A Conservative senator is taking the unusual step of reporting herself to a parliamentary ethics czar after a joint CBC/Radio-Canada/Toronto Star investigation into leaked tax-haven records found she was a director of an offshore corporation for 12 years — without, she says, ever knowing about it.As a result, Senator Nicole Eaton failed to disclose the position, as required, to the Senate’s ethics officer, which would normally be a violation of the upper chamber’s conflict-of-interest rules.

Source: Senator reports herself to ethics czar over tax-haven revelations – Politics – CBC News

The federal government will impose a carbon price on provinces that do not adequately regulate emissions by themselves, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said on Sunday without giving details on how the Liberal government will do so.Speaking on the CTV’s “Question Period,” McKenna said the new emissions regime will be in place sometime in October, before a federal-provincial meeting on the matter.

Source: Ottawa will impose a carbon tax on any province that doesn’t adequately cut emissions, minister says | National Post

TORONTO, ON–(Marketwired – September 15, 2016) – Canada has moved into the top five among the world’s most economically free countries, according to the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic Freedom of the World report released today.

But a growing government, substantial tax increases, and encroaching regulations threaten Canada’s ranking in the coming years.

The report measures the economic freedom (levels of personal choice, ability to enter markets, security of privately owned property, rule of law, etc.) by analyzing the policies and institutions of 159 countries and territories.

Canada tied fifth overall in the 2016 report, which uses data from 2014, the last year of available comparable statistics. Since then, the provincial Ontario government and new governments in Alberta and at the federal level have increased taxes significantly and introduced stifling regulations on industry and business that jeopardize the gains in economic freedom Canada has made.

“Canada remains one of the most economically-free jurisdictions in the world. However, increased government intervention, higher taxes, and growing regulation at the federal level and in some provinces will leave Canadians materially less free,” said Fred McMahon, Dr. Michael A. Walker Research Chair in Economic Freedom with the Fraser Institute.

“Given the clear link between economic freedom and prosperity, we should expect recent changes to have negative and long-term effects on economic opportunities in Canada.”

According to this year’s report, Hong Kong is again number one, followed by Singapore, New Zealand and Switzerland.

The United States ranked 16^th for the second year in a row.

Venezuela is once again last. Some despotic countries such as North Korea and Cuba can’t be ranked due to lack of data.

“Economic freedom leads to prosperity and a higher quality of life, while the lowest-ranked countries are usually burdened by oppressive regimes that limit the freedom and opportunity of their citizens,” McMahon said.

The Fraser Institute produces the annual Economic Freedom of the World report in cooperation with the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in nearly 100 countries and territories. It’s the world’s premier measurement of economic freedom, ranking countries based on economic freedom, which is measured in five areas: size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labour and business.

This year’s report was prepared by James Gwartney, Florida State University; Robert A. Lawson, Southern Methodist University; and Joshua Hall, West Virginia University.

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. Visitwww.fraserinstitute.org

Source: Fraser Institute News Release: Canada Ranks Among Top Five Jurisdictions Worldwide for Economic Freedom, but Recent Policy Changes Threaten Canada’s Ranking in the Coming Years

OTTAWA — Montreal-based global engineering giant SNC-Lavalin continues to dig out from a series of corporate governance scandals, this time involving improper donations to federal political parties over a seven-year period ending in 2011.A compliance agreement with the federal elections commissioner, announced Thursday, details almost $118,000 in donations to the Liberal and Conservative parties through company employees or their spouses who were then reimbursed by SNC-Lavalin.This illegal practice for skirting corporate donation limits was identified by a Quebec anti-corruption inquiry as a widespread problem in municipal and Quebec provincial politics, although the provincial Charbonneau Commission’s mandate prevented it from following federal political threads.

Source: SNC-Lavalin violated federal Elections Act | Niagara Falls Review

Parti Quebecois leadership hopeful Jean-Francois Lisée is trying to appeal to youth and to Quebecers who are not terribly interested in independence.Meanwhile Alexandre Cloutier is calling on international students to move to Quebec’s rural areas to find work.Campaigning on Sunday, Lisée pitched his plan for youth in poorer neighbourhoods to have equal access to education.

Source: PQ leadership candidate calls on Quebecers to focus on corruption-free government | CTV Montreal News

TORONTO – I used to subscribe to the adage that voters, in their wisdom, are always right.

Once upon a time, voters tossed out arrogant and corrupt governments. They punished politicians who were incompetent and dumped them at election time.

Ever since the 2014 election, where the electorate turned a minority Liberal government into a majority, I’ve changed my mind.

How could well-informed electors possibly reward a government that was under two police investigations (Ornge, deleted gas plant emails) and which had a sorry legacy of trampling any criticism of their mismanagement?

Source: Whatever happened to turfing bad governments? | Blizzard | Ontario | News | Toronto Sun