The Beacon, May 12, 2005
In this edition of The Beacon, read how AIMS has prompted a political debate on Equalization in Saskatchewan; learn what universities need to do to stay relevent; hear AIMS message to the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce; and consider how Newfoundland is throwing away millions of dollars over the long term to gain thousands of jobs in the short term.
Contraindicated: Canada can’t solve US pharmaceutical woes.
The US Congress is once again considering authorization of the re-importation of pharmaceuticals from Canada. As AIMS Fellow in Health Care Economics Brian Ferguson explains in a commentary in the National Post, such a solution to the US pharmaceutical woes is a dream cop-out for politicians.
Students Without Borders, Universities Without Illusions
They may not have liked what they heard, but the chairs of universities certainly sat up and listened. In one of the keynote addresses to the annual conference of National University Board Chairs and Secretaries (NAUBCS), AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley provided insight to the universities of the future. He warned the guardians of Canada’s post-secondary education that they need to think outside the sacred, but physical, halls of academia.
Short-term Job Gains will cost Newfoundlanders millions of dollars
AIMS Research Fellow Peter Fenwick says Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is making a big mistake on offshore development. Fenwick says Williams is pushing for short-term jobs and economic activity, instead of waiting for the bigger royalty cheque when the project starts production.
Equalization in Saskatchewan
AIMS Talk Triggers Debate.
Alice in Borderland
The idea that Americans should be able to buy their prescription drugs in Canada, either in person or, more importantly, over the Internet, has been gaining favour with US politicians for some months now. It’s to the point where a number of states have either passed, or are considering passing, legislation that they believe will make this kind of cross-border shopping legal. This commentary explains why, if re-importation ever becomes law in the US, American prices will not fall, while in Canada we will either find drug prices rising to US levels, or supplies being restricted and shortages developing.