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Quotas key to profitable, sustainable fishery – Give fishermen control

By | October 22nd, 2003|In the Media|

New Zealand and in Iceland did it. Why can’t we? What these two fishing nations did was to revolutionise their fisheries by giving fishermen, not politicians, ownership and control over the fish through Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs). But while the experience from around the world is that ITQs improve conservation, economic returns from fishing, safety, and standards of living for fishermen while improving relationships with the government regulators. Yet progress in implementing ITQs in Canada, while important, has been slow and halting. In this article published in the Halifax Chronicle Herald and the Moncton Times & Transcript, October 22, 2003, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley says that if the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is serious about creating a sustainable fishery that creates wealth for coastal communities and isn’t merely a way to get stamped up for EI, he needs to champion this change.

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Much of Ottawa idle on EI file

By | October 8th, 2003|In the Media|

The debate over Employment Insurance has re-emerged after Human Resources Development Canada launched its largest fraud investigation in New Brunswick history into the EI claims of some 2,000 fishplant workers in Southeast New Brunswick. In this editorial published in the Moncton Times and Transcript, Ottawa Bureau Chief Campbell Morrison argues HRDC should not be shouldering the responsibility of 'fixing' the EI system and questions the absence of other departments in finding solutions to the EI problem. Local MP Dominic LeBlanc and AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley are quoted as two supporters for a solution involving more than one agency. ACOA Minister Gerry Byrne, however, disagrees and sees no role for his agency until the investigations are complete. Morrison and LeBlanc are disappointed by this lack of initiative on all fronts, but as Crowley points out "EI has become so politicized that everybody is scared to death to open their mouth" and that, says Morrison, is too bad.

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Short Sea up close – the wave of the future?

By | September 30th, 2003|In the Media|

Container traffic at ports around North America is on the increase. Container ships are getting larger and larger to handle the increase in traffic. But what happens after these megaships land in port, where do all those containers go. It's called Short Sea Shipping and some say it's the new wave.

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When courts make law, art of compromise lost

By | September 24th, 2003|In the Media|

The public debate over gay marriage has converged largely on the interests of those who agree or disagree of the traditional definition of marriage. But are we losing sight of an even larger issue in the emotional rhetoric? Society has a clear interest in supporting loving relationships whether they are homosexual or heterosexual, but in the age of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, are Canadians losing the power to determine how their society is to evolve? Is the important process of political compromise and consensus being short-circuited in this debate by judges inventing rights to suit their personal political prejudices? And are we devaluing the whole concept of “rights” in the process? In this commentary AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley examines the same sex marriage issue and the unchecked power of the judiciary.

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Employment insurance causes unemployment

By | September 10th, 2003|In the Media|

Paying people not to work when this region faces shortages of workers defies reason, but it is not lack of work that has sidelined these workers, but rather a settled habit of expecting to be paid not to work for part of the year. In fact, Human Resource Development Canada has tried in the past to place repeat EI recipients in full time work and top up their wages to ensure no loss of income compared to EI. They had to cancel those experiments because no one would participate. The reason? Many do not consider themselves “unemployed” when they’re on EI. Benefits are just part of their annual income.

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Cheap pills today or new pills tomorrow?

By | June 18th, 2003|In the Media|

Around the world, politicians are forcing drug companies to lower their prices. They deny the companies’ products access to hospital dispensaries, create buying cartels, reduce patent protection or any one of a host of other manoeuvres. We have frequently done this in Canada. The result, drug prices have been lowered for medical marvels already discovered. That is fine, but are we stalling discoveries? Is the cost of these policies needlessly prolonged suffering? In this column from the Halifax Chronicled Herald and Moncton Times and Transcript, AIMS President Dr. Brian Lee Crowley examines how human ingenuity in its destructive form threatens the flow of pharmaceutical innovation.

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Nationalize in haste, repent at leisure

By | June 4th, 2003|In the Media|

Auto insurance today an issue laden with emotion. But, as we have seen repeatedly, emotion is never a good basis on which to reconcile complex public policy issues. This is especially true when the costs of an ill-considered and hurried decision are likely to be with us for a very long time. State-run insurance schemes cannot be invoked out of thin air. There are hundreds of millions of dollars in start-up costs. AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley looks at this highly charged issue from the Atlantic Canadian perspective.

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Grandstanding on fish

By | May 21st, 2003|In the Media|

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Roger Grimes’ is right, the fishery has not been managed in such a way as to maximize stocks and harvests in the long run. The reason? Unlike in most industries, the people who derive their livelihood from the resource don't own the resource, the government does. And the government derives little benefit from managing the fishery on a sustainable basis, but derives lots of benefit from allowing too many people to fish. Will Mr. Grimes constitutional amendment fix the problem? Not likely. Read the full commentary by AIMS’ President Brian Lee Crowley Grandstanding on Fish.

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Prosperity policy key for Atlantic Canadians, immigrants

By | April 23rd, 2003|In the Media|

Lots of people feel that, while immigration is all very well and good for Toronto and Vancouver, it is quite inappropriate for us because of our unemployment. While they don't put it this way, they really believe that opportunity is a zero-sum game, that if someone comes here and does well, it has been at the expense of someone else. As AIMS President Brian lee Crowley states in his this commentary, ironically, the policies that would attract immigrants are also precisely the policies that would increase opportunities for native-born Atlantic Canadians as well.

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AIMS fires back at study’s critics

By | April 12th, 2003|In the Media|

Since the release of AIMS Report Card on Atlantic Canadian high schools more than a month ago, teacher associations and government leaders have categorized the study as misleading, flawed in its data and demonstrating poor methodology. But AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley said none of the government recipients of the study has yet been specific in its claims.

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