Policy: May 2008 Archives
Blog entries from early May
("Just Fiddlin...?" and "Just Fiddlin...? (Part 2)")
painted a picture of the extent of unresolved policy issues in Canadian
agriculture. As we indicated in those earlier entries we would post follow-up
blog entries that estimated the costs of having improperly aligned policy. This
entry is the first follow-up entry; in it we will provide a rough cost estimate
for one of the issues - namely transportation. The estimates that we provide
are by no means a complete costing of the issues; in fact we encourage comments
on our assumptions and alternative ways to valuate the policy issues. This
preliminary evaluation shows that the costs of a poorly functioning rail transportation
system could be in the range of $400 million to approximately one billion
dollars. At the same time, only a very small amount of analysis is being
undertaken to resolve this policy issue.
Continue reading The cost of Rome burning - Transportation.
Last week's Illative Blog entry (see link) highlighted three issues that we think are critically in need of examination and analysis. This week we examine three additional issues, followed by a discussion of why the capacity to analyse these issues is limited.
Continue reading Just Fiddlin...? (Part 2).
Agriculture
has been making headlines over the last few weeks and months, as higher food
prices and soaring fertilizer stock prices have focused the country and the
world's attention on the production of food. The issues are important - rapidly
rising commodity prices, for instance, are making it extremely difficult for
the world's poor and very poor to get enough to eat. While attention has to be
paid to these global issues, attention also needs to be paid to what are
clearly domestic issues - issues that not only threaten the competitiveness of
the Canadian agricultural sector but also affect our ability to be a reliable
and secure food supplier.
Continue reading Just Fiddlin...?.
