Last month's federal budget renewed one of Canada's most sacred policy cows -- our $10-billion equalization program -- for another five years. The first of a three-part series looks at how equalization locks "have-not" provinces into enormous welfare traps.
In 2002, AIMS, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (FCPP) and the Montreal Economic Institute collaborated on AIMS’ major “Equalization Initiative”, designed to draw the attention of Canadians to the inequities, inefficiencies and perverse incentives contained within our country’s equalization program. In a series of newpaper articles and published commentary, the Frontier centre for Public Policy advances the debate, using example not only in Canada, but Sweden, Belgium and Australia.
In April of 2004, the Chronicle Herald began a series of articles reviewing the federal government’s principal economic development arm in the region, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. The debate over the value of ACOA, or lack thereof, has been brewing since its formation the 1980’s. The Agency has been plagued with reports of politicized spending, inept business evaluations and lack of accountability resulting in millions of dollars of wasted tax dollars. Supporters of ACOA say it is a valuable tool for initiating business activity in the region and its problems have been cleaned up by replacing grants with loans. In this article, by the Chronicle Herald’s Clare Mellor, AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley says it’s not a matter of grants versus loans, “any program that depends on civil servants to decide which businesses should succeed and which businesses should fail is a program that is mistaken in principle."
Nova Scotians are carrying an excessive tax burden, but when the Hamm government cut taxes, it came under intense criticism. In his regular column in the Chronicle Herald, Brian Lee Crowley says that policy makes sense because taxes are a good thing only up to a point. Economists have proven time and again that after that point, the harder you tax, the lower the benefit and the higher the cost. If we want better quality public services, the best way to achieve it is to make the economy grow and take a smaller share of wealth in taxes. But our high level of taxes prevents that growth. That’s why no one ever taxed their way to prosperity.
Throughout Atlantic Canada, people are carrying an excessive tax burden, and the puts us at a competitive disadvantage compared to many other jurisdictions that are struggling to get their tax levels down. There is lots of evidence that tax levels do matter. Even within the region, tax differentials are related to economic performance. So how does New Brunswick compare with Nova Scotia? Brian Lee Crowley examines the effect of tax cuts.
While federal and provincial governments bicker over health care, technology is opening new routes for Canadians to escape the restrictions of the inefficient public sector health care monopoly while making access to health care services quicker and more convenient. And it doesn’t even violate the Canada Health Act! Healthcare co-ops, for example, not only empower patients to consult their doctors more conveniently, but also inject more money into the health system without raising taxes and improve the speed and efficiency of delivery. In this commentary from the April 5th, 2004 National Post, AIMS Senior Fellow, Dr. David Zitner explains how the healthcare co-op may be one way ensure Canadians get the healthcare they need, while the provinces fumble with the status quo. (This is the original full text; a slightly edited version appeared in the National Post).
Wendell Cox on HRM Development Freeze, Saint John as test case for urban reform, Charles Cirtwill asks: Are we getting results we should for our education dollar? and Where entrepreneurs rule-AIMS in Toronto Star.
While urban development freezes are clearly not the solution, many growing urban communities are wrestling with the issue of how to manage growth intelligently. It is not enough to say that anti-growth policies don't work. So what is the alternative? In this column from the Halifax Chronicle Herald, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley lays out a programme for making city centres attractive places to live and do business, so that people live there because they want to, not because they've been forced to do so by bossy bureaucrats. To find out how other cities have revived their centres by positive incentives rather than attacks on suburban property owners and lifestyles,
In November of 2002, AIMS published its award winning Definitely NOT the Romanow Report, challenging the status quo in the Canadian healthcare system. In this column from the March 22, 2004 Globe and Mail, William Thorsell points to AIMS recommendations on free-standing, specialized, not-for-profit and for-profit clinics based on French or Norwegian models as a sensible Canadian healthcare option. In his column, Mr. Thorsell asks: “Why would you oppose the provision of excellent health care through a private clinic, fully paid by medicare, if the quality of that service was very good? And why would you oppose it if the cost to medicare was the same -- or less?”
The AIMS second Report Card on Atlantic canadian high schools continues to recieve media attention throughout the region weeks following its release. This report from the Summerside Journal-Pioneer examines the limited records available for study in Prince Edward Island.