AIMS // Atlantic Institute for Market Studies

AIMS Director of Research Don McIver writes about Canada's potential CETA with the EU. Canada will need to negotiate skillfully, but even the peripheral consequences of reaching an agreement may provide some valuable benefits to Canadians.

Upon Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi's visit to Halifax, AIMS President and CEO Charles Cirtwill explained Nenshi's efforts to lure Haligonians to Calgary as "competition at its best", but was vaguely offended, as so many Atlantic Canadians already leave Halifax to work out west.

In this op-ed, AIMS Director of Research Don McIver discusses how the consequences of population aging are finally beginning to drive mainstream economic policy, and offers some solutions.

Since having to face economic austerity measures, the New Brunswick government is tackling a need to continue to raise academic performance scores after poor results on studies and tests over the past decade. AIMS President and CEO Charles Cirtwill weighs in on the issues facing education in New Brunswick and compares policies and practices in the province to those of other province's in Canada.

In light of the recent annual gathering of the Committee on Internal Trade held at Brudenell, AIMS President and CEO Charles Cirtwill encourages PEI to forget about the Agreement on Internal Trade, join the New West Partnership, and do it today.

As new members of parliament begin familiarizing themselves with key economic and social issues, AIMS Director of Research Don McIver takes the time to review some of the more perverse consequences of existing strategies.

As our new MPs get settled into Ottawa, AIMS staff suggests some topics of importance to Atlantic Canada. AIMS Board Chair John Risley discusses China's importance on the world stage. The history of Friday the 13th is told. View Charles Cirtwill's talk on freedom of choice in education. Michael Zwaagstra talks about what's wrong with our schools.

This article from the Times & transcript discusses the promises of population growth in New Brunswick despite and reports by AIMS of the contrary.

In this article in the Telegraph Journal, AIMS Vice President Barbara Pike comments on tax based incentives in northern New Brunswick

This article in the Telegraph Journal looks at the potential of The Canadian Taxpayers Federation opening an office in Halifax which AIMS President and CEO believes will benefit Atlantic Canadians.

In this Letter to the Editor posted in the Cape Breton Post, AIMS President and CEO discusses Nova Scotias investment into three competing terminal projects.

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.

Our population is getting older. This Commentary, based on a talk to the Canadian Education Association, examines how that fact will impact education policy.

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.

AIMS is releasing its second in a series of publications examining the role the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency plays in the economic development of the region. In this edition of ACOA Watch, Brian Lee Crowley and Bruce Winchester consider the recent work by Jack Mintz and Michael Smart of the C.D. Howe Institute "Brooking no Favorites"

Brian Lee Crowley was a guest speaker at the Workforce Strategy Forum put on by the Aerospace and Defence Industry Association of Nova Scotia to look at strategies to deal with the industry’s growing labour shortages.

AIMS Director of Research Don McIver argues that a sensible expansion policy should seek to achieve comprehensive education and skills development for all Nova Scotians — including our frequently disadvantaged communities.

A new research paper makes the case that government has to stop subsidizing business, and it should start by doing away with regional development authorities.

Atlantic Institute for Market Studies’ director of research Don McIver is calling for an end to Regional Development Authorities in Nova Scotia.

A Nova Scotia think tank is suggesting the province abolish its regional development authorities including the Cumberland Regional Development Authority.

In this op-ed, AIMS Board Vice Chair Dianne Kelderman suggests that a local MP - and anyone who thinks exporting our workforce to Alberta is good for Nova Scotia's economy - may need a lesson in Economics 101.

In this op-ed, AIMS contributor Gordon L. Weil explains how New Brunswick's provincial power policy is looking inward after Hydro-Quebec, abandoning a past emphasis on power exports and regional cooperation.

AIMS President and CEO Charles Cirtwill says people’s expectations for the shipbuilding contract are overblown. As soon as the announcement was made, those expecting to cash in on the fallout had already spent the actual profits many times over in their imagination.

The shipbuilding contract is being painted as a golden goose for Nova Scotia, but AIMS President and CEO Charles Cirtwill says that on its own, the shipbuilding contract won't mean any significant change in several parts of the province.

