Corporate welfare no way to run a brewery
By JOHN WILLIAMSON (Vice President of Research) • Troy Media, 04 Oct 2016 Governments and public servants are lousy at picking market winners and losers. In the case of the beer industry, consumers can get the job done. Corporate welfare isn’t economic development, it just diverts money from successful businesses to less successful but politically favoured ones. When a subsidy [...]
Empowering aboriginal communities with free markets
By JOSEPH QUESNEL (Research Fellow) • National Post, 03 Oct 2016 AIMS Research Fellow Joseph Quesnel discusses the success story of Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton, which has prospered by keeping its land holdings in the free market. By choosing not to convert their holdings to reserve status, the Nation has kept its land more productive, even after paying [...]
e-Government in Atlantic Canada: Who’s Leading, Who’s Lagging, and Who to Follow
HALIFAX, NS – The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) today released a report examining e-government services offered by the four provinces in Atlantic Canada. The study, entitled e-Government in the Atlantic Provinces: Review and Future Trends, assessed the delivery of 31 e-government services. Overall, Nova Scotia ranked first, followed by New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. These provinces were [...]
e-Government in the Atlantic Provinces
Review and Future Trends A report by Jan Pavel In e-Government in the Atlantic Provinces: Review and Future Trends Jan Pavel assesses the delivery of 31 e-government services. Overall, Nova Scotia ranked first, followed by New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. These provinces were ranked using four classifications, with each level representing a higher level of e-service [...]
Radio: Education Spending Levels
Governments in Atlantic Canada are over-spending on public education. A new study shows that between 2004 and 2014, the provinces spent significantly more money, even as enrollment went down. Adjusted for price changes, Atlantic Canada’s per-student subsidies increased 27 percent over a decade, amounting to about 2,700 more per child. It is unclear what all this extra funding [...]
Radio: Seattle’s Minimum Wage Hike
Advocates of higher minimum wages in Atlantic Canada want to help low-income workers. But artificially forcing up wages can actually hurt those employed in low-wage jobs. A new study has found that workers earned less money after Seattle hiked its minimum wage in 2015. Though some workers made more per hour, fewer workers were employed in the same [...]