AIMS Makes A Difference In Atlantic Canada

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Welfare, EI blamed for East Coast’s dependency on federal transfers

By | July 12th, 2002|In the Media|

A survey conducted by Statistics Canada this week suggests that the four Atlantic provinces are the country’s most dependent on government transfers. AIMS’ President Brian Lee Crowley attributes this fact partly to the EI and welfare recipients that stay home instead of training or looking for work. "Once everybody's stamped up for EI, nobody has any reason to want to work," he said in an interview Thursday. Crowley suggests reforming the current system so that it would not pay out money to those eligible unless they entered re-training programs and started doing “the jobs that need doing”. Publication: CHH, July 12, 2002

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Sucking The Well Dry

By | June 28th, 2002|In the Media|

Competition or protection? Although oil and gas production off the East Coast is booming, Atlantic Canadians fear that our resource will be sold off and we will have far too little to show for it. Dr. Thomas Tucker, AIMS Fellow in Natural Resource Policy, emphasizes how government policy designed to ensure this region gets its “fair share” of economic activity generated by the offshore, often has the opposite effect. The debate about how to maximize our O&G related activity really comes down to a basic question: Should we be given a major share of economic benefits that the oil and gas industry can produce without earning them? The way we answer that question will shape the oil and gas industry on the East Coast for years to come, and Tucker’s article invites us to choose wisely, understanding the long term nature of the O&G industry, and the proper benchmarks for measuring this region’s success in getting maximum benefit from our resources. Publication: ABM, June/July 2002

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Equalization Reform

By | June 27th, 2002|In the Media|

In this CBC Radio interview, AIMS’ author Kenneth J. Boessenkool discusses equalization’s design flaws and its negative impact on Newfoundland and Labrador. The author of AIMS’ new report, “Taxing Incentives: How Equalization Distorts Tax Policy in Recipient Provinces”, explains how equalization’s methodology creates incentives for Newfoundland, and other recipient provinces, to overtax their population. Because of the way the payments are currently being calculated, personal income taxes are about a quarter higher in Newfoundland than Ontario. Boessenkool also reminds listeners of the message from one of his earlier AIMS’ papers - Taking off the Shackles: Equalization and the Development of Nonrenewable Resources in Atlantic Canada. Inappropriate inclusion of non-renewable natural resources (for example the mineral deposits of Voisey’s Bay) in the equalization equation, hampers the development and realization of the full potential of those resources.

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Equalization: the help that hurts

By | June 25th, 2002|In the Media|

Amplifying the theme of AIMS latest report on equalization “Taxing Incentives: How Equalization Distorts Tax Policy in Recipient Provinces”, author Kenneth J. Boessenkool discusses the damaging effects of the federal programme on the citizens it is trying to help. After comparing the levels of various taxes in both recipient and non-recipient provinces, Boessenkool clearly illustrates not only that equalization encourages poorer provinces to keep taxes on their population too high, but also that the bigger the province the stronger the incentives to do so. Of particular interest is the fact that the highest tax rates in recipient provinces tend to be on personal income and, to a slightly lesser extent, taxes on consumption. In other words, the perverse effects seem to be showing themselves most strongly via taxes on people. Publication: NP, June 25, 2002

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Equalization program called ‘help that hurts’

By | June 21st, 2002|In the Media|

The program isn't working, says Kenneth J. Boessenkool, author of AIMS’ latest report on equalization, “Taxing Incentives: How Equalization Distorts Tax Policy in Recipient Provinces”. The Constitution provides for equalization to ensure provinces can deliver services at "reasonably comparable levels of taxation". The study's author said his findings suggest that on average, personal income tax is about 33% higher in the poorer provinces than in the so-called "have" provinces. This would suggest that Canada's $10.5-billion equalization program may be doing exactly the opposite of what it’s suppose to. Paul Hobson, an economics professor at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, disagrees with these conclusions. Hobson believes that equalization promotes fairness and that poorer provinces have higher taxes, not because they receive payments, but because they have lower average incomes and a smaller tax base. Boessenkool agrees that while equalization does do some good, the basic question r

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Protesters or G-7 countries: Who’s right?

By | June 19th, 2002|In the Media|

The anti-globalization protesters that were on the streets of Halifax this past weekend were having a marvellous time. They weren’t just there for fun however, but to show their heart-felt support for a global movement that sees continued integration of the world's economic activity as being inimical to justice and, in particular, sees globalization as a front for vicious exploitation of the peoples of the Third World. Are they right? In his regular column, AIMS’ President Brian Lee Crowley reviews the status of Third World countries that follow the prescriptions of the anti-globalization protesters and shows a more appropriate slogan for those truly wishing to help them should be “More Trade, Less Aid”. Publication: CHH, MTT, June 19, 2002

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What Stephen Harper got wrong – and right

By | June 5th, 2002|In the Media|

In his regular column, AIMS' President Brian Lee Crowley writes: the recent comments by Alliance Leader Stephen Harper about the culture of defeatism in Atlantic Canada, and the response to those comments by East Coast politicians and others, were entertaining theatre. But like most plays based on a true story, the facts often get bent to serve a good story line. So while Mr. Harper actually had a substantive point that he overplayed, his opponents were also wrong in their rush to absolve Atlantic Canadians of any responsibility for their state. Publication: CHH, MTT, June 5, 2002

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Competition surest route to top quality health care; AIMS in the London Free Press

By | June 4th, 2002|In the Media|

London Free Press columnist Rory Leishman turns to AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley and AIMS Fellow on Health Care Policy, Dr. David Zitner, to explain the absence of publicly available information on the effectiveness of the Canadian health care system and individual providers within that system. The problem, Zitner and Crowley explain, is that in Canada, "health care is an unregulated monopoly, devoid of any performance requirements." The bureaucrats who run the system have a vested interest in keeping the rest of us in the dark about how well or poorly they are doing. After considering this fact, Leishman concludes that there can be no hope for any significant improvement in medicare until Canada, like every other democracy, opens up its public-sector medicare system to vigorous and across-the-board competition from service providers in the private sector.

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U.S. casts itself as fair-weather free trader

By | May 22nd, 2002|In the Media|

In his regular column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley discusses the heavy toll the United States’ recent protectionist stance is having on freer trade and the prosperity it brings. Dr. Crowley emphasizes that no one has benefited more from freer trade than the United States, however with the recent signing of the protectionist Farm Bill, the abuse of anti-dumping rules, new tariffs on imported steel, lumber, and textiles, and the failure to grant Trade Promotion Authority to the president, the US is destroying its credibility with the friends of free trade around the world and endangering the foundation of global prosperity. Publication: CHH, May 22, 2002

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Manley on a mission

By | May 21st, 2002|In the Media|

“Free and fair trade will prevail” was the promise Deputy Prime Minister John Manley made to his Halifax audience during the highly successful Economic Leadership Speaker Series event, held on May 15, 2002 and co-sponsored by AIMS. Mr. Manley discussed the need for an aggressive stance by Canada when negotiating settlements for the boiling trade disputes with the United States.

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