aims

Corporations, senior executives and Americans are the primary beneficiaries of our low Canadian dollar, says AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley, in this week’s regular newspaper column. The last time that the U.S. and Canadian dollars were at par was November 1976. Today, the loonie stands at a mere 63 cents or so, and tests new lows each week. This represents a very significant decline in our standard of living, because we either have to buy less from our U.S. neighbours, or else we have to pay more for the same things. While those who can avoid these impacts do, it means that our dollar's relentless slide over the last 25 years has harmed the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society more than anyone else. Publication: CHH, November 21, 2001

Here is what's new at AIMS, Atlantic Canada's Public Policy Think Tank

Here is what's new at AIMS, Atlantic Canada's Public Policy Think Tank

In this feature in Business Voice magazine, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley discusses the impacts for the Atlantic business community of the tragic events of September 11. Crowley sets the tone for the article by emphasising the special nature of the relationship between Canada and the U.S., “beyond the business ties, Canada and the U.S. are bound together by affection and emotion.”

Halifax Regional Council put in place a sound bidding process and it has received some good bids. After satisfying itself that its own process has been followed, council should see it through. These are the conclusions reached by AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley.

The Board and staff of AIMS were saddened to learn of the recent death of one of the members of the Institute's Board of Directors, John (Jack) C. Hartery, recently retired President and General Manager of Stora Enso Port Hawkesbury Limited.

The Board and staff of AIMS were saddened to learn of the recent death of one of the members of the Institute’s Board of Research Advisors and AIMS author, E.G. West, Professor Emeritus in the Economics Department, Carleton University.

In this column from the National Post, William Watson considers the message delivered by Nobel Laureate James Buchanan at a conference hosted by AIMS, the Montreal Economic Institute and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Held in Montreal on October 25, 2001, the conference considered whether equalization is really a helping hand or simply a welfare trap for provinces. After considering Buchanan’s fears that equalization programmes can be captured and destroyed by politics and bad design, Watson observes that, “If equalization weren't already in place, perhaps we wouldn't feel the need to invent it.” Publication: NP, October 27, 2001

This is just one of the provoking questions that was raised during "Equalization: Welfare Trap or Helping Hand?" a conference sponsored by the Montreal Economic Institute, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Conseil des relations internationales de Montréal. This article from the Montreal Gazette discusses why Nobel laureate James Buchanan and a room full of senior economists called equalisation a bribe. Exploring the idea that, without this money, thousands more from Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and the rest would flood into Toronto and Calgary creating bigger cities, concentrating the money and skill needed for excellence, and world-class competitiveness

James Buchanan, 1986 Nobel Prize laureate and pioneer of the "public choice" school of economics believes that the East Coast energy boom has given Canada a golden opportunity to reduce the distortions caused by equalization payments. Buchanan, of Virginia's George Mason University, was speaking after addressing a seminar "Equalization: Welfare Trap or Helping Hand?" sponsored by the Montreal Economic Institute, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Conseil des relations internationales de Montréal. Buchanan’s remarks were reported in this article from the Financial Post. The government's equalization system may have brought benefits over the past 40 years, he said, but "it's time to wean the Atlantic area off transfer payments and make the receiving provinces and their taxpayers face their full responsibilities and spend less of the richer provinces' money."