International “Thinkers” Converge on Nova Scotia
Three-day conference to consider the future of the “International Northeast”
Three-day conference to consider the future of the “International Northeast”
There are three approaches to achieving an effective education system. The traditional approach involves centralized regulation and micro-management. The spending approach involves increasing spending to lower class size and raise teacher salaries. In contrast to these unsuccessful methods is the reformist approach, which involves decentralizing control of the product to the school level, rewarding teacher performance and holding principals responsible for outcomes. The reformist model is on the ascendancy on both the right and the left in the United States. In this article, Rod Clifton, Professor of Sociology of Education at St. John’s College, University of Manitoba, argues that Canada can keep good teachers and principals by considering the new approach as well.
Here is what's new at AIMS, Atlantic Canada's Public Policy Think Tank
The July 9 edition of Maclean's magazine includes a column by Mary Janigan that explores the negative impacts of equalization and looks for solutions. She finds them in two recently released papers by AIMS - "Equalization: Milestone or Millstone?" by Roland Martin and "Taking off the Shackles: Equalization and the Development of Nonrenewable Resources in Atlantic Canada" by Ken Boessenkool. Quoting both authors, Janigan looks at the positive impacts, for Ottawa and the provinces, of eliminating nonrenewable resource revenue from the equalization formula and allowing the provinces to keep that revenue to spur sustainable growth.
The national debate spurred by two recent AIMS papers – "Equalization: Milestone or Millstone?" by Roland Martin and "Taking off the Shackles: Equalization and the Development of Nonrenewable Resources in Atlantic Canada" by Ken Boessenkool – continues in the July 9 edition of Canadian Business magazine. In his commentary, Andrew Nikiforuk takes a dim view of the current situation in relation to equalization and offshore royalties and argues that, to be equal, Nova Scotia must be master in its own house. Taking a page from Boessenkool’s paper, Nikiforuk concludes it is time for Ottawa to "…unshackle the provinces and get smarter about giving money away and clawing it back."
BC Citizens' group gives groundbreaking AIMS book to all local MLAs
The Nova Scotia government's decision to forestall by legislation strikes in the health care sector and to impose a settlement on their workers raises the thorny question whether public sector workers in essential services should be allowed to use the strike weapon. In his regular column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley says that, while there are arguments on both sides, on balance the public interest is better protected by a no-strike rule. But that doesn't mean that governments should be able to do just whatever they please -- if workers lose the right to strike, the government must also give up the right to impose wage settlements unilaterally.
A wedge of territory, which some are now calling Atlantica, has been outside the charmed circle of North American prosperity for years but now faces the end of an economic era and the opportunity to seize control again. This corner of North America encompasses not only Atlantic Canada but also embraces the sliver of the United States that reaches from Maine through New Hampshire and Vermont and into northern New York State. AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley, suggests that continental free trade and globalization may put an end to the isolation of Atlantica. The east west axis for development of North America is being supplemented by a drive to stitch back together the old north-south trade routes that had flourished across the continent before 1867. If Atlantica is to escape the role of geographic backwater to which the last century relegated us, a new cross-border coalition must be built. Many American politicians, including both New York senators, have endorsed a call for Washington
Media commentator, businessman and policy analyst Brian Flemming is one of the country’s leading voices on the future of government regulation in the age of the new economy, the Internet, globalization and consumer empowerment. Below you will find a continuing series of articles that touch on all aspects of regulation, how it affects our lives, the forms that it is likely to take in the future, and the forces shaping regulatory reform in Atlantic Canada and elsewhere
William Watson has taken a thoughtful look at a recent AIMS paper on equalization and offers his positive comments in a National Post column. In addition to being a regular columnist at the Post, Watson is the editor of Policy Options, the magazine of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, and a professor of economics at McGill University. In his article, Watson explores each of Boessenkool's arguments in favour of excluding nonrenewable natural resource revenues from the equalization formula. Watson is the latest in a series of national writers to enter the debate that has been sparked by "Taking off the Shackles: Equalization and the Development of Nonrenewable Resources in Atlantic Canada", by Ken Boessenkool.