Institute Funding

AIMS is a Canadian, federally incorporated, non-profit, non-partisan organization with charitable status from the Canada Revenue Agency in Canada and 501 (c) 3 status from the Internal Revenue Service in the United States. Documentation of our charitable status in both countries is available on request.
We are financed by contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations and other organizations, as well as by the sales of our publications. Contributions from those who support our goals are welcome.

Institute Programs

AIMS is a distinctive Atlantic Canadian voice on public policy regionally, nationally and internationally. We set the benchmark on public policy by drawing together the freshest most forward looking thinking available from some of the world’s foremost experts and applying that thinking to the challenges we face.

Our work aims at making sure we all have sound retirement prospects, good quality education for our children, and access to high quality and sustainable health care.  We help people to understand what governments do well and what they do badly, how to make taxes fair and comprehensible, and how to build our economy so that opportunities are maximized for everyone.

The AIMS team—with long experience in business, government, universities and the media—doesn’t merely produce research. We make a difference by linking ideas with today’s public policy challenges and making sure that business leaders, the media, policy makers and ordinary citizens have the knowledge and the understanding necessary to ensure that government action will contribute to a safer, stronger, freer and more prosperous region and country.

We believe that ideas have consequences, but just having the best ideas isn’t enough. Good ideas must be effectively communicated if they are to make a difference. And that is what AIMS does: we help our brightest people define the very best policy ideas available, and then we make sure that those ideas are told to the people who can use them to make things better for all of us.

Publications

AIMS produces books, papers, research reports background papers and Commentaries that are freely available on our website. We also issue an electronic newsletter e-mail newsletter (The Beacon) featuring the current work of the Institute.

Events

AIMS organizes events making available to our audiences the best thinking on vital issues. We have sponsored conferences on education, aquaculture, economic growth, Canada – U.S. economic integration, local government and electricity restructuring. More information on upcoming events can be found here.

Speaker Bureau

Many of AIMS’ authors and staff are available to make presentations to appropriate groups locally, regionally, nationally or internationally. We are also available for interviews and public comment. Regular commentary on issues of significance are published in newspapers across the country, and on occasion internationally.

Research

AIMS promotes practical research on important economic and social policy issues. Over the past fifteen years, AIMS has initiated and supported research in such areas as healthcare, education, equalization, unemployment insurance, urban affairs and local government, fisheries and aquaculture, public finances, social welfare, energy, and the impact of Canada-US relations and free trade on the region.
Education

The AIMS Annual Report Card on Atlantic Canadian High Schools has had a significant impact on public education in the region. It is now viewed by parents and students as a tool to improve school performance. The education bureaucracy has for the most part given up its battle to keep school by school information private – and is willing to release information to improve student results.
Return to the home page, www.AIMS.ca