The ‘haves’ versus the ‘have-nots’
All four Atlantic Premiers are lobbying hard for additional transfers to their provinces. With low population growth and with increased cost of providing basic health and education services, the premiers tried to get the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) increased to Atlantic Canadian provinces. Their failure, reports Peter Fenwick, is a sign that the rest of Canada is tiring of transferring money that only props up the political regimes of the Atlantic Premiers. With the Canadian Alliance committed to ending ACOA and with the federal Liberals trashing the Canada Jobs Fund, in future the Atlantic Provinces will have to do more with their own resources. . Publication: ETSJ, August 26, 2000.
Newfoundland Journalist and Former Politician Becomes New AIMS Communications Director
Peter Fenwick to be responsible for co-ordinating groundbreaking research
Vision of a two-tier Canada mean-spirited
Nationally syndicated columnist Richard Gwyn attacks the central Canadian thinking behind "lazy" Maritimers" comments. In doing so he quotes from Fred McMahon's latest analysis of Atlantic Canada "Retreat From Growth ." Calling it an excellent analysis of the effect of subsidies and grants on the development of Atlantic Canada, Gwyn endorses McMahon's argument that a normal policy regieme rather than distorting subsidies would have been preferable. Gwyn is the latest in a series of columnists and editorial writers to base their analysis of the problems facing Atlantic Canada on the recently published AIMS book.
Creating jobs, at maximum cost
In an editorial in the Financial Post, noted economic commentator Neville Nankivell quotes extensively from AIMS' new book, "Retreat from Growth" to bolster his argument that government funded job creation schemes are costly and ineffective.
No special deals, one tax cut for all
THE GOOD NEWS is the Nova Scotia government has realized that tax cuts don't cost the public treasury money. Leave more money in the hands of companies and consumers, they invest and consume more, generating more economic activity, and more tax revenue. It's a virtuous circle. The bad news is that the province wants to dole its tax cuts out on a discretionary basis to a few companies. In so doing, the government is spoiling the business climate, frightening investors and damaging the economic growth it claims to want to stimulate."
Mr. Mykytyshyn’s mistake
According to an editorial in the Globe and Mail, former Canadian Alliance pollster and advisor John Mykytyshyn would have avoided making his ill-advised comments on Atlantic Canadians if only he had read the Institute's last book, Retreat from Growth. The Globe reached a very AIMS-like conclusion: Proposing to wean the region off federal subsidies is a legitimate and, depending on the approach, commendable plank. To slip from that into wholesale slandering of Atlantic Canadians — writing them off as inveterate layabouts because many of them have accepted and grown accustomed to the money on offer — is to mistake the patient for the virus. Mr. Day must hope that, unlike Mr. Mykytyshyn, other Alliance members can tell the difference.