The federal government is taking a sensible approach with newly-introduced rail regulation by spreading out the costs of a derailment beyond just the railways, Macdonald-Laurier Institute author Malcolm Cairns told the Globe and Mail.

Last month, Ottawa introduced new legislation called the Safe and Accountable Rail Act. Cairns commended the government for the balance of the proposed legislation.

Cairns is the author of a recently released MLI paper, titled "Staying On The Right Track: A review of Canadian freight rail policy".

The report demonstrates that a more sophisticated and relaxed regulatory system has resulted in greater investment and lower rail rates, while heavy handed approaches have done serious harm in the past. 

 

 

Contraband tobacco is a serious problem in Canada. Illicit cigarettes are linked to organized crime and drain a healthy portion of much-needed revenues away from governments.

Nowhere is the issue bigger than in Ontario and that's why,on March 3, MLI convened a group of experts in Toronto to tackle Ontario's outsized contraband tobacco problem. Included on the panel were Royal Military College of Canada Professor Christian Leuprecht, writer and broadcaster Tasha Kheiriddin and John Jones of the Sûreté du Québec.

Included among the participants were members of provincial Parliament for Ontario, a director with the province's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and representatives from Ontario First Nations groups.

MLI Senior Fellow Ken Coates helped to further dispel some of the myths about Aboriginal Canadians in a Q&A session with users of the social networking site Reddit last month.

The chat, which also formed the basis for the latest entry into our Straight Talk Q&A series, tackled topics ranging from racism in Winnipeg to changing Canadians' opinions about First Nations, to the importance of recent Supreme Court Decisions on Aboriginal rights.

Coates also authored an op-ed for the National Post on why an inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women is not the answer.