Policy Papers

This Spring, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) surveyed dozens of leading minds in Nova Scotia about the province’s future. Respondents discussed their concerns about Nova Scotia, including low growth, decaying public institutions, and demographic stagnation. To reverse decline, this group proposed many original and helpful insights for public policy reform. Among the [...]

The Real Legacy of Public-Private-Partnership (P3) Schools in Nova Scotia Reinventing the Building of Schools revisits the history of public-private partnerships for school construction. Though the province's experience with P3's since the mid-1990s has been widely described as a failure, the paper contends that the record is far more favourable. While there are numerous "hard [...]

© UNB. Post-Secondary Tuition and Low-Income Access discusses New Brunswick's Tuition Access Bursary program, which covers college and university tuition for the children of families earning under $60,000 per year. Author Patrick Webber's paper reviews numerous studies, surveys and reports from domestic and international sources, which speak to the relationship of tuition levels and participation [...]

The Size and Cost of the Public Sector in Western Canada authored by Rodney A. Clifton, Jackson Doughart, and Marco Navarro-Génie, examines the provincial and municipal public sectors in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. For 2015, the authors draw data from Statistics Canada and examine the share of the overall workforce in the [...]

The 13th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2017 is published in collaboration with the Demographia group in Illinois, USA and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg. Authors Wendell Cox and Hugh Pavletich explain that many "best city" surveys do not include housing affordability in their calculations. This oversight is particularly relevant [...]

Recurrent political debates about public finance often include exaggerated accusations of “austerity” when a government decides to reduce spending. Though the language of “imposing austerity” has found its greatest use in Europe, it is also found in North America and Atlantic Canada. But all reductions on government spending do not amount to austerity. Austerity [...]

Public sector employment is a major cost for provincial governments in Atlantic Canada. The Size and Cost of the Public Sector in Atlantic Canada, 2015 examines provincial public sectors in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. It finds that according to various metrics, the sub-national public employment of the [...]

By DAVID MURRELL and JACKSON DOUGHART • 07 Nov 2016 Private Sector Investment in Atlantic Canada examines several forms of capital investment, including machinery and equipment outlay, business non-residential structures and government capital spending. Capital investment is a leading indicator of export demand and economic health. Employing Statistics Canada's investment intentions surveys, the paper establishes [...]

A Report by Tom Flanagan and Lee Harding Seven Habits of Highly Effective First Nations examines 21 First Nations in Canada who scored highly on the 2011 Community Well-being Index (CWB), which is computed by researchers at the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (INAC) after each census. The CWB index includes Statistics Canada data related [...]

Review and Future Trends A report by Jan Pavel In e-Government in the Atlantic Provinces: Review and Future Trends Jan Pavel assesses the delivery of 31 e-government services.  Overall, Nova Scotia ranked first, followed by New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island.  These provinces were ranked using four classifications, with each level representing [...]