Dear John,

As we prepare to celebrate a holiday season under pandemic lockdowns and begin thinking about what COVID might look like in the new year, two public policy areas are of the utmost importance to focus on: the economy and our health-care system.

And unfortunately for Canadians, our governments are coming up short on both.

On the economy, the federal Liberal government has the right goal – to build back better – but its policies won’t come close to achieving it.

According to recent Fraser Institute studies, the evidence clearly shows that even before COVID-19 arrived our competitiveness had significantly deteriorated, and investors (both foreign and Canadian) were fleeing Canada for more favourable investment climates.

Making matters even more concerning is the government’s recent statement that it will “identify additional ways” to tax wealth. Changing the tax structure to penalize the accumulation of wealth is a sure way to make Canada even less attractive to investors.

Another recent Fraser Institute study found that almost all countries that imposed a wealth tax found negative side effects for economic growth without significant revenue, and have since abandoned their wealth taxes.

At a time when we need to be focused on growth, Canada is actively scaring away entrepreneurs, investors, and top talent. Is that really a way to ensure a robust recovery? Of course not.

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There is little good news to report on the health care front either.

Just last week, the Fraser Institute released our latest comparison of international health-care systems. Despite being the second-highest spender, Canada’s system routinely delivers sub-par results compared to our international peers.

We ranked second-last for acute care beds, and third-last for the number of physicians available. 30% of Canadian patients reported waiting for two months or longer for an appointment with a specialist compared with only 3% in Germany, 4% in France and 7% in the Netherlands. 18% of patients in Canada reported waiting four months or longer for elective surgery compared to 7% in Switzerland and 0% (yes, zero) in Germany.

Clearly, even in the pre-COVID world, our health-care system struggled to address routine demand for patient care, despite ranking among the top spenders in the world.

At a time when citizens need to have confidence in their economies and health-care systems, Canada misses the mark.

John, with all this new government spending and overreach, our work here at the Fraser Institute is more important than ever. And since we don’t accept government handouts, it also means that your support is more important than ever.

While we have kept busy – very busy! – while working remotely, COVID has had a huge effect on our operations. We halted many of our fundraising activities, and were forced to cancel all of the events we normally hold across the country each year.

If you are able to, please consider making a donation today [[link removed]] so that we can continue doing the work we do.

Thank you for your support,

Niels Veldhuis

President

PS: Don’t forget – your donation [[link removed]] will also entitle you to a generous tax credit at tax time, so make sure to donate before December 31!

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