Vol.
26, No. 1 March 2000
Articles:
Are
the New Child-Support Guidelines "Adequate" or "Reasonable"?
Vicky Barham, Rose Anne Devlin and Chantale LaCasse
Child-support
awards constitute an important source of revenue for many single-parent
households. The inadequacy of these child-support awards is one
of the factors cited to justify the government's recent implementation
in January 1997 of a new child-support Guidelines.
This
paper evaluates these Guidelines by examining how they compare to
six standards of adequacy and reasonableness. We are led to conclude
that any child-support system based solely on the incomes of former
spouses is unlikely to succeed. One way out of this dilemma is to
use a broader measure of wealth when calculating child-support payments
which may make it possible to reduce the economic impact of divorce
on children.
Mr.
Harris, Mr. Rae and Union Activity in Ontario
Felice Martinello
In
1990 Bob Rae's New Democratic (NDP) government was elected in Ontario
and in 1993 they passed labour relations legislation favouring organized
labour. In 1995 Mike Harris' Progressive Conservative (PC) government
was elected and they quickly passed legislation much less favourable
toward unions. Monthly data, 1987-98, are used to estimate the effects
of the changes in government and legislation on certification and
decertification activity and complaints of unfair labour practices.
Certification activity increased and decertification activity decreased
after the NDP legislation was passed. The opposite occurred with the
election of Harris' Conservatives and the change of government had
a significant impact, even before new legislation was passed. Complaints
of unfair labour practice rose during the NDP tenure but returned
close to historical levels under the PCs.
Taxing
Hydroelectricity in Ontario
David Gillen and Jean-François Wen
Using
data from the financial statements of Ontario Hydro and an observed
cost of importing electricity to the province, we provide an estimate
of the hydroelectric rent that is potentially available in Ontario
as tax revenue. Our results suggest that the existing water charges
in Ontario can be raised ten-fold to capture this rent. We assess
the impact that fully taxing the rent would have on the prices of
electricity and manufacturing products, given that a substantial portion
of the potential rent is currently used implicitly to subsidize electricity
consumption. We relate our findings to the ongoing restructuring of
the electricity market in Ontario.
Health
Status and Health Services Utilization of Canada's Immigrant and Non-Immigrant
Populations
Mireille Laroche
This
paper compares the health status of immigrants and their utilization
rates of health services to those of the Canadian-born population
using data contained within two cycles (1985 and 1991) of the General
Social Survey (GSS). Our main results show that neither the health
status of immigrants nor their utilization rates of health services
differ significantly from those of the Canadian-born population. When
both data sets are pooled, the estimated results show that immigrants'
health status and their use of health services have remained unchanged
over time.
It's
Unemployment, Stupid! Why Perceptions About the Job Situation Hurt
the Liberals in the 1997 Election
Richard Nadeau, André Blais, Neil Nevitte and Elisabeth Gidengil
The
Liberals almost lost their parliamentary majority in June 1997. This
article argues that preceptions of the unemployment situation hurt
the Liberals and cost them the support of almost three percentage
points of votes. We examine the reasons why Canadians did not render
a more positive judgement on the job situation despite a decrease
of the official unemployment rate in Canada during the Liberal mandate.
The results of this study raise a number of questions about voters'
behaviour, about the diffusion and penetration of both general and
economic information within the electorate, about the criteria with
which voters use to judge governments, and on the incentives these
governments might have to manufacture political business cycles.
Protection
des habitats d'espèces menacées en terres privée:
analyse d'instruments et de la politique canadienne
Philippe Barla, Joseph A. Doucet and Jean-Daniel M. Saphores
The
preservation of biodiversity requires the protection of endangered
species' habitats. In Canada, approximately 60 percent of these habitats
are located on private lands. We start by analysing the obstacles
to the protection of endangered species' habitats, with special attention
to the compensation of private property owners affected by conservation
efforts. After briefly reviewing the main measures adopted in Canada
to protect natural habitats on private lands, we propose some conservation
mechanisms that would not excessively burden public budgets. These
measures should be discussed in the next proposal for a Canadian endangered
species act.
Wither
Ontario's Environment? Neo-Conservatism and the Decline of the Environment
Ministry
Anita Krajnc
A
series of sharp cuts to the Ontario Ministry of Environment's (MOE)
budget in the 1990s have left it with fewer resources at the turn
of the century than it controlled in the mid-1970s when the ministry
was first created. This paper reviews the impact of those cuts on
the ministry's mandate and organizational structure, and argues that
public pressure and party politics models offer a good explanation
for most of the ministry's historical development, but an insufficient
account of the more recent drastic cuts and downsizing. Rather, the
neo-conservative ideology of Premier Mike Harris' Conservative government
accounts for the major retrenchment of the late 1990s.
