Provincial-municipal equalization in the Maritime provinces

Abstract: This paper examines provincial-municipal equalization grant programs in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It reviews the equalization grants recommended by the Byrne and Graham royal commissions and compares them to the actual programs im place in the Maritime provinces. The current programs are then simulated using a common data base of the twenty-three independent cities in Ontario. The impacts of the grants on the distribution of wealth among die sample cities are determined. The paper concludes that only die Nova Scotia program is successful at lessening differences in fiscal capacity among municipalities. The paper ends widi suggestions for reform that parallel the earlier recommendatons of the Byrne and Graham royal commissions. Sommaire: Cet article porte sur les programmes de subventions de perequation provinciale-municipale au Nouveau-Brunswick, en Nouvelle-Ecosse et a l'lle-du-Prince-Edouard. L'auteure rappelle d'abord les subventions de perequation recom-mandees par les commissions royales Byrne et Graham et les compare aux programmes en vigueur dans les provinces maritimes. Procedant ensuite par simulation, elle analyse les programmes actuels a partir d'une base de donnees commune aux 23 villes in-d^pendantes de l'Ontario. Elle determine l'impact des subventions sur la repartition de la richesse entre les villes examinees. L'auteure conclut que seul le programme de la Nouvelle-Ecosse parvient a reduire les disparites qui existent entre les munici-palites sur le plan de la capacite fiscale. Elle termine en suggerant des reformes qui vont dans le meme sens que les recommandations formulees par les commissions royales Byrne et Graham.     

“Oral Tradition” as Legal Fiction: The Challenge of Dechen Ts’edilhtan in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia</Emphasis>

Often understood as synonymous with “oral history” in Indigenous title and rights cases in Canada, “oral tradition” as theorized by Jan Vansina is complexly imbricated in the European genealogy of “scientific history” and the archival science of Diplomatics with roots in the development of property law and memory from the time of Justinian. Focusing on Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, which resulted in the first declaration of Aboriginal title in Canada, this paper will discuss Tsilhqot’in law (Dechen Ts’edilhtan) in the context of the court’s deployment of Vansina’s theory and its genealogy, and conclude that “oral tradition” functions as a legal fiction enabling the court to remain in the familiar archive of its own historiography while claiming to listen to the Elders.     

Deep-draft dredging of U.S. coal ports: A cost-benefit analysis

This article discusses whether U.S. society should invest in large-scale coal port development and examines specifically financing the deep-draft dredging of coal ports on the East and/or Gulf Coasts (Baltimore, Hampton Roads, Mobile, and New Orleans) so that fully loaded, large coal-carrying colliers can export coal to Western Europe. By assuming a society-wide perspective, no costs and benefits are attributed to various parties. Although the multifaceted nature of the coal port issue is acknowledged, the core of this study is a large number of different simulations. Each simulation optimizes the United States-Western Europe coal trade for a given demand, ocean transportation cost structure, and cost of capital. This relatively simple model focuses on the key tradeoff: the cost of dredging versus lower ocean transportation costs. The study supports those recommending caution in coal port development. The most striking conclusion is the robustness of two solutions - no dredging or dredge only Hampton Roads - depending on the assumptions. Our conclusions also generally do not support simultaneously dredging all deep-draft options, the concurrent dredging of more than one port, or dredging either of the Gulf ports before the two East Coast ports.     

Combatting program fragmentation: Local systems of vocational education and job training

As the number of local institutions that train individuals for employment has grown, policymakers have become concerned about possible duplication and wasteful competition. Potential solutions to this perceived problem typically revolve around strategies for encouraging greater coordination among local education and training agencies. Yet little is known about either the extent of duplication in local communities or about interactions among institutions. To begin to fill this gap, we conducted comparative case studies of eight communities. We found little service overlap or competition. Instead, using a variety of mechanisms, local institutions have established clear divisions of labor and have linked themselves in well-defined, though largely informal, systems. The present study concludes with a discussion of how state and federal policy might facilitate the creation and maintenance of effective local systems of work-related education and training.     

The sins of the father: The destruction of the Republican family in Franco's Spain

The postwar years in Spain were little more than the perpetuation of the Civil War on an ideological terrain, as the Franco Regime consistently vilified the memory of the Second Republic and remorselessly persecuted the defeated Republicans. In fact, nationalist diatribes against communism and its attendant ills of separatism and laicism were invariably expounded in medical terminology, referring as they did to the “cancer” and “virus” which had devastated the nation during the Civil War. This empirically unverifiable theory sustained that a large scale extermination (the Civil War) had to be carried out to rid Spain of this “virus” thus preempt the contagion of this fervently Catholic and patriotic nation. Horkheimer affirms that the family is the microcosm of the fascist state, as the relationship between siblings and parents replicates the obedience of the citizen to the fascist state. As Republican traits were at antipodes to the prescribed national attributes, the Francoist State sought to destroy the Republican family by a myriad of measures such as the inculcation of a zealous National Catholicism in their children, which in turn precipitated both selfhatred and the children's outright rejection of their parents. However, the social persecution of the defeated transcended indoctrination: in the postwar years, the horrendousness of life for the Republicans was compounded by the State's quasi reconversion policy, which resulted in Republican children being forcibly removed from their homes, and been adopted by pro-Francoist families, or in many cases, rehoused by religious orders which, within a decade, witnessed a huge increase in the number of supposed orphans becoming seminarists. In this article, I intend to elaborate on both the means by which the Francoist State eradicated the Republican family, and its long-term consequences.