Capital, companies, equipment and crews are leaving Canada for better opportunities, with the U.S. an easy choice: PSAC
The Petroleum Services Association of Canada has decreased its forecast for the number of wells expected to be drilled across Canada for this year. In its third update to its 2019 Canadian Drilling Activity Forecast, PSAC revised its number from 5,300 (May 2019 revision) to 5,100 wells drilled. PSAC now projects 2,425 wells to be…
Funding and testing innovations in areas such as the oil and gas sector, health-care digitization and environmental protection
Global technology leader Cisco is investing $15 million to enhance its Western Canadian presence. “Getting the most out of the digital world of tomorrow means investing and preparing for it today,” said Rola Dagher, president of Cisco Canada, in making the announcement on Wednesday in Calgary. “The commitments announced today build on our strong track…
Government must cut public sector costs, taxes and fees. And become vastly better at providing needed and efficient services
For the first time in decades, Manitoba’s unemployment rate has risen above the national average. With the provincial economy growing (briskly for Manitoba) around two per cent a year, we might have expected some declining unemployment rates and labour shortages. But it’s not enough with record immigration and a slowdown in Manitobans leaving for Alberta…
Railway plans to spend more than $1.55 billion in capital investments in 2018
Canadian Pacific railway announced on Monday that it moved 25.8 million tonnes of Western Canadian grain and grain products, soybeans and other non-regulated principal field crops during the 2017-2018 crop year, up one per cent over the 2016-2017 crop-year and one per cent above its three-year average. It also said that September 2017 was CP's…
A path that includes meaningful consultation with Indigenous groups is destined to move development forward
There are two visions of engaging with First Nations on mining projects in Manitoba. The first will likely lead to considerable opposition and increased delays. The second focuses on meaningful consultation with Indigenous groups and is destined to move development forward. One can only hope that policy-makers adopt the latter vision and reject the former.…
The end of Canada's federal marketing monopoly opens new doors around the world
Many people expected that the end of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. (FFMC) monopoly would lead to a disaster in Manitoba. It has not, fortunately. In fact, this move by the federal government may revitalize the Indigenous commercial fisheries in the northern part of the province. Manitoba commercial fishers sell about $60 million worth of…
The Crown corporation is an archaic operation based on faulty principles, bad management and outdated market conditions
Manitoba Hydro’s costly Keeyask dam project and Bipole III transmission line debacle – and the taxpayers’ likely assumption of much of the horrendous debt – were not inevitable. But Crown corporations have vulnerabilities inherent in being created and controlled by government. Risk begins with the false notion that Crown corporations are essential, providing services that…
Mining investors dramatically downgrade Manitoba in annual survey. Only the provincial government can fix this
By Kenneth Green and Ashley Stedman The Fraser Institute Manitoba is no longer a top-ranked jurisdiction for mining investment because of government policy uncertainty, according to the Fraser Institute’s annual survey of mining companies. Every year, the Fraser Institute surveys mining companies around the world to determine which jurisdictions are attractive – or unattractive –…
By narrowing government’s role in the economy, a new policy direction can kick-start growth and make the province a mecca for people and investment
It’s 2036 and Manitoba’s population just passed three million. The economy is booming. Imagine for a moment the events needed to bring Manitoba to such a result. In 2018, let’s suppose, Manitoba finally confronted its slow-growth, deficit-ridden crisis by abandoning heavy government ownership of the economy, punitive tax rates and dependency on federal transfer grants.…