Latest news with #TheFraserInstitute
Cision Canada
4 days ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
Fraser Institute News Release: Rhetoric--not evidence--continues to dominate climate debate and policy
VANCOUVER, BC, June 17, 2025 /CNW/ - Myths, fallacies and ideological rhetoric continue to dominate the climate policy discussion, leading to costly and ineffective government policies, according to a new study published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. "When considering climate policies, it's important to understand what the science and analysis actually show instead of what the climate alarmists believe to be true," said Kenneth P. Green, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of Four Climate Fallacies. The study dispels several myths about climate change and popular—but ineffective—emission reduction policies, specifically: Capitalism causes climate change: In fact, according to several environment/climate indices and the Fraser Institute's annual Economic Freedom of the World Index, the more economically free a country is, the more effective it is at protecting its environment and combatting climate change. Even small-emitting countries can do their part to fight climate change: Even if Canada reduced its greenhouse gas emissions to zero, there would be little to no measurable impact in global emissions, and it distracts people from the main drivers of emissions, which are China, India and the developing world. Vehicle electrification will reduce climate risk and clean the air: Research has shown that while EVs can reduce GHG emissions when powered with low-GHG energy, they often are not, and further, have offsetting environmental harms, reducing net environmental/climate benefits. Carbon capture and storage is a viable strategy to combat climate change: While effective at a small scale, the benefits of carbon capture and storage to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions on a massive scale are limited and questionable. "Citizens and their governments around the world need to be guided by scientific evidence when it comes to what climate policies make the most sense," Green said. "Unfortunately, the climate policy debate is too often dominated by myths, fallacies and false claims by activists and alarmists, with costly and ineffective results." 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 think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit SOURCE The Fraser Institute
Cision Canada
12-06-2025
- Health
- Cision Canada
Fraser Institute News Release: 84% of Swiss hospitals and 60% of hospitalizations are in private facilities, and they face much lower wait times
VANCOUVER, BC, June 12, 2025 /CNW/ - If Canada reformed to emulate Switzerland's approach to universal health care, including its much greater use of private sector involvement, the country would deliver far better results to patients and reduce wait times, finds a new study published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian policy think-tank. "The bane of Canadian health care is lack of access to timely care, so it's critical to look to countries like Switzerland with more successful universal health care," said Yanick Labrie, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of Integrating Private Health Care Into Canada's Public System: What We Can Learn from Switzerland. The study highlights how Switzerland successfully integrates the private sector into their universal health-care system, which consistently outperforms Canada on most health-care metrics, including wait times. For example, in 2022, the percentage of patients who waited less than two months for a specialist appointment was 85.3 per cent in Switzerland compared to just 48.3 per cent in Canada. In Switzerland, 84.2 per cent of all hospitals are private (either for-profit or not-for-profit) institutions, and the country's private hospitals provide 60.2 per cent of all hospitalizations, 60.9 per cent of all births, and 67.1 per cent of all operating rooms. Crucially, Swiss patients can obtain treatment at the hospital of their choice, whether located inside or outside their geographic location, and hospitals cannot discriminate against patients, based on the care required. "Switzerland shows that a universal health-care system can reconcile efficiency and equity–all while being more accessible and responsive to patients' needs and preferences," Labrie said. "Based on the success of the Swiss model, provinces can make these reforms now and help improve Canadian health care." 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 think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit SOURCE The Fraser Institute
Cision Canada
05-06-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
Fraser Institute News Release: This Sunday, June 8, is Tax Freedom Day, when Canadians finally start working for themselves
VANCOUVER, BC, June 5, 2025 /CNW/ - This Sunday, June 8, Canadians will celebrate Tax Freedom Day, the day in the year when they start working for themselves and not government, finds a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. "If Canadians paid all their taxes up front, they would work the first 158 days of this year before bringing any money home for themselves and their families," said Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute. Tax Freedom Day measures the total annual tax burden imposed on Canadian families by federal, provincial, and municipal governments. In 2025, the average Canadian family (with two or more people) will pay $68,266 in total taxes. That's 43.1 per cent of its annual income ($158,533) going to income taxes, payroll taxes (including the Canada Pension Plan), health taxes, sales taxes (like the GST), property taxes, fuel taxes, "sin" taxes and more. Represented as days on the calendar, the total tax burden comprises more than five months of income—from January 1 to June 7. On June 8th—Tax Freedom Day—Canadians finally start working for themselves, and not government. But Canadians