Tuition hikes don’t add up
In this opinion piece in the Chronical Herald and the Times & Transcript, Dr. Michael Conlon responds to an earlier piece by AIMS' President Brian Crowley on the topic of rising tuition fees. Watch for Crowley's response in a later piece entitled - low tuition advocates need facts not fantasy.
Property rights work for the seabed too: AIMS at Submerged Lands Management conference
At the 23rd Annual International Submerged Lands Management Conference in Halifax, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley was asked to present the arguments for a shift from traditional public ownership/trustee arrangements to a regime of mixed public and private property for the management of the seabed.
Economic Development in Vermont
The Atlantica project is examining the International Northeast as one interconnected economic zone. As part of this multi-year research initiative, AIMS is releasing Economic Development in Vermont: Making Lemons out of Lemonade? by Art Woolf, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Vermont. The paper, based on a speech by Professor Woolf, is remarkable for Atlantic Canadians in that its themes are ones that this region is all too familiar with. In spite of what should be some comparative economic strengths (such as the high level of education of its people, and high levels of education spending), the state of Vermont has been complacent in the face of its economic challenges and has allowed poor quality government to become an almost insurmountable obstacle to growth. Yet as Professor Woolf also notes, just across the Connecticut River, in New Hampshire, many of these same challenges have been met and largely mastered.
How the Prime Minister squandered his fiscal legacy and got nothing in return
In his fortnightly column in the Halifax Herald and the Moncton Times Transcript, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley wrote about the first ministers' agreement on health. His conclusion? "In order to shore up his weak political position in a minority parliament, Paul Martin has largely sacrificed the fiscal maneuvering room he himself won for Ottawa in the early nineties. Yet he got no commitments for reform from the premiers, and only token nods in the direction of greater accountability for results. The Prime Minister has largely destroyed his chief legacy as finance minister and got nothing to show for it other than a year or two of peace on the health front. Like Neville Chamberlain before him, Paul Martin believes that there will be peace in our time. And like Chamberlain, he is likely to be bitterly disappointed."
Risk, Regulation and Reality – Special event in Toronto
Are we forgoing economic opportunities because of irrational fears of hypothetical risks? Can government make risk disappear? And what are the real costs and benefits of the widespread belief that regulation can tame risk? If, like us, you think these questions are some of the most important facing Canada today, we hope you'll join us for this upcoming conference in Toronto where the use of regulation to manage risk will be explored. We have excellent international speakers joining us and we believe this event will be useful as we move forward in ongoing policy discussion with today government leaders.
You can’t build a city on handouts
Writing in the Globe and Mail about his new paper in financing city government in Canada, AIMS author and economics professor Harry Kitchen writes: Ottawa and the provinces should move away from transferring money to cities and should give them the instruments and tax room they need to become mature, responsible governments with the right incentives to serve their citizens responsibly, efficiently and fairly. Not only would this lead to a more optimal level of municipal services, it would enhance the quality of life for Canadians and improve the competitiveness of Canadian cities.