Fraser Institute


The Fraser Institute is a conservative Canadian public policy think tank registered as a charity. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. It has links to think tanks worldwide through the Economic Freedom Network and is a member of the free-market Atlas Network.
In 2020, the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Think Tanks' Global Go To Think Tank Index Report ranked Fraser 14th on its "Top Think Tanks Worldwide" listing, and 1st on its list of "Top Think Tanks in Mexico and Canada".

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. The institute is named after the Fraser River. According to CBC News, 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.
Antony Fisher, who had founded the Institute of Economic Affairs in the United Kingdom, was a co-founder. It obtained charitable status in Canada on October 22, 1974, and in the United States in 1978. It is a member of the Atlas Network, which Fisher founded in 1981. Fisher was appointed acting director in 1975, until Walker became executive director in 1977.
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 Philip Morris. When Rothmans was bought by British American Tobacco 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 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.
In 1999, the Fraser Institute was criticized 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.
The Fraser Institute accepted donations worth $100,000 from Philip Morris for "publishing research studies" in 2011–2012. Research produced by the Institute has previously argued that "tobacco taxation causes smuggling", a common claim by corporations in the industry that has been disputed by public health officials and critics as exaggerated and erroneous.
According to the January 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, Fraser is number 14 in the "Top Think Tanks Worldwide" and number 1 in the "Top Think Tanks in Mexico and Canada".

Staff

In April 2012, economist Niels Veldhuis was appointed president. The institute is governed by a board of trustees. Current members of the board include Peter Brown, Mark Mitchell, and Edward Belzberg.
Previous Directors at the Fraser Institute include:
The Fraser Institute's Board of Directors is mainly composed of prominent executives from corporations, financial institutions, investment capital firms, and REITs in Canada. As of August 2023, the Board was composed of:

Associated people

The institute has attracted some well-known individuals to its ranks, including politicians such as former Reform Party of Canada leader Preston Manning, former Progressive Conservative Ontario premier Mike Harris, and former Progressive Conservative Alberta premier Ralph Klein. From 1979 to 1991, the institute's senior economist was Walter Block.

Ideology

The Fraser Institute describes itself as "an independent, non-partisan research and educational organization", and envisions "a free and prosperous world where individuals benefit from greater choice, competitive markets, and personal responsibility". The Fraser Institute's stated mission is "to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets and government intervention on the welfare of individuals."
Forbes has referred to the think tank as libertarian. The New York Times has described the institute as libertarian. Langley Times classified it as right-of-centre libertarian.

Activities

Research and publications

The institute self-publishes a variety of reports:
  • Economic Freedom Index: The institute's annual Economic Freedom of the World index ranks the countries of the world according to their degrees of economic freedom. The institute has also published regional and sub-national reports ranking the economic freedom of North America, Latin America, the Arab World, and the Francophonie. These reports are distributed worldwide through the Economic Freedom Network, a global network of 80 think-tanks.
  • Human Freedom Index: Along with the Cato Institute and the Liberales Institut at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, the Fraser Institute publishes annual Human Freedom Index, which presents the state of human freedom in the world based on a broad measure of 76 distinct indicators that encompasses personal, civil, and economic freedom. The index presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. The index covers the following areas: Rule of Law, Security and Safety, Movement, Religion, Association, Assembly, and Civil Society, Expression, Relationships, Size of Government, Legal System and Property Rights, Access to Sound Money, Freedom to Trade Internationally, and Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business. The Human Freedom Index was created in 2015, covering 152 countries for years 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012. In January 2016 data for 2013 was added, covering 157 countries.
  • Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada is the institute's annual report on hospital waiting times in Canada, based on a nationwide survey of physicians and health care practitioners. The twentieth annual survey, released December 2010, found that the total waiting time between referral from a general practitioner and delivery of elective treatment by a specialist, averaged across 12 specialties and 10 provinces surveyed, had risen from 16.1 weeks in 2009 to 18.2 weeks in 2010.
  • Survey of Mining Companies: Published annually, the global Survey of Mining Companies ranks the investment climates of mining jurisdictions around the world, based on the opinions of mining industry executives and managers.
  • Global Petroleum Survey: An annual survey of petroleum executives regarding barriers to investment in oil- and gas-producing regions around the world.
  • Canadian Provincial Investment Climate: A series of reports measuring the extent to which Canadian provinces embrace public policies that contribute to, and sustain, positive investment climates.
  • Firearms reports. The Fraser Institute issued a number of articles and statements opposing Canadian gun control laws, including firearms registry.
  • School Report Cards: Every year, the institute publishes a series of School Report Cards ranking the academic performance of schools in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Washington state based on the publicly available results of standardized testing mandated and administered by the provinces. The website www.compareschoolrankings.org allows users to compare up to five schools at once, based on a variety of performance indicators.
  • Tax Freedom Day: The institute's annual Tax Freedom Day report calculates the day the average Canadian family has paid off the total tax bill and royalties imposed on them and corporations by all levels of government. In 2016, Tax Freedom Day was June 7 with $45,167 having been collected per family. The institute also offers a personal Tax Freedom Day calculator.
  • 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.
  • 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.