AIMS // Atlantic Institute for Market Studies

AIMS President & CEO Charles Cirtwill says he is in favour of a proposal new container terminal for Melfrod in Nova Scotia, but only it if is completely privately funded.

AIMS President & CEO Charles Cirtwill explains in this article what is holding up the Atlantic Gateway strategy. He says there isn't a vision and the region hasn't shown it can work together.

The compelling case for free trade. How trade makes us rich as well as free. Based on a talk to the North America Works Conference in Kansas City by Brian Lee Crowley.

This Commentary is based on remarks by AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley as the Distinguished Speaker at the 2008 Sumner Bernstein Forum for International Understanding.

It's just days from the federal election, days of political promises and political finger-pointing. In this series of commentaries, AIMS lays out the public policy issues that will mean make a difference in Atlantic Canada. It is not a wish list for handouts or preferential treatment. Collectively they are a request that whoever forms the new government thoroughly scrutinize and quantify the actual effects of existing policies. We believe that such an examination will lead to the same conclusions that many authors published by AIMS have arrived at over the past several years.

Momentum builds in the Atlantica project as a variety of initiatives bring people together from both sides of the Canada - US border

AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley was again in 2003 a guest panellist at the annual retreat of senior managers of the federal Department of Finance that took place in Cornwall, Ontario. Four panellists were set the task of painting a picture for the Finance officials of the main policy challenges facing the country.

Derek Oland, a long time friend and supporter of AIMS, recently spoke to the Empire Club in Toronto about the lost opportunities of regional trans-national trade initiatives. Speaking about the beleagured economy in Atlantic Canada, Oland was quick to point out that it wasn’t always this way.

Three key players in AIMS’ Atlantica project met with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade to discuss the concept of Atlantica and its importance to this region and the country as a whole.

As the NB government considers tax free zones, this article points out that it is a policy considered in a recent AIMS study.

Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins Media Release

“Free and fair trade will prevail” was the promise Deputy Prime Minister John Manley made to his Halifax audience during the highly successful Economic Leadership Speaker Series event, held on May 15, 2002 and co-sponsored by AIMS. Mr. Manley discussed the need for an aggressive stance by Canada when negotiating settlements for the boiling trade disputes with the United States.

In his regular column appearing simultaneously in the Chronicle Herald and the Moncton Times and Transcript, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley, shares his recent frustrating experience while crossing the Canada/U.S. border. With new areas of border cooperation constantly being explored between our two nations — including an eventual jointly administered continental perimeter, having U.S. customs inspectors working in the Port of Halifax — the importance of intelligent border priorities is crucial. Crowley explains how the current focus on what the U.S. does at the border has caused Canadians to lose sight of their own country’s priorities. For a country whose livelihood depends on free trade with its neighbour to the south, Canada’s border operations look unorganized and petty to an individual trying to bring in commercial goods in a tiny one-time transaction. Just imagine what a nightmare it must be for those who have to get that $1-billion in commercial trade across the line every day

"It makes sense for us, their biggest trading partner and closest ally, to work with [the U.S.]…" This was the theme in an address by AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley, AIMS Senior Fellow, Michael J. MacDonald, and Perry Newman, former Director of International Trade to the state of Maine and current President of the Atlantica Group of Portland, Maine, to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee studying North American Integration. The presentation introduced the Committee to AIMS’ “Atlantica Initiative” and explained the benefits of re-discovering and fostering the region’s historical north-south economic ties which North American free trade has begun to reinvigorate. In their comments to the Committee, Messrs. Crowley, MacDonald and Newman also underlined how the post-11 September climate opens up possibilities for closer collaboration on security issues. The Atlantica region could be the scene of numerous pilot projects, including at the Port of Halifax and the region’s airports, as we

The potential economic and social benefits that Atlantica offers to Atlantic Canada are highlighted in a recent article in the National Post. In exploring efforts to improve the free flow of people and goods across the Canada-US border, the National Post looks at AIMS' recent Pugwash Thinkers Lodge conference on the Atlantica concept - a cross-border region embracing Atlantic Canada, much of New England, northern New York state and Quebec's Eastern Townships. AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley is quoted in the article as saying "Open borders have signalled a renaissance in Europe's previously neglected regions. A very similar development can and will happen across Canada, and there are few places for which it can be more beneficial than Atlantic Canada." As the National Post reports, elected representatives of the people of Atlantica are very much aware of the benefits of closer ties across the border.

Request for Proposals issued for binational study.

How Vermont’s tax regime drives business to New Hampshire

Closer U.S. ties would create jobs, provide more choice, and promote prosperity

Three-day conference to consider the future of the “International Northeast”

AIMS and ECANS present an update on how power markets are evolving, what it means for this region - and which region is the “right” one for electricity purposes.

AIMS pathbreaking conference on the importance of all facets of the Canada-US relationship

AIMS Economic Leadership Speaker Series welcomes Canada's Deputy Prime Minister to discuss Canada's US agenda.

How will competition, deregulation and privatization in the continental electricity market affect us?

Get details on an AIMS Luncheon with ADQ Leader Mario Dumont, a fresh voice from Quebec. Read an op-ed in the Toronto Star that draws on AIMS' work on equalization to point out the federal transfer system is failing both the givers and the receivers. Hear what the influential Council of State Governments were told about Atlantica. And view an in-depth interview about AIMS first ten years.

Urban Chic, Plugging Atlantica into the Emerging Global Network, Social Policy and the New Economy, David Zitner on Health Care Innovation and more.

Nation States and Economic Regions in the Global Network: Michael Gallis at AIMS. Also Nova Scotia's Knowlege Economy, Brian Lee Crowley on taxes and AIMS debates federal NDP leader Jack Layton before Atlantic mayors.

Atlantica: Moncton’s New Neighbourhood in the Global Economy. AIMS addresses Greater Moncton Chamber’s AGM, Five Big Ideas: AIMS’ Roadmap for Atlantic Prosperity, Brian Lee Crowley's commentary in the National Post on Canada's first aboriginal-run MRI clinic and more.