

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/commerce.web/product_files/70ABEEL09COMP.pdf

 

 

Foreign Policy

Options for Renewal of Canada's China Policy

According to Charles Burton of the Canadian International Council, the Government of Canada should clearly articulate its strategy for improving and promoting access to the Chinese market for Canadian business. Burton indicates that this approach should focus on the distinctive characteristics of the Chinese market and business culture, and Canada's comparative advantage in that market vis-à-vis its competitors.

http://www.canadianinternationalcouncil.org/research/canadianfo/areassessm

 

Mission de paix sur une poudrière

La Cour pénale internationale vient de frapper un grand coup. Pour la deuxième fois - après le président serbe Slobodan Milosevic - la justice internationale émet un mandat d'arrêt contre un chef d'État, en l'occurrence le dictateur soudanais Omar el-Béchir. Il reste maintenant à l'arrêter et à le transférer à La Haye sans provoquer la déstabilisation du pays.  Jocelyn Coulon du Réseau francophone de recherche sur les opérations de paix y donne ses opinions et ses prévisions sur le succès de cette opération. http://www.cerium.ca/rop

 

Haiti in Focus

Haiti is Canada's second largest aid recipient, points out Carlo Dade of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas; each year, Ottawa sends Haiti one-half of Saskatchewan's equalization payment. In the current issue of FOCALPoint, Dade and other contributors ask whether Canada's aid has made a difference, and whether the international community has advanced towards the point where massive intervention by donors will no longer be needed. http://www.focal.ca/pdf/focalpoint_march09.pdf

 

 

Energy and Environment

Concordia to Become Quebec's Most Advanced Composter

Concordia University has begun using a new large-scale composting system, making it the only institution, public or private, in Quebec to collect organic waste on this scale and compost it on-site. The smaller composting systems that previously operated at the university could only handle fruit and vegetable waste, but the new automated thermophilic system is designed to allow for the processing of dairy, meat and grain products. Every tonne of organic waste composted on site will save two tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and decrease acid-rain and smog by cutting down on transportation.

http://www.concordia.ca/about/whoweare/tellingourstories/community/composting.php

 

Towards Sustainable Outsourcing

If used properly, the outsourcing of Information Technology Enabled services provided through cables, phones and computers, can play a proactive role in sustainable development worldwide, finds a collaborative study released by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and Account Ability. The global economic crisis could provide the very opportunity that businesses and outsourcing hub innovators have been waiting for to move forward in the direction of sustainable outsourcing. This report offers a blueprint for all involved: employees, citizens, businesses, cities, regions and countries.
http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2009/towards_sustainable_outsourcing.pdf

 

 

Science and Technology

HPV Vaccine Can Still Be A Tough Sell

Government human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine programs for girls have been rolling out across the country for more than a year now, but scientists remain divided on the medical efficacy of this vaccine. Health experts from Dalhousie University, McGill University and the University of Calgary share their contending views on the issue.  http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/lifetimes/article/591314

 

University of Toronto Scientists Selectively Erase Fear Memories

It may sound like something out of a science fiction movie - but bad memories can be erased in mice and this finding sheds light into how memories are normally encoded and stored in the brain. In a study published in the March 13 issue of the journal Science, researchers at the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children have established a link between specific neurons and a given memory. The study is believed to be the first to establish causal links between specific brain neurons and memory, thereby shedding much light on how the memory works.

http://www.news.utoronto.ca/lead-stories/u-of-t-scientists-selectively-erase-fear-memories-and-gain-insight-into-how.html