Fraser Institute

The Fraser Institute

File:Fraser-institute-logo7526.jpg
Formation	1974
Type	Public policy think tank
Headquarters	1770 Burrard Street
Location	Vancouver, British Columbia
President & CEO	Brett J. Skinner
Website	www.fraserinstitute.org

The Fraser Institute is an independent research and educational organization (think tank) based in Canada that espouses free market principles. Its stated mandate is "to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets and government intervention on the welfare of individuals."

Named for the Fraser River, the Institute is headquartered in Vancouver, with offices also located in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal, and ties to a global network of 80 think-tanks through the Economic Freedom Network.

In 2010, the Fraser Institute was ranked No. 1 among 97 think-tanks in Canada, for the third year in a row, in the University of Pennsylvania's Global Go-To Think-Tank Index, a global survey of close to 1,500 scholars, policy makers, and journalists. The report also named the Fraser Institute as the only Canadian organization in the Top 25 leading think-tanks in the world in 2010, out of a global group of 6,480 think-tanks.

History

The Fraser Institute was founded in 1974 by Michael Walker, an economist from the University of Western Ontario, and businessman T. Patrick Boyle, then a vice-president of MacMillan Bloedel. It obtained charitable status in Canada on October 22, 1974, and in the United States in 1978.

Sir Antony Fisher, previously instrumental in setting up the UK's Institute of Economic Affairs, was appointed acting director in 1975, until Walker became executive director in 1977. In its first full year of operation, 1975, the Institute reported revenues of $421,389. In 1988, revenues exceed $1 million, and in 2003, $6 million.

From 1979 to 1991, the Institute's senior economist was Walter Block.

Research

The Institute is well known for its annual Economic Freedom of the World index, which ranks the countries of the world according to their degrees of economic freedom.

Other major research initiatives include Waiting Your Turn, the Institute's annual report on hospital waiting times in Canada; the global Survey of Mining Companies, an annual survey of mining executives ranking the investment climates of mining jurisdictions worldwide; the Global Petroleum Survey , an annual survey of petroleum executives regarding barriers to investment in upstream oil and gas exploration and production in various jurisdictions around the globe; and the Canadian Provincial Investment Climate series, an ongoing project measuring the extent to which Canadian provinces embrace public policies that contribute to, and sustain, positive investment climates.

Every year, the Institute publishes a series of School Report Cards ranking the academic performance of schools in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec, based on the publicly available results of standardized testing mandated and administered by the provinces.

The Institute is also well known for its annual Tax Freedom Day report, which calculates the day the average Canadian family can "start working for themselves" after having paid off the total tax bill imposed on them by all levels of government. In 2011, Tax Freedom Day was June 6.

In March 2010, the Institute released Did Government Stimulus Fuel Economic Growth in Canada? An Analysis of Statistics Canada Data, a report critical of the Harper government's Economic Action Plan, concluding that the stimulus package did not have a material impact on Canada's economic turnaround in the latter half of 2009.

The Institute publishes three magazines: Fraser Forum, a bi-monthly review of public policy in Canada; Perspectives, a French-language review of public policy in Quebec and la Francophonie; and Canadian Student Review, a look at current affairs written for students, by students.

Education Programs

The Institute periodically hosts free seminars across Canada for students, teachers, and journalists, focusing on key economic concepts and timely issues in public policy. In 2010, the Institute hosted eight one-day student seminars, attracting more than 775 participants.

The Fraser Instite also offers an internship program, to which more than 431 individuals applied in 2010.

Funding

As a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency, the Institute files annual registered charity information returns. In 2010, the Institute reported having $4.5 million CAD in assets and $10.8 million in annual revenue.

The Institute does not accept government grants or payments for research, but depends on contributions from thousands of individuals, organizations, and foundations.

