Part 1: Why are many drugs cheaper in Canada than the US? It isn’t what you think…
The debate over pharmaceutical prices is once again heating up as the re-importation issue gains more traction in the lead-up to the US elections. At a conference on drug re-importation sponsored by the Maine Public Policy Institute, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley was asked to explain why drug prices are lower in Canada.
To discover why the reasons are NOT what you think, go to www.aims.ca/healthcare.asp?typeID=3&id=1016&fd=0&p=1
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Part 2: Environmental activists stoke anxieties, oppose solutions; AIMS speaker in the CB Post
Many Cape Breton residents, anxious to solve their long-festering tar ponds problem, are frustrated by the latest delays. They can take a measure of comfort from knowing they aren’t alone in facing activists who stoke public anxieties, fault every proposed solution, yet offer no workable alternatives, ensuring that problems and health risks remain. In this piece to the CB Post, AIMS speaker Paul Driessen says it is time to demand solutions, not just continued carping that prevents progress in Nova Scotia and elsewhere in developed nations and the Third World.
The full text of this piece can be found at:
www.aims.ca/regulatoryreform.asp?typeID=4&id=1018&fd=0&p=1
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Part 3: 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 manoeuvring 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
Click here for the full text of this piece:
www.aims.ca/aimslibrary.asp?ft=4&fd=0&fi=0&id=1014&p=1
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Part 4: Economic development in Vermont: Making Lemons out of Lemonade
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.
To read Economic Development in Vermont: Making Lemons out of Lemonade?, go to:
www.aims.ca/aimslibrary.asp?ft=1&id=1013
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Part 5: You can’t build a city on handouts; AIMS author in The Globe and Mail
Writing in the Globe and Mail about his new paper on 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.
To explore the options that cities have to finance their own services, read:
www.aims.ca/aimslibrary.asp?ft=4&fd=0&fi=0&id=1015&p=1
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Part 6: Reflections on our common continental home – AIMS 10th Anniversary Dinner
Be sure to set aside Tuesday, November 9, 2004 for AIMS’ 10th Anniversary dinner entitled “Reflections on our common continental home: A blueprint for security and commerce in Atlantica and the whole of North America”
Our featured speaker will be former United States Senator and former Secretary of Defense, William Cohen. Former Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, will chair the event.
Canada’s relationship with the United States has at times appeared strained since the events of September 11, 2001. Canada’s position on the war in Iraq, the softwood lumber dispute, the BSE crisis in the cattle industry, security frictions and other issues have all served to highlight the importance of our relationship with our closest ally and greatest trading partner.
What is in the future for this relationship? Join us for a rare glimpse into Canada’s relationship with the United States and help AIMS celebrate ten years of contribution to the Canadian public policy debate.
Tickets are CDN $250 per seat, $2,500 for tables of ten.
To register, or for further information, go to www.aims.ca/events.asp?cmPageID=294
Or, contact Wanda Barrett, 902 446 3332, [email protected]
ALREADY REGISTERED? Confirmations are sent within 72 hours of receiving registrations. If you have not received a confirmation note from AIMS, please contact the office immediately – [email protected] or (902) 446-3332.