The federal government still has not made its intentions clear regarding the possibility of increasing the inclusion rate of the capital gains tax from 50% to 75%. Since this kind of tax entails detrimental effects, a change of policy should go in the exact opposite direction, as some other countries have done, and either substantially reduce the capital gains tax or simply abolish it.

Canada’s oil and natural gas sector is currently going through hard times. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly promised to improve the business environment in the United States by reducing the tax and regulatory burden, especially as it affects this sector. As Canada’s competitiveness in oil and gas development depends almost entirely on its position relative to that of its powerful neighbour, it is important to understand what is going on right now in the United States and the effects of U.S. policy on our economy.

Quebec’s Health Minister recently gave an ultimatum to the province’s hospitals such that emergency room stays could no longer exceed 24 hours. While our health system has failed for years to significantly reduce wait times, the performance of a Swedish hospital (the Saint Göran, a Stockholm hospital funded by the government and run by Capio, a private multinational company) should inspire decision-makers within our health care system.

U.S. President Donald Trump has just reiterated his intention to reduce the top federal corporate tax rate, aiming to lower it from 35% down to 20%. Such an abrupt reduction, or even a more modest one, would have serious consequences for the Canadian economy. Ottawa therefore has an interest in reforming its own corporate tax system without delay and in introducing proportional taxation based on the 10.5% rate that currently applies to small businesses, so that one single federal rate remains for all Canadian businesses.

Everyone claims to favour entrepreneurship, but politicians routinely propose various programs to help entrepreneurs, when they should instead concentrate on getting rid of policies that discourage them. Indeed, the empirical literature shows that interventionist policies are detrimental to entrepreneurship. The Austrian School of Economics has much to teach us about the kinds of policies that truly encourage entrepreneurship and wealth creation, and thus how to improve public policies in Canada.

This spring, the Quebec government announced additional spending on education. These new expenditures are on top of the substantial increases seen over the past ten years. Is this viable over the long term? Have students benefited from this augmented spending? And are there other solutions that would give taxpayers more for their money?

In order to justify the continued existence of supply management, producers’ associations state that they could not actually compete on the American market, and that without this system, they would even lose their shares of the domestic market. This Viewpoint aims to show that on the contrary, it is possible for Canadian farmers to be successful on the world market, without benefiting from such protectionist measures.

While all countries subsidize their aircraft industries at different levels, the Canadian sector has been making headlines recently. The massive help Bombardier has received sets a precedent, which other countries could exploit to justify heavily assisting their aerospace industries too, potentially creating a beggar-thy-neighbour dynamic. The scenario of a subsidy race in the aerospace industries of all countries is now a real possibility, unless there is a credible signal that such government intervention will be limited in the future.

The Quebec government has set itself the ambitious task of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 37.5% below their 1990 levels by 2030. In order to reach this target, important policy efforts have been devoted to the transportation sector, which accounts for 43% of total emissions. At the forefront of such efforts are electric vehicle subsidies. But starting with their 2018 models, carmakers will now also be faced with electric and hybrid vehicle sales quotas. This is a tax in all but name, which will disproportionately increase prices of conventional vehicles.

For thirty years, the Quebec health care system has experienced multiple systemic problems, especially in terms of long emergency room wait times, and long delays for surgeries as well. Not only has the Health Department been unable to plan the long-term development of the system in such a way as to put an end to these problems once and for all; it also seems unable to allocate resources efficiently when the unexpected occurs. What is so different about the health care sector? And what can be done about it?