This was a surprise find; Kenneth J. McKenzie, Hunter Royalty Review panel member, is a fellow of the Fraser Institute.

Kenneth J. McKenzie
Ken McKenzie specializes in public finance, in particular tax policy and political economy. He has published widely in these areas, and has won several awards for his research, including the Harry Johnson award for the best article in the Canadian Journal of Economics, the Doug Purvis Prize for research in public policy, and the Faculty of Social Sciences Research Achievement Award at the U of C. He is a fellow of both the Fraser Institute and the C.D. Howe Institute (where he will deliver the 2001 Benefactor's Lecture in November).

Looking at his bio for the review panel this fact is not mentioned. Curious. The report the panel produced seems a world away from the philosophies of the Fraser Institute. He was also silent after the report was released; unlike Dwarkin who repudiated the conclusions on natural gas. I wonder if the panel had more dissension within it than became public? There was certainly the possibility for either McKenzin, Dwarkin, or both to have written a dissenting report. Why didn't that happen? And why the is prestigious Senior Fellowship in the Fraser Institute omitted from his Royalty Review Panel biography?

Kenneth J. McKenzie


Kenneth J. McKenzie is a professor in the Department of Economics, University of Calgary. He received his BComm from the University of Saskatchewan, his MA from the University of Calgary, and his PhD from Queen’s University.

From 1984 to 1986, McKenzie was an economist in the Tax Policy Branch of the federal Department of Finance. His first academic appointment was at the University of Toronto in 1990 and he has been at the University of Calgary since 1992. His principal area of research is public economics, with an emphasis on taxation and political economy. McKenzie is also the EnCana Scholar at the C.D. Howe Institute and has been a visiting fellow at research institutes in both Germany and Australia.

He is on the Panel of Experts for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and has provided analysis and advice on tax policy to several developing countries. At the provincial level, McKenzie sat on the Taxation and Finance Committee of the Alberta Economic Development Authority and was a member of the Alberta Business Tax Review Committee in 2000. He was also an expert advisor to Alberta’s Financial Review Commission in 2002 and involved in the research for the federal government’s Technical Committee on Business Taxation in 1997.