aims

A First Step, but with a Short Stride Nova Scotia's First Conservative Budget Still a High Wire Act

On the eve of the Nova Scotia provincial budget, the Halifax Herald invited AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley to make the case why the province needs to balance its budget and reduce spending. Publication: CHH, April 10, 2000.

AIMS Fellow in Public Finance, Roland Martin, analyses how fiscal discipline in New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland over the past few years continues to pay dividends for the taxpayers in those provinces, as evidenced by recent tax cuts. By contrast, the author of Debtors' Prison II shows how Nova Scotia's continued deficit financing has significantly harmed what should be one of the region's strongest economies.

In an op-ed piece that originally appeared in the National Post, Dr. David Zitner of Dalhousie University and AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley argue that our health care problems stem chiefly from lack of information, not money. Publication: NP, April 3, 2000.

Fred McMahon, author of AIMS' book Road to Growth, has responded to Quebec Finance Minister Bernard Landry's claim that Quebec is now following Ireland's lead in economic and budgetary policy.

“…[M]anagement guru Peter Drucker once wrote that government regulation of business and industry was one of the most original inventions of western liberal democracy But, like penicillin, regulation has been so widely used, and abused, that its potency has sharply declined.”

The "Big Questions" for any public inquiry into the Walkerton tragedy will be: 1. How did Walkerton's water get contaminated? 2. Once contaminated, could the tragedy have been avoided by either the Ontario government or Walkerton's water utility? 3. How can future disasters like this be averted? As these questions are answered, people should realize that governments which both own and regulate public utilities have a fatal conflict of interest.

Is it right to say that Premier Ralph Klein's proposals to allow overnight stays in private medical clinics in Alberta constitutes a fundamental challenge to medicare? AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley argues that, on the contrary, it is no more than a timid extension of some already widely-accepted principles of this country's health care system. Publication: CHH & TJSJ & SJT, March 15, 2000.

In this column for The Globe and Mail, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley argues that Atlantic Canada's chief problem is not too many governments, but rather too much government, a very different proposition. The solution? Stronger rules on internal trade to restrain provincial governments from indulging in foolish and parochial policies at the expense of the economic rights of all Canadians, including Atlantic Canadians.

AIMS presentation to HRM Council on Harbour Cleanup, March 7, 2000