should also be worried about the nearly $90 billion in deficits the federal and provincial governments are forecasting this year, because they will have substantial tax implications in future years. To better illustrate this point, the study also calculates a Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day—the day of the year when the average Canadian finally would finally start working for themselves if governments paid for all of this year's spending with taxes collected this year. In 2025, the Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day won't arrive until June 21. "Tax Freedom Day helps put the total tax burden in perspective, and helps Canadians understand just how much of their money they pay in taxes every year," Fuss said. "Canadians need to decide for themselves whether they are getting their money's worth when it comes to how governments are spending their tax dollars." Tax Freedom Day for each province varies according to the extent of the provincially and locally levied tax burden. 2025 Provincial Tax Freedom Days The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit SOURCE The Fraser Institute
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fraser Institute News Release: Switzerland has nearly 65% more doctors and much shorter wait times than Canada, despite spending roughly same amount on health care
VANCOUVER, BC, May 29, 2025 /CNW/ - Switzerland's universal health-care system delivers significantly better results than Canada's in terms of wait times, access to health professionals like doctors and nurses, and patient satisfaction finds a new study published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian policy think-tank. "Despite its massive price tag, Canada's health-care system lags behind many other countries with universal health care," said Yanick Labrie, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of Building Responsive and Adaptive Health-Care Systems in Canada: Lessons from Switzerland. The study highlights how Switzerland's universal health-care system, which consistently outperforms Canada on most metrics tracked by the OECD. In 2022, the latest year of available data, despite Canada (11.5 per cent of GDP) and Switzerland (11.9 per cent) spending close to the same amount on health care, Switzerland had 4.6 doctors per thousand people compared to 2.8 in Canada. In other words, Switzerland had 64.3 per cent more doctors than Canada (on a per-thousand people basis). Switzerland also had 4.4 hospital beds per thousand people compared to 2.5 for Canada—Switzerland (8th) outranked Canada (36th) on this metric out of 38 OECD countries with universal health care. Likewise, 85.3 per cent of Swiss people surveyed by the CWF (Commonwealth Fund) reported being able to obtain a consultation with a specialist within 2 months. By comparison, only 48.3 per cent of Canadians experienced a similar wait time. Beyond medical resources and workforce, patient satisfaction diverges sharpy between the two countries, as 94 per cent of Swiss patients report being satisfied with their health-care system compared to just 56 per cent in Canada. "Switzerland shows that a universal health care system can reconcile efficiency and equity – all while being more accessible and responsive to patients' needs and preferences," Labrie said. "Policymakers in Canada who hope to improve Canada's broken health-care system should look to more successful universal health-care countries like Switzerland." Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter | Become a fan on Facebook 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 think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit SOURCE The Fraser Institute View original content to download multimedia:
Cision Canada
27-05-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
Fraser Institute News Release: Moving to single 8% provincial personal income tax rate would help restore the Alberta Advantage
CALGARY, AB, May 27, 2025 /CNW/ - Moving to a single eight per cent personal income tax rate for all working Albertans would dramatically improve the province's competitiveness among energy-producing jurisdictions, according to a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. "It's crucial to restore Alberta's historic tax advantage and understanding how changes to personal income tax rates affect provincial revenues is critical for informed policy decisions," said Ergete Ferede, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of Revenue Effects of Tax Rate Changes in Alberta. The report examines two potential tax reform scenarios and their impact on provincial revenue: an immediate adoption of an eight per cent single tax rate starting in 2025; and a gradual move to that same rate over three years. An immediate switch to an eight per cent single personal income tax (PIT) rate would decrease PIT revenue by about $6.1 billion (a 35.6 per cent reduction) in the first year. A gradual transition over three years would start with a smaller loss of $264 million (a 1.5 per cent reduction) in 2025 increasing to $6.9 billion (37.0 per cent reduction) by 2027. However, these estimates may overstate provincial revenue losses as they do not account for the potential positive economic effect of personal income tax reductions on other revenue sources. Alberta's current combined federal and provincial personal income tax rate stands at 48 per cent—ranking 10th highest out of 61 jurisdictions in North America—and is significantly higher than other energy-producing regions such as Texas or Wyoming. Implementing a single 8 per cent tax rate would help re-establish Alberta as a low-tax jurisdiction, lowering its rank to the 16th lowest among the 61. "The potential to strengthen Alberta's economic position through tax cuts must be considered along with the revenue implications for the government," Ferede said. The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Halifax and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit SOURCE The Fraser Institute
