Catch up on all things MLI with our latest newsletter.
This edition highlights a new paper from MLI on the digital privacy debate. Author Solveig Singleton argues that Canada’s laws governing Internet privacy are overbroad and often in conflict with other rights and principles such as free expression, competition and economic growth. The paper, titled “Finding the Balance on Digital Privacy: Toward a New Model for Data Protection in the 21st Century”, argues that the federal government should resist calls for a comprehensive approach to digital privacy and instead adopt a less stringent regime for the sharing of people’s personal data. The paper was released into a simmering debate on digital privacy rights in Canada. Singleton says the government should resist those who are calling for a more comprehensive regime, since this “will result in a regulatory regime that is a poor fit in many contexts”.
Also in the newsletter is the latest entry into MLI’s examination of the size of government in Canada. Author Philip Cross builds on a paper MLI released earlier this year that examined how tax expenditures add to government’s scope by looking at how far regulation extends into the economy. Cross’ study, titled “Estimating the True Size of Government: Adjusting for regulation”, finds that government regulation controls 10.5 per cent cent of GDP. By adding this to the 10.1 per cent for which tax expenditures are responsible and the 44 per cent from direct program spending, Cross reveals that government in Canada controls 64 per cent of GDP – which equates to nearly two-thirds of the economy.
A new edition of Inside Policy, MLI’s magazine, is also featured in the newsletter. The cover story looks back on the role that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty played in helping insulate Canada from the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-09. The magazine also includes the text of a speech Flaherty gave to the University of Western Ontario in 2011 about the merits of a career in public service. Also included are: an article from Liberal member of Parliament Chrystia Freeland on Canada’s role in Ukraine, a look at whether income inequality in Canada merits more government intervention, an argument for a Financial Innovation Institute in Canada and more.
The newsletter also highlights the launch of MLI’s new website, which took place this month. The new site is totally redesigned to further engage opinion leaders, policy makers and the public in boosting MLI’s goal of making bad public policy unacceptable. The use of colours and images is designed to give visitors easy access to MLI’s high-quality, independent policy work.
Other features include a column from MLI Senior Fellow Benjamin Perrin on the federal government’s new prostitution legislation, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley’s argument that the federal government should take the lead on knocking down interprovincial trade barriers, a defence of the temporary foreign worker program in Canada, a look at why natural resources trump manufacturing when it comes to creating economic value and all the latest MLI op-eds, commentaries and media coverage.
