Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Public opposition in Regina halts Dewdney Avenue renaming as Kamloops mass grave allegations unravel

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Lee Harding
Three years after taking down a statue of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Regina decides not to change street named after a far more controversial historical figure.
In a sign of the times, the same City of Regina that removed a statue of John A. MacDonald has just preserved the name of former Indian Commissioner Edgar Dewdney.
Dewdney, a Conservative MP under MacDonald, became Indian Commissioner of the North-West Territories in 1879 and was named Lieutenant Governor of the territory in 1881. He served in both positions until 1888. He was, briefly, the Minister of Indian Affairs before being appointed Lieutenant- Governor of British Columbia.
It was Dewdney who decided to move the territorial capital from Battleford to Wascana in 1882, later renamed Regina. He also moved the North-West Mounted Police headquarters to Regina from Fort Walsh: the fact that Dewdney had land nearby was likely not coincidental.
In 1883, Dewdney wrote to MacDonald to back the 1879 Davin Report in support of residential industrial schools, saying they “might be carried on with great advantage to the Indians.” The Davin Report, written by Nicholas Flood Davin, a journalist and politician, was commissioned by the Canadian government to provide recommendations on the establishment of residential schools for Indigenous children.
Despite this enormous contribution to Regina and Canadian history, Regina city councillors Andrew Stevens and Dan LeBlanc made a motion last May to remove Dewdney’s name from a street, park, and public pool.
The prospects seemed good. After all, the city of Regina decided to remove the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from Victoria Park in 2021, primarily due to his role in the creation of Canada’s residential school system.
Dewdney was neither a father of Confederation nor a prime minister but is often viewed as a more controversial figure in Canadian history. He actively supported the residential school system, believing it to be more effective than day schools in breaking the influence of Indigenous families and communities. His policies were designed to assimilate Indigenous children by separating them from their cultural roots.
He refused to allocate certain lands promised to Indigenous communities under treaty agreements. He also withheld food rations, which were crucial during times of famine, using them as leverage to force Indigenous bands to relocate further north, where the government wanted them to settle. These actions contributed to widespread suffering and are part of his contentious legacy.
Yet on August 21, by a vote of seven to three, Regina city council refused to rename the 12-km Dewdney Avenue. Ward 10 councillor Jason Mancinelli said the change would cause too much hassle for businesses and people on the street.
Mayor Sandra Masters, who is seeking re-election, estimated that renaming Dewdney Avenue could cost around $350,000. She argued that this amount could be better spent on other priorities in the city.
“There are other things we could invest in that wouldn’t be as divisive,” she said.
So, what changed between 2021 and now?
In 2021, the city removed Macdonald’s statue following a brief, one-sided consultation shortly after the Kamloops Residential School mass grave allegations. At the time, ground-penetrating radar suggested potential burial sites, prompting widespread reactions across Canada.
Three years later, the investigation into the allegations, at a cost of $8 million, has yet to uncover any bodies. Some experts suggest that soil disturbances detected by the scans might have been caused by shallow trenches dug for a septic field back in 1924 rather than unmarked graves as initially alleged.
In contrast, Regina introduced the issue of renaming Dewdney Avenue in May and held presentations in June of this year, long after the Kamloops allegations started to unravel. The decision on the name change was delayed long enough for those opposed to speak up. Apparently, the suggested replacement name Tatanka – the Cree word for bison – did not seem to resonate with many of those opposed to the renaming.
The takeaway from these two outcomes is clear: rushed decisions can lead to unintended consequences, while a more thoughtful, measured approach ensures that choices are better informed and more beneficial to the community.
Lee Harding is a Research Fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Business
It Took Trump To Get Canada Serious About Free Trade With Itself

