aims

AIMS and CAI invite world's leading authorities on aquaculture to PEI to discuss industry's future on east coast

No one can be opposed to more co-operation among the Atlantic provinces, so the recent announcement by the four premiers of the creation of a Council of Atlantic Premiers is welcome news. In this column in The Globe and Mail, however, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley writes that while the premiers may have created a good vehicle, they are still trying to go in the wrong direction with it. The answer to the region's problems does not lie in yet more federal money, which is what they spent most of their time asking for. Been there, done that - and it doesn't work.

If the rich Voisey's Bay mineral deposit were in Alberta or Ontario, Inco would be developing it today. Hundreds, if not thousands, of well-paid jobs would be created, generating lots of economic activity and new government revenue. Yet in Newfoundland, with its declining population, and high debt, taxes and unemployment, Voisey's Bay languishes. Why? Because of the silent third party to the talks, hovering like Banquo's ghost over the negotiations between Brian Tobin's government and Inco.

In a new interview in Canadian Business magazine, AIMS' former Senior Policy Analyst, Fred McMahon gives some insight into the content of his next book, Retreat From Growth: Atlantic Canada and the Negative-Sum Economy. The book, a companion volume to the Institute's successful Road to Growth: How Lagging Economies Become Prosperous, will be released by AIMS this summer.

Do we really need school boards? That's the question AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley asks in the wake of the Nova Scotia government's attempt to cut education spending. Experience elsewhere suggests that they can be eliminated, while improving school performance, accountability and local autonomy. And it saves money to boot! Publication: CHH, May 10, 2000.

In an interview with Moncton CBC's Information Morning, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley argued that there is lots of room for co-operation between New Brunswick Power and Nova Scotia Power, including a potential merger as one possible outcome. Before the region can realise the benefits of the potential synergies, however, New Brunswick must get politics out of its electricity industry, as Nova Scotia has largely done through privatisation. A privatised and regionalised power utility would be in a good position to cut costs and to compete in international export markets. New Brunswick's electricity status quo is untenable, and is certainly incompatible with the growing movement toward deregulation and open energy markets.

In his regular newspaper column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley argues that NS Premier John Hamm's government is approaching a critical juncture. Fixing the province's finances is, by any measure, the government's most pressing problem. But the Premier and his ministers cannot seem to fix on a strategy that will allow them to do so, while maintaining public support. Experience from other countries shows, though, that fixing the deficit can be politically popular, if the sacrifices are shared by everyone, and the government doesn't cave in to special interests. Time, however, is rapidly running out. Publication: CHH, April 26, 2000.

[HALIFAX] - For the second time in three years, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) has been recognised with a distinguished international prize for excellence in think tank publications. The Atlas Economic Research Foundation has just announced that its coveted Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Prize was awarded to the Institute for its paper on Canada's [...]

Operating in the Dark: The Gathering Crisis in Canada's Public Health Care System

In this week's Chronicle Herald, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley does something he rarely gets the chance to: commend the Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland governments for their response to public cries for gas price regulation Publication: CHH, April 12, 2000.