Governance

The Institute is governed by a board of trustees. Current members of the board are: Peter Brown (chairman), Mark Mitchell (vice-chairman), Edward Belzberg (vice-chairman), Salem Ben Nasser Al Ismaily, Gordon Arnell, Kathy Assayag, Ryan Beedie, Brad Bennett, Joseph Canavan, Alex Chafuen, Derwood Chase Jr., James Davidson, John Dielwart, Stuart Elman, Dave Filmon, Greg Fleck, Paul Fletcher, Shaun Francis, Ned Goodman, John Hagg, Paul Hill, Stephen, Hynes, Charles Jeannes, Kent Jespersen, Andrew Judson, Robert Lee, Brandt Louie, David MacKenzie, James McGovern, George Melville, Mark Mitchell, Gwyn Morgan, Eleanor Nicholls, Roger Phillips, Herb Pinder, Jack Pirie, Kevin Reed, H. Sanford Riley, Gavin Semple, Rod Senft, Anthony Sessions, Bill Siebens, Anna Stylianides, Arni Thorsteinson, Michael Walker, Jonathan Wener, Charles Barlow Jr., Sonja Bata, Everett Berg, Jim Chaplin, Serge Darkazanli, John Dobson, Raymond Heung, Bill Korol, Bill Mackness, Fred Mannix, Art Grunder, Everett Berg, Conrad Riley, and Catherine Windels.

High-profile figures

The Institute has attracted some well-known individuals to its ranks, including founding member Friedrich Hayek and politicians such as former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, former Ontario premier Mike Harris, former Alberta premier Ralph Klein, and former Newfoundland & Labrador premier Brian Tobin.

Political stance

The Fraser Institute describes itself as "an independent international research and educational organization", an envisions "a free and prosperous world where individuals benefit from greater choice, competitive markets, and personal responsibility."

Forbes has referred to the organization as libertarian. The New York Times has described the Institute as libertarian and conservative.

Controversy

According to an article published in CBC News Online, some people allege that Michael Walker helped set up the Institute after he received financial backing from forestry giant MacMillan-Bloedel, largely to counter British Columbia's NDP government then led by premier Dave Barrett. The CEO of MacMillian-Bloedel at the time supported wage and price controls. The Institute has been criticized by trade unions for its recommendations to abolish minimum wage.

In 1999, the Fraser Institute was attacked by health professionals and scientists for sponsoring two conferences on the tobacco industry entitled Junk Science, Junk Policy? Managing Risk and Regulation and Should Government Butt Out? The Pros and Cons of Tobacco Regulation. Critics charged the Institute was associating itself with the tobacco industry's many attempts to discredit authentic scientific work.

In 2002, a study by Neil Brooks of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives concluded that the Institute's widely promoted Tax Freedom Day, described as the date each year when the average Canadian's income no longer goes to paying government taxes, included flawed accounting. The Brooks study claimed that the Institute's methods of accounting excluded several important forms of income and inflated tax figures, moving the date nearly two months later in the year.

In late 1997, the Institute set up a research program emulating the UK's Social Affairs Unit, called the Social Affairs Centre. Its founding Director was Patrick Basham. The program's funding came from Rothmans International and Phillip Morris. When Rothmans was bought by British American Tobacco (BAT) in 1999, its funding ended, and in 2000 the Institute wrote to BAT asking for $50,000 per year, to be split between the Social Affairs Centre and the Centre for Risk and Regulation. The letter highlighted the Institute's 1999 publication Passive Smoke: The EPA's Betrayal of Science and Policy, "which highlighted the absence of any scientific evidence for linking cancer with second-hand smoke [and] received widespread media coverage both in Canada and the United States". At this time the CEO of BAT's Canadian subsidiary, Imasco, was also on the Fraser Institute's Board of Trustees. The Fraser Institute ceased disclosing its sources of corporate funding in the 1980s. In 2000 the Institute published another industry-friendly paper, a History of Tobacco Regulation by Filip Palda.

External links

• Fraser Institute
• Policy.ca Profile: Fraser Institute
• CBC Profile: Fraser Institute
• Canada Revenue Agency registered charity information database: The Fraser Institute