AIMS On-Line for the end of April 2001
Here is what's new at AIMS this week
No province is an island in competitive climate
The 2001 Nova Scotia budget was, according to AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley, not progress in fixing the province's still daunting fiscal problems. The government has gone on a spending spree, abandoning all efforts at keeping its costs under control, and counting on new revenues to balance the books by the end of its mandate and bring in its promised reduction in income taxes. The problem with this strategy is that the rest of the world, including other Canadian provinces, have made much more progress than we have, and are now in a virtuous circle of tax reductions and increased competitiveness.
AIMS publication recognised as one of the “best books on Canadian Public Policy” in 2000
Retreat from Growth: Atlantic Canada and the Negative Sum Economy
AIMS On-Line for early April 2001
Here is a brief overview of just some of AIMS' activities and publications in the last few weeks
Betting on human ingenuity
The pessimists among us argue that humanity is on a collision course with ecological and economic disaster because the globe's natural resources cannot support this many people consuming at our present levels. Yet such claims have been made in the past, and consistently proven to be wrong. That's because the pessimists misunderstand what natural resources are, and they don't assign any value to the most important natural resource of all: human ingenuity. To find out more, read AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley's latest newspaper column. Publication: CHH, March 28, 2001
The economic jig is up, Mr. Landry
Bernard Landry is right that Quebec is getting a raw deal from Canada. But he couldn't be more wrong about why. Just the other day the new Quebec Premier was struggling manfully to explain why a fresh injection of $1.5-billion in equalization payments was yet another humiliating affront to the province's pride: Equalization merely puts a number on the extent to which federalism short-changes Quebec. Quebec's problem is neither federalism nor sovereignty, but rather the abject failure of the province's distinct economic recipe.
West Coast issues related to the science, economics and politics of aquaculture
Northern Aquaculture, one of the industry's leading publications, has published an extensive editorial about the success of the AIMS/CAI conference How to Farm the Seas II held in Vancouver in February 2001. The editorial includes the following remarks: "It was one of those rare aquaculture conferences that go well beyond the technology of the industry to the underlying philosophy and key issues that govern everything we do in the sector — a platform for plenty of lively discussion. Presentations touched on all the hot spots - food safety, precautionary principle, escapes, pollution, you name it. There was also ample discussion on public policy as it relates to aquaculture."
Atlantic business still depends on subsidies
In an op-ed piece in the Financial Post section of the National Post, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley and UNB Economist David Murrell explain that, far from being undersubsidized relative to the national average as some had claimed, Atlantic business overall still is more dependent on subsidies than business in the country as a whole. Moreover, they argue that business subsidies are a rough measure of the lack of competitiveness of local business, and governments and businesses in the region should be working to bring them down in favour of more sensible policies like better infrastructure and education and lower taxes.
Comment le Canada traite le Quebec: Landry se plaint pour les mauvaises raisons
Dans un article publie dans Le Devoir, le president de AIMS, Brian Lee Crowley, ainsi que le directeur-executif de l'Institut economique de Montreal, Michel Kelly-Gagnon, expliquent les effets nefastes de 40 ans de paiements de transfert sur le comportement du gouvernement du Quebec ainsi que sur l'economie de la province. La conclusion des auteurs? "Le meilleur moyen d'assurer un avenir plus prospere a la Belle Province n'est pas de la rendre independante d'Ottawa mais plutot de la rendre independante de l'Etat tout court, le provincial comme le federal. Le meme message peut tres bien s'appliquer a l'ensemble du Canada."
Growth, not government, best friend of the poor
The globalization protesters are gearing up to disrupt the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City as they have disrupted other major international gatherings in the past year. One of the key objections to the growth of global markets and trade was summed up by Lori Wallach, one of the leaders of the anti-WTO protests in Seattle. Globalization, she claimed, harmed the poor, preying on the world's most vulnerable: "While the macroeconomic indicators have often looked good, real wages in many countries have declined, and wage inequality has increased both within and between countries." If accurate, that's a pretty damning indictment of global market capitalism. Unfortunately for Ms. Wallach - but not for the poor - it is just the opposite of the truth.