Economy
Buy American: Creating or Costing U.S. Jobs?
The Woodrow Wilson Center’s Canada Institute hosted a discussion on the economic impact of the Buy American provisions of the Obama administration’s stimulus package. The program featured remarks from Dawn Champney, President of the Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association; Robert Baugh, Executive Director, Industrial Union Council, AFL-CIO; Jeffrey Schott, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; and Christopher Whatley, Director, Washington Office, The Council of State Governments. Watch the video

An Economic Future with Smaller Numbers
In response to massive demographic shifts in eastern Canada, a recent paper from the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies explain that while the region faces serious challenges, the impacts these shifts can be mitigated. Read

Life Cycle Costing: A Question of Value
Though many public procurers are using life cycle costing (an economic assessment that takes into account projected cost flows over a lifetime) as a decision-making tool, its use is still far from being systematic and the calculation methodologies are sometimes far from robust, claims a new report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. The report argues that the current sustainable public procurement model is not delivering the best value for tax payers’ money. Read

Issues with Efficacy of FAST at the Cascade Gateway
An article from the Border Policy Research Institute (BPRI) examines issues related to the efficacy of the FAST program at the Cascade Gateway. The data was collected by the BPRI in collaboration with the Whatcom Council of Governments (WCOG), a planning entity located in Bellingham, WA. WCOG facilitates the International Mobility and Trade Corridor (IMTC) project, which is a binational forum that seeks to improve mobility through the Cascade Gateway. Read

Canada Can Lead the World with Smart Pension Reform
In the 2009 Annual Benefactors Lecture, published by the C.D. Howe Institute, Keith Ambachtsheer set out the goals of an improved Canadian supplemental pension system and the principles on which it should be based. After reviewing current shortcomings, he proposes a two-pronged plan for turning supplemental pension arrangements into an integrated, effective system. Read

Energy/Environment
The Canadian Nuclear Industry: Status and Prospects
Canada was one of the first countries to adopt nuclear energy, notes the Centre for International Governance Innovation’s John Candham. Furthermore, it is the world’s largest supplier of natural uranium and a supplier of nuclear technology and expertise. However the future role of nuclear energy in Canada in now in question, he says, and in a new paper, Candham provides an analysis of the future of nuclear energy in Canada. Read

The Case for a National Strategy on Low Income Energy and Water Efficiency
The vast majority of Canada’s low-income families live in older houses, with inadequate insulation in attics, walls and basements, writes the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s Shaun Loney. Programs such as Winnipeg’s Building Urban Industries for Local Development have the potential, Loney argues, to improve energy efficiency for low-income households, thereby reducing greenhouse gases while decreasing the high costs facing these households. Read

Public Policy
Making Milk: The Practices, Players, and Pressures behind Dairy Supply Management
The Conference Board of Canada published a report by Danielle Goldfarb that examines, in practical and accessible terms, how Canada’s dairy supply management system works, as well as its origins and effects. Read

Foreign Affairs
Measuring Effectiveness in Complex Operations: What is Good Enough?
Humanitarian agencies, academics, diplomats and the military are all engaged in measuring the effectiveness of peace operations. A recent report by Sarah Jane Meharg of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute examines the issues and offers suggestions on how to increase operational effectiveness. Read

Anti-Union Violence Drops in Colombia
In Canadian Foundation for the Americas’ latest newsletter, authors touch upon many of the governance challenges exemplified in the debates taking place in Uruguay, Bolivia and Honduras, recasting them in different national contexts or on local and regional levels. They address justice and human rights concerns, participation of civil society in decision-making and inter-linkages between environment, security and development. Read

News from Canadian Universities
U of T Expert Says Canada Is Leader in Smart Pension Reform
The time has come to turn Canada's supplemental pensions jumble into a coherent system with a clear goal and a clear plan to achieve it, avows Keith Ambachtsheer, director of the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management and an adjunct professor of finance at the Rotman School Management at the University of Toronto. Read

When Giant (and Intelligent) Crocodiles Roamed the Earth
Queen's University researcher Steven Lehrer has won a prestigious international award in recognition of his contributions to health economics. A professor in Five ancient crocs, one with teeth like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck's bill, have been discovered by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno and McGill University Professor Hans Larsson. The five fossil crocs, three of them newly named species, are remains of a bizarre world of crocs that inhabited the southern land mass known as Gondwana some 100 million years ago. Read

Ancient Egypt Provides Lessons for the Future
New research by a University of Calgaryprofessor explores the ancient pyramid fields and temples of Egypt for clues about these ancient societies. Professor Carmen Boulter seeks lessons modern society can learn from these advanced civilizations from the past. Read