The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of 86 think-tanks. Its mission is to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets and government intervention on the welfare of individuals. To protect the Institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit Ontario can balance its budget this year by reducing spending by 4.8 per cent to 2015/16 levels
TORONTO—The Ontario government could balance the province’s budget this fiscal year if it reduces program spending to levels maintained by the previous government in 2015/16, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“The current Ontario government—when it was in opposition—was highly critical of the previous government’s spending levels but, actually, has increased spending further since taking office. In fact, Ontario could balance its budget this spring by lowering its spending to those it inherited,” said Ben Eisen, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Learning from Ontario’s Past: How Ontario Can Avoid Another Post-Recession Debt Binge.
- Tuesday, April 5, 2022
VANCOUVER—Standardized testing is on the decline in Canada, which will limit the ability of parents, teachers and principals to measure student performance and the overall health of the education system, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“The decline of standardized testing in Canada has reduced the availability of important student achievement data, which is essential in understanding how our education system performs,” said Michael Zwaagstra, a public high school teacher, senior fellow of the Fraser Institute and author of 
VANCOUVER—Last year a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada set a precedent, which may open the door for Indigenous groups outside Canada to claim certain rights—including title and constitutionally protected rights—within Canada’s borders, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
VANCOUVER—The combined size of the federal, provincial, and municipal governments increased in all but two provinces over the 2007 to 2019 period relative to the sizes of their economies, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“The size of government increased in eight of ten provinces and the country as a whole going into the pandemic,” said Alex Whalen, policy analyst at the Fraser Institute and co-author of 
VANCOUVER—Federal finances heading into the COVID-19 pandemic were already weakened due to $160 billion in debt accumulation, above and beyond the debt that would have been incurred if the growth in spending had been restrained to the rate of economic growth, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt worsened Ottawa’s fiscal challenges, but it did not create them. Imprudent spending by the federal government in the years leading up to COVID added billions in debt before the pandemic struck,” said Jake Fuss, senior economist at the Fraser Institute and co-author of 
TORONTO—Canada remains in the minority as one of the few OECD countries not to raise the age of eligibility for government retirement programs such as Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
VANCOUVER—Contrary to rhetoric from Ottawa, the majority of lower-income Canadian families with children pay higher federal personal income taxes due to tax changes made by the federal government since 2015, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
TORONTO—Eight-in-10 parents of school-aged children in Ontario support standardized testing to understand how their child and their child’s school are performing in reading, writing and mathematics, according to a new Leger poll commissioned for the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
VANCOUVER—Contrary to rhetoric from Ottawa, the vast majority of middle-class Canadian families pay higher federal personal income taxes due to tax changes made by the federal government, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
VANCOUVER—Canada’s higher inflation rate coupled with higher unemployment make it the 6th most miserable countries among 35 advanced economies worldwide, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“Canadians are rightly concerned about the country’s high inflation and unemployment rates, and when compared to other developed countries, Canada is not doing well,” said Jason Clements, executive vice president of the Fraser Institute and co-author of 
VANCOUVER—The increasingly accepted idea that the world has 10-years to avoid catastrophic climate change is overstated because it’s largely based on unreliable models, finds a new essay released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
TORONTO—While the rate of job creation in the Toronto and Ottawa area exceeds the national average, most other cities, smaller towns and rural areas outside these regions experienced little or no job growth since the 2008/09 recession, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“Given the sheer size of the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding communities, it is easy to miss the economic challenges faced by many other parts of Ontario when looking at province-wide economic statistics,” said Ben Eisen, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Uneven Job creation in Ontario’s Urban Centres from 2008 to 2019.
TORONTO—Even before COVID—and the response from governments worldwide—global freedom was on the wane, finds a study released today by Canada’s Fraser Institute and the U.S.-based Cato Institute.
“When people are free, they have more opportunity to prosper and pursue happier healthier lives for themselves and their families,” said Fred McMahon, resident fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of this year’s 
VANCOUVER—Canadian patients waited longer than ever this year for medical treatment, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
The study, an annual survey of physicians from across Canada, reports a median wait time of 25.6 weeks—the longest ever recorded—and 175 per cent higher than the 9.3 weeks Canadians waited in 1993, when the Fraser Institute began tracking wait times for medically necessary elective treatments.
VANCOUVER—Canada’s inflation rate, projected to be 3.8 per cent for the year, is the 6th highest among a group of 35 comparable, developed countries, finds new researched published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
TORONTO—20 per cent of Ontario parents are concerned their child has lost out on valuable learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that their child’s school has no plan to catch them up, according to a new Leger poll of Canadian parents of kids in K-12 conducted for the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“Ontario parents—and indeed parents across Canada—are rightly worried that the school closures and education disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic could have long lasting impacts on their child’s learning,” said Paige MacPherson, associate director of education policy at the Fraser Institute.
VANCOUVER—The number of Canadians donating to charity—as a percentage of all tax filers—is at the lowest point in the past 20 years, finds a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
VANCOUVER—According to central banks including the Bank of Canada, today’s above-average inflation rates are mainly due to global supply-chain disruptions related to the pandemic—and therefore are transitory and likely short-lived—but a host of factors could prolong higher inflation, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“While COVID’s effect on the economy has certainly contributed to the rising cost of goods and services, if central banks and governments continue their aggressive policies, higher inflation could persist even after the pandemic subsides,” said Steven Globerman, professor emeritus at Western Washington University, resident scholar at the Fraser Institute and co-author of 
CALGARY—Texas and Oklahoma are once again at the top of the rankings for the most attractive jurisdictions in North America for oil and gas investment, while no Canadian province is even in the top 10, according to this year’s survey of petroleum-sector executives released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan, Canadian public policy think-tank.
“The message from investors is clear—Canada’s onerous and uncertain regulatory environment continues to hurt the investment attractiveness of the country’s oil and gas industry,” said Elmira Aliakbari, director of the Fraser Institute’s centre for natural resource studies and co-author of the 
VANCOUVER—If the federal government had introduced even a modest rule imposing more discipline on the growth in government spending starting in 2015—even one that allowed for all the COVID emergency spending—the federal budget could have been balanced by 2025/26, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.