Since 2013, there has been a loosening of the decades-long ban on mobile food vending in Montreal. Such steps place Montreal squarely within a wider movement throughout North America to allow greater entrepreneurship at the municipal level. In spite of this positive step, however, the large potential benefits to both consumers and workers are being undermined by heavy regulation. This Viewpoint highlights those benefits and explains how the regulatory framework surrounding mobile food vendors in Montreal remains much too constraining.

The federal government and the CRTC should not repeat the mistakes of recent years by intervening in the broadband sector as they have in the wireless sector, argues the MEI in the 2016 edition of a Research Paper entitled The State of Competition in Canada’s Telecommunications Industry. The Paper notes that 96% of Canadian households already had access to download speeds of 5 Mbps in 2014, with 77% of households subscribing to such a service, a trend that has shown strong growth in recent years.

Publication of a Research Paper analyzing various aspects of the Canadian telecommunications industry related to competition.

Economically free countries tend to be the ones that enjoy greater freedom of the press.

Quebec’s Health Department is senselessly blocking the opening of clinics run by nurse practitioners who specialize in front-line care. Yet these doctorless clinics would respond to real needs among the population, access to front-line care being one of the main failings of Quebec’s health system. Moreover, a nurse practitioner costs the health care system around 1/3 of what a general practitioner costs, shows an Economic Note published by the MEI.

It is difficult for innovative solutions like nurse-led clinics to establish themselves in a bureaucratic health care system.

The federal Liberal government’s vision of a new “Innovation Agenda.”

The well-being of women is intimately connected to the degree of economic freedom that prevails in a given country.

International Women’s Day is an occasion to think about policies that are likely to improve the status of women around the world. Whereas the debate in rich countries has lately focused on gender parity for certain types of positions, in many countries women must still fight for access to health care, education, and the right to work. Numerous studies show that these objectives are more easily attained when women enjoy the advantages of economic freedom.

Bill 81 raises several questions.