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Lee Harding
Trump’s protectionism has jolted Canada into finally beginning to tear down interprovincial trade barriers
The threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs and the potential collapse of North American free trade have prompted Canada to look inward. With international trade under pressure, the country is—at last—taking meaningful steps to improve trade within its borders.
Canada’s Constitution gives provinces control over many key economic levers. While Ottawa manages international trade, the provinces regulate licensing, certification and procurement rules. These fragmented regulations have long acted as internal trade barriers, forcing companies and professionals to navigate duplicate approval processes when operating across provincial lines.
These restrictions increase costs, delay projects and limit job opportunities for businesses and workers. For consumers, they mean higher prices and fewer choices. Economists estimate that these barriers hold back up to $200 billion of Canada’s economy annually, roughly eight per cent of the country’s GDP.
Ironically, it wasn’t until after Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement that it began to address domestic trade restrictions. In 1994, the first ministers signed the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), committing to equal treatment of bidders on provincial and municipal contracts. Subsequent regional agreements, such as Alberta and British Columbia’s Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement in 2007, and the New West Partnership that followed, expanded cooperation to include broader credential recognition and enforceable dispute resolution.
In 2017, the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) replaced the AIT to streamline trade among provinces and territories. While more ambitious in scope, the CFTA’s effectiveness has been limited by a patchwork of exemptions and slow implementation.
Now, however, Trump’s protectionism has reignited momentum to fix the problem. In recent months, provincial and territorial labour market ministers met with their federal counterpart to strengthen the CFTA. Their goal: to remove longstanding barriers and unlock the full potential of Canada’s internal market.
According to a March 5 CFTA press release, five governments have agreed to eliminate 40 exemptions they previously claimed for themselves. A June 1 deadline has been set to produce an action plan for nationwide mutual recognition of professional credentials. Ministers are also working on the mutual recognition of consumer goods, excluding food, so that if a product is approved for sale in one province, it can be sold anywhere in Canada without added red tape.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has signalled that his province won’t wait for consensus. Ontario is dropping all its CFTA exemptions, allowing medical professionals to begin practising while awaiting registration with provincial regulators.
Ontario has partnered with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to implement mutual recognition of goods, services and registered workers. These provinces have also enabled direct-to-consumer alcohol sales, letting individuals purchase alcohol directly from producers for personal consumption.
A joint CFTA statement says other provinces intend to follow suit, except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
These developments are long overdue. Confederation happened more than 150 years ago, and prohibition ended more than a century ago, yet Canadians still face barriers when trying to buy a bottle of wine from another province or find work across a provincial line.
Perhaps now, Canada will finally become the economic union it was always meant to be. Few would thank Donald Trump, but without his tariffs, this renewed urgency to break down internal trade barriers might never have emerged.
Lee Harding is a research fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
2025 Federal Election
The Cost of Underselling Canadian Oil and Gas to the USA

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Canadians can now track in real time how much revenue the country is forfeiting to the United States by selling its oil at discounted prices, thanks to a new online tracker from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. The tracker shows the billions in revenue lost due to limited access to distribution for Canadian oil.
At a time of economic troubles and commercial tensions with the United States, selling our oil at a discount to U.S. middlemen who then sell it in the open markets at full price will rob Canada of nearly $19 billion this year, said Marco Navarro-Genie, the VP of Research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
Navarro-Genie led the team that designed the counter.
The gap between world market prices and what Canada receives is due to the lack of Canadian infrastructure.
According to a recent analysis by Ian Madsen, senior policy analyst at the Frontier Centre, the lack of international export options forces Canadian producers to accept prices far below the world average. Each day this continues, the country loses hundreds of millions in potential revenue. This is a problem with a straightforward remedy, said David Leis, the Centre’s President. More pipelines need to be approved and built.
While the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline has helped, more is needed. It commenced commercial operations on May 1, 2024, nearly tripling Canada’s oil export capacity westward from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels daily. This expansion gives Canadian oil producers access to broader global markets, including Asia and the U.S. West Coast, potentially reducing the price discount on Canadian crude.
This is more than an oil story. While our oil price differential has long been recognized, there’s growing urgency around our natural gas exports. The global demand for cleaner energy, including Canadian natural gas, is climbing. Canada exports an average of 12.3 million GJ of gas daily. Yet, we can still not get the full value due to infrastructure bottlenecks, with losses of over $7.3 billion (2024). A dedicated counter reflecting these mounting gas losses underscores how critical this issue is.
“The losses are not theoretical numbers,” said Madsen. “This is real money, and Canadians can now see it slipping away, second by second.”
The Frontier Centre urges policymakers and industry leaders to recognize the economic urgency and ensure that infrastructure projects like TMX are fully supported and efficiently utilized to maximize Canada’s oil export potential. The webpage hosting the counter offers several examples of what the lost revenue could buy for Canadians. A similar counter for gas revenue lost through similarly discounted gas exports will be added in the coming days.
What Could Canada Do With $25.6 Billion a Year?
Without greater pipeline capacity, Canada loses an estimated (2025) $25.6 billion by selling our oil and gas to the U.S. at a steep discount. That money could be used in our communities — funding national defence, hiring nurses, supporting seniors, building schools, and improving infrastructure. Here’s what we’re giving up by underselling these natural resources.

342,000 Nurses
The average annual salary for a registered nurse in Canada is about $74,958. These funds could address staffing shortages and improve patient care nationwide.
Source

39,000 New Housing Units
At an estimated $472,000 per unit (excluding land costs, based on Toronto averages), $25.6 billion could fund nearly 94,000 affordable housing units.
Source
About the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy is an independent Canadian think-tank that researches and analyzes public policy issues, including energy, economics and governance.
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