St. Valentine’s Week Massacre
A widely used mineral index shows that most natural resource prices have fallen by 50% since 1950. Yet, in Newfoundland, the idea that natural resources increase in value the longer one waits has been used to justify policies that drove away investors, created regulatory bottlenecks and prolonged jurisdictional disputes. The results, according to Peter Fenwick, AIMS' voice on Newfoundland and Labrador and former Director of Communications at the Institute, is severe damage to the offshore oil sector, delays in the development of the Voisey’s Bay nickel project and a succession of governments that have let Churchill River power flow to the ocean without producing any wealth. In this piece, Fenwick considers whether the recent collapse of a significant portion of Newfoundland’s offshore oil industry will inject some semblance of reality into the collective consciousness, and lead to policies that promote wealth generation now before the resources decline another 50% in value.
FPI, the South Coast, and the future of Newfoundland
After FPI announced it was putting tens of millions of dollars into modernizing three south coast plants and would have to lay off almost half the work force, politicians responded with hearings on the FPI Act. The public anger at the hearings was real, and the language abusive. In this commentary, Peter Fenwick, AIMS’ voice on Newfoundland and Labrador issues, says that now that FPI has been hobbled by the Newfoundland legislature, the future of the south coast is even more problematic. If the haemorrhaging of population from the south coast reported in the latest Census is to be staunched, it will only be by companies like FPI. Modernization has to go forward if any fish processing jobs are to be saved, but how FPI will finance it under the new rules remains to be seen.
Ten Things Atlantic Canadians Believe About Natural Gas, But Shouldn’t
Emphasis on local consumption of gas misguided; focus should be on creating best value for Atlantic Canadians from the gas sector as a whole
The Mazankowski health care report: a personal view
Comments from AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley to the Conference Board of Canada's Leader's Roundtable on the future of healthcare in Canada.
Those who control the gold, rule: Putting parents in charge of education
According to this Commentary by AIMS author Ken Boessenkool, a growing body of evidence shows that independent and home schools perform much better than public schools, even when you adjust for socio-economic factors such as education of parents and income. The goal in public education ought to be, then, to try and increase parental involvement in our public schools. Proposals exist to do just that, but many of them are problematic.
Evolution is dead; long live evolution
The effects of natural selection are doubtless more muted than at any time in human history. The efforts of humanity, and particularly Western civilization, have allowed us to shelter one another from the ravages of natural selection, through education, vaccination, sanitation, redistribution of wealth, labour laws, agricultural innovation, and a whole host of other institutions that have softened the pitiless rigours of the natural world. But that doesn't mean that nothing is changing. In this column, AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley, demonstrates that whatever else characterizes our modern societies, change on a grand scale is a huge constant. But that change is so vast, and happening so quickly, that natural biological selection, which works over millennia, cannot possibly keep up. The natural selection that matters in the world today is not of individuals for their genetic endowment, but rather the selection of social institutions for the benefits they confer on us. The long C