Fracking Ban Only Applies to High-volume Fracking, says AIMS CEO
The banning of high-level onshore hydraulic fracturing by the Liberal government of Nova Scotia shouldn’t pose problems for companies wishing to explore, develop and frack natural gas wells in the province. “The one they are proposing to ban is high-volume, which is 20,000 wells or more,” said Marco Navarro-Genie, president and CEO of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS). Navarro-Genie was discussing the hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells during a breakfast speech Friday morning at the Eaton Lobster Factory Hall in Pugwash. He said low-volume fracking is 4,000 wells and mid-volume is 12,000 wells.
Education Reform Needs to Shoot for the Moon
This last one is up to all of us. We all need to recognize just how important education truly is. Based on the spending of tax dollars it comes in second after health care in terms of where we currently invest — more than $1 billion a year or about $12,199 per student per year according to the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies. Our province is currently on a slide into a pit of debt with an aging population and a steady stream of young people heading elsewhere to find careers. It’s not pretty. But there is a grassroots movement building to change this economy to one that will rely on our most natural resource of all, the knowledge capacity and ideas of our future generation.
Private Stores Should Prevail
Shaun Fantauzzo wrote an excellent opinion piece with the facts and figures about the operation of the PEI Liquor Control Commission. Their 2012-13 annual report said cash transfers and sales tax revenues grew by 3.2 per cent, which represented the best year ever had by the commission.
Did Nova Scotia Just Give Up on its Young People?
AIMS President and CEO Marco Navarro-Genie discusses the newly announced partnership between Alberta and Nova Scotia, which allows for the coordination of apprenticeship training in the skilled trades and promotes enhanced labour mobility between the two provinces.
Prince Edward Island’s Liquor Woes: Surcharge Constrains Initiative
AIMS policy analyst Shaun Fantauzzo discusses the PEI Liquor Control Commission's (PEILCC) decision to raise the price of liquor sold in private agency stores and argues that it harms consumers, the PEILCC, and provincial government.
No One Should be able to Graduate Without Math
Rick MacLean of the Guardian cites AIMS Fellow in Common Sense Education Michael Zwaagstra in a short news report on mathematical aptitude in the public education system.