January 2000 Fraser Forum

The
Economic Freedom
Network

logo.gif (23426 bytes)

	January 2000 - Contents

Chris Sarlo	Single-Parent Families: Then and Now More children live in single-parent families than ever before. What does this mean for those children?

Peter Cowley	What Good Is School if Students Don’t Show Up for Class? Do British Columbia’s secondary schools enjoy high levels of average daily attendance? The public has no way of knowing. Here’s why.

	Feature
Martin Zelder	Will Alberta’s Health Care Reforms Succeed? In November 1999, Alberta premier Ralph Klein proposed to contract with private hospitals to provide some surgical services. Does the plan have merit? Should we expect it to work? This article reviews the evidence.

Jason Clemens & Dexter Samida	Who is Really More Generous? The Fraser Institute’s Private Charitable Generosity Index attempts to quantify private charitable generosity for the Canadian provinces and US states. Unfortunately, Canadians come off looking more like misers than patrons.

Joel Emes	January Questions & Answers and January Graph How have the top spending priorities of the federal and provincial governments changed over the past 30 years?

John A. MacNaughton	The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s Emerging Presence Recent reforms will move the Canada Pension Plan over the next 20 years from exclusively pay-as-you-go to fuller funding. The CPP Investment Board’s CEO explains how. Institute Director of Fiscal Studies, Jason Clemens, provides a background commentary.

Karen Selick	Who Will Judge the Judges? Lawyers and their clients continually have to put up with behaviour from some judges that they wouldn’t tolerate in any other mere mortal. This author offers one solution.

Joel Emes & Jason Clemens	Canadian Debt: the Good News and the Not So Good News Between 1996/97 and 1997/98, the direct debt of all three levels of government in Canada fell from $853 to $850 billion. This is a small victory, but it is a victory nonetheless. Unfortunately, there is some bad news as well.

Lydia Miljan	Albertans Choose PBS Over CBC Taxpayer-funded CBC may be required by the 1991 Broadcast Act to serve the special needs of the regions, but it is US-based PBS, which needs funds from its viewer-contributors, that actually broadcasts some programs for and about Alberta.

Gordon Gibson	Nisga’a: The Next Step The Nisga’a Treaty may have passed the House of Commons, but a legal challenge is now pending. The case in law turns on three issues: the Charter, the powers of the Crown, and the ability of governments to transfer sovereignty.

Kristin McCahon	Editor's Notes

Fraser Forum is published 12 times a year by The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, B.C. Canada.

The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian economic and social research and educational organization. It has as its objective the redirection of public attention to the role of competitive markets in providing for the well-being of Canadians. Where markets work, the Institute’s interest lies in trying to discover prospects for improvement. Where markets do not work, its interest lies in finding the reasons. Where competitive markets have been replaced by government control, the interest of the Institute lies in documenting objectively the nature of the improvement or deterioration resulting from government intervention. The work of the Institute is assisted by an Editorial Advisory Board of internationally renowned economists. The Fraser Institute is a national, federally chartered non-profit organization financed by the sale of its publications and the tax-deductible contributions of its members, foundations, and other supporters.

For additional copies, or to become a member and receive Fraser Forum, write or call The Fraser Institute, 4th Floor, 1770 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C., V6J 3G7 Toll-free order line: 1-800-665-3558
Telephone: (604) 688-0221; Fax: (604) 688-8539
Visit our Web site at www.fraserinstitute.ca
Copyright © 2000 The Fraser Institute
Date of Issue: January 2000; Printed and bound in Canada.
Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement #0087246
(ISSN 0827-7893)

Publishing editor: Michael Walker
Managing editor: Kristin McCahon
Designer: Kristin McCahon
Art design and assistance: David Cook Design
Cover image: Mike Miller Design + Art Inc.
Contributing editors: Patrick Basham, Jason Clemens, Peter Cowley, Joel Emes, Dexter Samida, Michael Walker, Martin Zelder
Finance and Administration: Michael Hopkins
Media Relations: Suzanne Walters

Fraser Institute Board of Trustees

Chairman

Raymond J. Addington, OBE

Vice Chairmen

T. Patrick Boyle
William Korol
Mark Mitchell

Board Members

Arnold Aberman, M.D.
Keith Ambachtsheer
Sonja Bata
Edward Belzberg
Everett Berg
Tony Boeckh
Peter Boyd
Peter Brown
John Caldwell
Alex Chafuen
James Chaplin
Wendy Cecil-Cockwell
Serge Darkazanli
Edward Dato
John Dobson
Greg Fleck
Arthur Grunder
Raymond Heung
Paul Hill
Stephen Hynes
Peter Kains
Hassan Khosrowshahi
Robert Lee
Brian Levitt
Brandt Louie
William Mackness
Jim Main
Fred Mannix
Gwyn Morgan
Roger Phillips
Herbert Pinder, Jr.
R. Jack Pirie
Peter Pocklington
David Radler
Conrad Riley, Jr.
John Scrymgeour
William Siebens
Michael Walker
Catherine Windels

Secretary-Treasurer

Michael Hopkins

info@fraserinstitute.ca

You can contact us at the above email address for any comments or information requests. Please report any dead links or technical problems.

Last Modified: Wednesday June 9, 1999.