Two new AIMS produced radio spots have taken the airwaves. They tackle important issues facing Atlantic Canada, with the hope of provoking a conversation. Our first spot explains the problems the minimum wage as a policy for helping the poor. We argue it's mostly symbolic, and does more harm than good by raising unemployment among [...]
Saving resource wealth and spending only the interest brings stability and long term solvency to public finances. http://aims.wpengine.com/en/home/library/details.aspx/3835
Research shows minimum wages raise unemployment among their target group, and are ineffective at reducing poverty.
Vince Li, 39, was travelling on a Greyhound bus, and sat next to 22-year-old Tim McLean. For no apparent reason, Mr. Li attacked, killed and decapitated Mr. McLean. The killer reported that voices told him to commit the murder. The court, listening to psychiatric testimony, found him not criminally responsible and sent him to a mental institution. Three years later, many people were appalled when a panel agreed to his occasional release with supervision. Now psychiatrists are stoking more controversy by recommending that Mr. Li transfer to a group home and be allowed unescorted outings. Those who applaud the decision to release Mr. Li must believe that psychiatric experts are clairvoyant, and therefore able to predict whether someone who has once been violent will not be violent again. Dangerous and chaotic behaviour is too unpredictable to allow re-entry into society.
Recent, alarming headlines have provoked many Canadians to take firm, and often conflicting, positions on issues of crime and punishment. Citizens ask how they can protect themselves, while behaving in an ethical way toward those who have committed violent crimes.
It’s blasphemy, but when Peter Lougheed decided in 1976 to put 30 per cent of natural resource revenue into the Alberta Heritage Fund, he got it wrong. It should’ve been 100 per cent. In Lougheed’s defence, he got it a lot less wrong than the premiers who came after him, and he didn’t have the benefit of hindsight. The last 40 years on the resource revenue roller-coaster show that the best way to deal with the volatile and intergenerational nature of resource revenue is to transform it into a permanent financial asset that produces a steady stream of annual revenue.
The recent drop in oil prices is an opportunity in disguise for Newfoundland and Labrador, and Atlantic Canada more generally. It’s an opportunity to step out of the intoxicating smoke of provincial resource revenue and say: “What on Earth were we thinking by spending all our oil revenue as fast it flowed in! Let’s get off this roller coaster and transform our oil resources into a permanent financial asset that will pay off in perpetuity.”
The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies is calling on the New Brunswick government to adopt a tuition support program similar to the one offered to students with learning disabilities in Nova Scotia, according to a new report. Paul Bennett, the author of the report and the director of Schoolhouse Consulting, says there is an education "gap" in New Brunswick for students who are struggling.
The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) is proud to release Extending the educational lifeline: The benefits of adopting Nova Scotia’s Tuition Support Program (TSP), authored by Dr. Paul Bennett, Director of Schoolhouse Consulting. The study is the third special education-related paper released by Dr. Bennett for AIMS, and follows up on his February 2012 [...]
A new report calls on New Brunswick to adapt a Nova Scotian program that helps students with learning disabilities or certain behavioural disorders attend school at designated private facilities. Paul Bennett, director of Schoolhouse Consulting, published a new study on Wednesday with the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS). The study, "Extending the Education Lifeline: The benefits of adopting Nova Scotia's Tuition Support Program (TSP)," suggests New Brunswick should adapt this program, which helps families whose children attend specialized learning school when they can't be served at their local public school.