Latest Policy Bytes

August 11, 2015 - Talk of National Hockey League (NHL) expansion is heating up. At the end of June 2015, the league announced that it was beginning the process for expansion bids, with many speculating that the NHL would grow to thirty-two teams by the start of the 2017-18 season. The deadline to submit bids expired on July 20th, with only Québec City and Las Vegas forwarding their candidacy, along with a $10-million (USD) fee, 20 percent of which is non-refundable. A blog post featured on FiveThirtyEight, a statistical and aggregation website affiliated with ESPN, had earmarked Sudbury-Thunder Bay as a potential NHL market. Yes, you read that correctly. Could Sudbury and Thunder Bay, two cities separated by more than 1,000 km on the Trans-Canada Highway, be an ideal market for a National Hockey League franchise?

August 5, 2015 - There has been a lot of attention on corporate tax avoidance of late, with calls for corporations to ‘pay their fair share.’ If you are in this camp, then I hope you are following closely the OECD BEPS debates, the luxleaks fall out, and yes even the federal budgets. No? Well, then you should.

July 22, 2015 - In 2012, a group of private investors purchased the historic site of St. Mary’s Paper in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario that borders the waterfront in the Canal District. Bustling with new energy, Mill Square now occupies the once industrial space, functioning as a cultural hub that houses artists, entrepreneurs and businesses, while also being headquarters to the Algoma Conservatory of Music and Algoma University Fine Arts department. It will become home to an established and successful marketplace, as well as function as event space that is scheduled to open for booking on June 1, 2015.

Medicine Hat and Housing First

July 15, 2015 - Medicine Hat recently made headlines for being the first city in Canada poised to eliminate homelessness by the end of 2015. Mayor Ted Clugston credited this remarkable achievement to the city’s Housing First (HF) strategy. Housing First is a homelessness approach targeted at addressing the chronically and episodically homeless populations^[1]. The founding philosophy behind HF is that an individual’s housing needs must be met before their other problems can be addressed. HF is guided by six principles: housing is to be provided as soon as possible, individuals must have choice in their housing arrangements and services, housing is not conditionally tied to anything other than accepting regular visits^[2], individuals must contribute some of their income towards rent, housing should be integrated into the community to reduce stigma, and individuals are to be provided with the necessary supports to increase their self-sufficiency and help them graduate the HF program^[3].

July 6, 2015 - The Mowat Centre, a research institute associated with the University of Toronto, just released a “Federal Economic Agenda for Ontario.” The document essentially asks, and answers, two questions: What are the primary challenges facing Ontario? And, what does the evidence tell us about the best possible responses to those challenges?

June 30, 2015 - It would seem the latest bright shiny ball in the policy world is Nudge Economics. On the one hand, I suppose it is good that governments are finally getting around to reading some economics books. On the other hand, governments don’t seem to read the books too carefully since they can’t seem to understand the difference between Nudge economics and, well, economics.

June 22, 2015 - Based on findings of the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples of 1996, statements from the Assembly of First Nations and various First Nations communities, it is clear that First Nations are transitioning away from federal government policy to become self-sufficient and independent. A viable solution to political instability created by flawed election policy is for First Nations to create custom elections, allowing First Nations to acquire community input to develop their own election policy to develop political stability, address the unique needs of their communities and eventually achieve self-governance.

June 8, 2015 - I give a lot of talks about what is going on in Northern Ontario. Those sessions require me to cite data, lots of data: demographic data, health data, education data, economic data, and more. One of my favourite experiences is the quiet visit after the talk by some local expert. Often a subject expert or a local councilor or public servant. They almost always want to assure me that while they understand that the data I have just described applies to the region, or the district, or the province; it just doesn’t apply to their community.

May 22, 2015 - I take my leave from Northern Policy Institute this month and return to the federal government work I left a year ago. My residency with Laurentian University and Northern Policy Institute has been more than I could have hoped for in my quest to learn about all things Ring of Fire.

May 20, 2015 - Parent grant applications are underway in schools all over the Ontario North. Every May, school parent councils scramble to take advantage of the Ontario Ministry of Education’s coveted Parents Reaching Out (PRO) Grants. Few bother to ask: what’s being funded – and for what purpose? And what’s the actual impact been in Northern Ontario schools?