A former New Brunswick cabinet minister says the departure of Mike Ferguson won't hurt the province's battle to wrestle down its huge deficit and debt. Several years ago, University of New Brunswick economics professor David Murrell analyzed the budgets of all 10 provinces for four consecutive years, in a project for AIMS. He noticed the quality of the accounting work in New Brunswick was the best of all the provinces, and he believes that strong financial reporting made New Brunswick more accountable.

The government of New Brunswick plans to replace Business New Brunswick with an arms-length development agency called Invest NB. AIMS President & CEO Charles Cirtwill says it's a model that has worked in Nova Scotia, and could in New Brunswick.

This article from the Times & Transcript looks at the progress New Brunswick has made in achieving its self imposed benchmark in regards to population growth. It draws on AIMS' research to explain the population crunch.

This interview in the Telegraph Journal with AIMS President and CEO Charles Cirtwill discusses the current and future fiscal health of New Brunswick.

AIMS Senior Fellow Brian Lee Crowley was approached by the National Post to contribute an op-ed on the idea of a coalition of the Liberals and the NDP. Here is what he wrote.

Part One: AIMS Senior Fellow Brian Lee Crowley is the co-author of a new book called The Canadian Century: Moving out of America’s Shadow. The book details the tremendous progress Canada has made in recent years in redeeming itself from decades of poor policy. In fact the book holds out the prospect of Canada finally claiming the century that Sir Wilfrid Laurier predicted would be ours – just 100 years late. In the first of two extracts published in the National Post, Crowley and his co-authors talk about Laurier’s plan for Canada and how the return to his policy prescription for Canada has paid important dividends. In the second extract they write about how to take the relationship with the US to the next level.

Part Two: AIMS Senior Fellow Brian Lee Crowley is the co-author of a new book called The Canadian Century: Moving out of America’s Shadow. The book details the tremendous progress Canada has made in recent years in redeeming itself from decades of poor policy. In fact the book holds out the prospect of Canada finally claiming the century that Sir Wilfrid Laurier predicted would be ours – just 100 years late. In the first of two extracts published in the National Post, Crowley and his co-authors talk about Laurier’s plan for Canada and how the return to his policy prescription for Canada has paid important dividends. In the second extract they write about how to take the relationship with the US to the next level.

This editorial in The Daily Press in north Ontario uses AIMS research material to talk about regional development and mining.

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

Les efforts de développement fournis par le gouvernement fédéral dans le Canada atlantique ont contribué à un taux de croissance économique généralement anémique. Dans sa chronique régulière dans La Presse, le plus grand quotidien de langue française de l’Amérique du Nord, le président de AIMS, Brian Lee Crowley observe que, c'est évidemment pure coïncidence que ce phénomène correspond à la période précédant de peu les élections fédérales.

In the never-never land of government-inspired "economic development," a sprinkling of pixie dust and a new name can rehabilitate discredited old ideas. Despite its dismal record at picking "winners" such as the Bricklin sports car, the New Brunswick government has recently decided to mould business "clusters" across its industrial landscape in the form of the "Plastics Valley" of North America. AIMS Director of Research comments in the National Post

AIMS paper injects reason into misguided industrial development strategy

AIMS’ response to the TD Forum on Canada’s Standard of Living

Keynote address by AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley features AIMS' Atlantica concept

Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) President Brian Lee Crowley was one of 25 people recognized in the field of economic development invited to Ottawa to discuss how Canada can get the best value from the money it spends on helping to develop the private sector in the Third World

AIMS’ 2nd Annual Nova Scotia Municipal Report Card is released. A proposal by AIMS President and CEO Charles Cirtwill for Prince Edward Island to uphold its confederation promises- and expand Provincial free trade with the West. Why small provinces and states like Maine need big business- and soon. AIMS Director of Research Don McIver suggests that Federal government goodwill initiatives may very well have acted in the opposite in retrospect to 1867. Perry Newman, AIMS Board member and President of Atlantica Group LLC recalls the tale of the brave Terry Fox in-lieu of his mother, Betty Fox’s passing. Based on a convocation speech delivered to Kingsview Academy in Halifax, AIMS President and CEO Charles Cirtwill offers some words of wisdom about the future of our society

UNLEASHING CANADA: A Luncheon with Mike Harris

An invitation to lunch with urban visionary Mayor John Norquist of Milwaukee, lessons from the west coast's experience with property rights in the fishery and Brian Lee Crowley on how Employment Insurance causes unemployment.