The Nova Scotia Department of Education is taking AIMS' advice and is releasing provincial exam results. AIMS senior policy analyst Bobby O'Keefe says the next step is to release school by school results and then use the data to alter programmes to improve student performance.
Growing energy demand combined with high fossil fuel prices and the quest for alternative, greener, sources of energy have raised interest in northern Maine's wind power potential, especially by out-of state investors. Proposed investments would tie this part of the state to the wider New England power grid by late 2010 providing a stimilus to a distressed region at the same time as reducing the reliance on fossil fuels and diversifying the wider power grid region wide.
For the past 40 years, Ottawa created policies that were designed to "mop up" the excess workers of the baby boom generation. In this article, the second in an outmigration series by The Canadian Press, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley says those policies need to change to address the shrinking labour market.
Dalhousie University's Centre for International Trade and Transportation has received funding from the province and ACOA for a two year project to study the Atlantic Gateway. Several conferences, working papers and studies are in the plans already for the next year to look at the region's potential to link Asian with North American markets.
There was a lot of interest in what James Foote, CN's executive VP, had to say about the rail business in Eastern Canada at a luncheon hosted by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. CN is the only rail line connecting the Port of Halifax with the rest of North America's rail grid; a crucial mode of transportation in making any port and corridor a success. His talk highlighted some of the challenges the region faces at a time when future trade flows through the Suez Canal from Asia are likely to put additional pressure along East Coast ports and connecting rail services.
To make her point of a looming labour shortage, Secretary of State for Small Business and Tourism Diane Ablonczy uses research by AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley.
In this op/ed in The Chronicle Herald, AIMS senior policy analyst Bobby O'Keefe questions the priorities of the Nova Scotia education system. He suggests mission statements of schools, boards and departments should place an emphasis on academic achievement.
This article in the Cape Breton Post takes a look at the AIMS Interim Municipal Report Card. It points out that the combined transfer payments from all other levels of government are highest in the three amalgamated municipalities.
AIMS executive vice president Charles Cirtwill explains that other jurisdictions are beginning to take notice of proposed tax reform in New Brunswick. Called ground-breaking by some, Cirtwill says if implemented the proposals will bring the province from last to first in terms of sound tax policy.
The Canadian Press turned to AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley for insight of Atlantic Canada's aging population. He calls the region, "The canary in the mine" for Canada's coming demographic shift.