“It’s simple market dynamics,” says OrganiGram’s Ray Gracewood. “Many recreational users now purchase within the black market, so our industry challenge will be providing a safer, more consistent and better-packaged product. To make the legal adult recreational framework effective, we’ll need to ensure pricing is in line to offer value that appeals to all consumers.” But [...]
On May 11, 2017, AIMS author Paul W. Bennett joined the Rick Howe Show on News 95.7 FM to discuss his latest paper "Reinventing the Building of Schools."
Since the mid-1990s, Nova Scotia's government has made good use of public-private partnerships, or P3s, for school construction. Unfortunately, the record of these projects has been poorly understood, with some groups advocating that school construction be financed by government capital alone. In fact, the record of P3's has been strong. Government [...]
By ALEX WHALEN (Operations Manager) The Journal-Pioneer, 11 May 2017 Troy Media, 12 May 2017 Charlottetown Guardian, 13 May 2017 The P.E.I. government unveiled its 2017 budget in April, including a rare projection: a balanced budget. In the past decade, across all Atlantic Canadian provinces and party lines, surplus budgets have been few and far between. Deficits have [...]
HALIFAX, NS – The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) today published a policy study about procurement for public school construction. With recent public controversy about "queue jumping" Nova Scotia school construction, the paper provides a sober commentary on the state of procurement in the province. AIMS is Atlantic Canada's only independent public policy research [...]
The Real Legacy of Public-Private-Partnership (P3) Schools in Nova Scotia Reinventing the Building of Schools revisits the history of public-private partnerships for school construction. Though the province's experience with P3's since the mid-1990s has been widely described as a failure, the paper contends that the record is far more favourable. While there are numerous "hard [...]
By JOHN RISLEY (AIMS Chairman) • Atlantic Business Magazine, 9 May 2017 Quantum computing. The term has not yet entered the mainstream of everyday prose. If you’re anything like me, you are probably only vaguely familiar with what it means and therefore its implications. Not happy with my own naivety in this area, I recently [...]
Canada's dairy industry has become controversial of late. The US President characterizes Canadian protectionism in milk products as unfair to American dairy farmers. Mr. Trump has a point. Supply management, the complex system that governs our milk production, has long surpassed its best-before date. Domestic quotas and high tariffs on imported milk contradict [...]
By SYLVAIN CHARLEBOIS (Senior Fellow) Many Canadian consumers have noticed how the price of lettuce has skyrocketed in recent weeks, as has that of celery. Such fluctuations happen all the time, regardless of whether Canadians are willing to accept them. Nonetheless, technological advances could make these occurrences a thing of the past. Artificial intelligence (AI) [...]
New Brunswick's Tuition Access Bursary subsidizes university or college tuition for the children of low-income households. Improving education is laudable, but this program may not achieve its goals. There is little relationship between tuition rates and enrollment. Low-income participation has been lowest in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, where tuition is least-expensive. Meanwhile, [...]