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Shedding light on the university tuition debate

By | May 14th, 2002|In the Media|

Who pays and who benefits from our massive public spending on universities and colleges? In this article, AIMS author and intern John Philippe, continues to analyse the costs and benefits of a post-secondary education to both the individual who acquires that education, and the society that finances the greatest portion of the cash cost. Following-up to his enlightening report, “What’s a Degree Worth: Who Pays and Who Benefits at Atlantic Canada’s Universities?”, Phillipe argues in part that it only makes sense for students, as the major beneficiaries of their education, to bear a greater share of the costs than they currently do. He also discusses how the current regime of relatively uniform tuition levels across disciplines and levels of study is wasteful in that it prohibits universities from shifting money to the areas that are in highest demand. Publication: CHH & GC, May 14, 2002

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New Brunswick myopic on energy regulation

By | May 8th, 2002|In the Media|

Natural Gas in Atlantic Canada has already brought many hundreds of millions of dollars to our economy with new supplies, technology, and investment into the region. Unfortunately, New Brunswick is trying to change the rules in the middle of the game — rules on which a lot of this investment was based, — and introduce regulatory barriers to companies wishing to export to consumers in New England. AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley suggests in his regular column that the whim of politicians trying to win votes by artificially driving up supply and lowering gas costs could be scaring away potential investors, restricting access to vital U.S. markets, and once again blindsiding the offshore industry with their short-sighted vision of the offshore’s future. Publication: CHH & MTT May 8 2002

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What’s natural gas done for us lately?

By | April 24th, 2002|In the Media|

In his latest newspaper column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley, looks at the high expectations of taxpayers, workers and businesses as they anxiously await the huge benefits they expect to see flow from natural gas off our shores. He argues that they have been disappointed both because they don't understand what to look for, and because they have unrealistic expectations of what can be accomplished in the very short time the industry has existed here. Expecting immediate and infinite returns from gas is not the way to ensure success, argues Crowley, instead we must have reasonable expectations of the resource, and infinite expectations of ourselves. Publication: CHH & MTT, April 24, 2002

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Free trade? Not with a border like this

By | April 10th, 2002|In the Media|

In his regular column appearing simultaneously in the Chronicle Herald and the Moncton Times and Transcript, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley, shares his recent frustrating experience while crossing the Canada/U.S. border. With new areas of border cooperation constantly being explored between our two nations — including an eventual jointly administered continental perimeter, having U.S. customs inspectors working in the Port of Halifax — the importance of intelligent border priorities is crucial. Crowley explains how the current focus on what the U.S. does at the border has caused Canadians to lose sight of their own country’s priorities. For a country whose livelihood depends on free trade with its neighbour to the south, Canada’s border operations look unorganized and petty to an individual trying to bring in commercial goods in a tiny one-time transaction. Just imagine what a nightmare it must be for those who have to get that $1-billion in commercial trade across the line every day

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Who should benefit from natural gas? Our kids

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

In a recent Halifax speech, Jim Dinning, former Provincial Treasurer in Alberta, told all Nova Scotians the hard truths about natural resource revenues: non-renewable "natural resource revenues are non-reliable revenues" and "Natural resource wealth doesn't belong just to this generation. It belongs to our children and our children's children."

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Of school tests and teacher union testiness

By | March 13th, 2002|In the Media|

In this column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley comes to the defence of Teachers Union President Brian Forbes against too hasty critics who say Forbes is quarrelling with the very notion of the usefulness of testing in the schools. Crowley cites three significant areas of agreement between the latest AIMS research paper “Testing and Accountability: The Keys to Educational Excellence in Atlantic Canada” and Mr. Forbes’s recent article criticizing AIMS, published in the Chronicle Herald. To see why Crowley and Forbes can agree that that testing has its place in the public schools, that the tests have to be interpreted in the context of the individual school and that testing alone is not enough go to: http://aims.wpengine.com/Media/2002/prmar1302.htm Publication: CHH, March 13, 2002

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N.B. Electricity Rates Must Go Up

By | March 6th, 2002|In the Media|

Is Point Lepreau Candu Power station fit for re-fit? Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe and noted AIMS author, doesn’t think so. NB Power is currently seeking permission from the provincial Public Utilities Board and the government to invest $845 million and extend the station’s life expectancy. Before its financial collapse in 1997, Ontario Hydro made a failed attempt at a similar project on four Pickering, ON reactors, which was one of the main causes for the overall company’s eventual downfall. Adams warns of an even more severe impact on New Brunswick if the Point Lepreau re-fit fails. Adams forecasts rate hikes as high as 30% for New Brunswick electricity customers, which has the potential to worsen if the reactor falls short of its new aggressive production targets.

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Testy about testing? The NSTU debates AIMS on standardized testing in the schools

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

On 27 February, 2002, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley published a column addressing the need for improved standardized testing in Atlantic Canada. The column reflected the findings in AIMS’ newest research paper, “Testing & Accountability: The Keys to Educational Excellence in Atlantic Canada”. Crowley argued that well designed and properly administered standardized tests can provide a valuable measure of both student achievement and instructional effectiveness, but they cannot be used as the sole measure of either. On the other hand, without such tests, the school system cannot be held properly accountable for the results that it is producing. And higher standards of accountability are something that the public schools need.

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Standardized exams: the test of a good school

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

New Brunswick recently released school-by-school test results for core curriculum areas. But parents and students in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Prince Edward Island get no such regular reporting of objective test-based information on the quality of their schools. In this column AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley, says it is time to ask why not. Crowley demonstrates that the common criticisms about standardised tests do not stand up to critical evaluation. Where the responses of students are assessed in an objective manner and the items on the test are designed to measure the core objectives of a course in a way that is consistent and fair for all students in the province, then the information collected can provide a powerful tool for accountability and improved system management. That's good for parents, teachers, employers, post-secondary institutions and, above all, students. Isn't that what the schools are supposed to be about? Publication: CHH, February 27, 2002

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ATLANTICA – A Cross-Border Partnership for the Future

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

It makes sense for us, their biggest trading partner and closest ally, to work with [the U.S.]… This was the theme in an address by AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley, AIMS Senior Fellow, Michael J. MacDonald, and Perry Newman, former Director of International Trade to the state of Maine and current President of the Atlantica Group of Portland, Maine, to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee studying North American Integration. The presentation introduced the Committee to AIMS’ “Atlantica Initiative” and explained the benefits of re-discovering and fostering the region’s historical north-south economic ties which North American free trade has begun to reinvigorate. In their comments to the Committee, Messrs. Crowley, MacDonald and Newman also underlined how the post-11 September climate opens up possibilities for closer collaboration on security issues. The Atlantica region could be the scene of numerous pilot projects, including at the Port of Halifax and the region’s airports, as we

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