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Why kill EI reforms that work?

By | October 20th, 2000|In the Media|

In an op-ed piece in the National Post, AIMS Communication Director Peter Fenwick sets out the findings of the Institute's new paper on the EI reforms of the mid-1990s, Beyond a hard place. He argues that the reforms have encouraged young people in Atlantic Canada to improve their education and to choose jobs with a brighter future than seasonal work. Yet the federal government's roll-back of some of the key aspects of that earlier reform puts that progress at risk.

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Solving Nova Scotia’s health care problems with Newfoundland’s money

By | October 16th, 2000|In the Media|

Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm has a solution to his health-care crisis — take tens of millions of dollars from Newfoundland's transfer payments and give it to Nova Scotia. A fine strategy for Nova Scotia, but something that Newfoundland Health Minister Roger Grimes might find a tad unacceptable, says Peter Fenwick in his new Telegram column.

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Dr. Hamm misdiagnoses our health-care ailment

By | October 11th, 2000|In the Media|

According to a Dalhousie study Nova Scotia's health indicators are worse than those of many other provinces. That, says Dr. Hamm, means Nova Scotia should get more - up to 15 per cent more - in health-care funding from Ottawa to close the "health gap" with the rest of the country. Yet the real disease is poor management of the health-care dollars we're already spending, a fact that comes through clearly when you compare the provinces' health-care performance more carefully than the premier has done.

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Maine, Canada ties urged

By | October 5th, 2000|In the Media|

Former Maine International Trade Center Director Perry Newman and AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley have been discussing ways to improve trade and other links across the international border.

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Canadian aquaculture caught in regulatory fog

By | October 3rd, 2000|In the Media|

The Canadian aquaculture industry is trapped in a fog of confusion and needs a true champion to pilot the farms of the future onto the world stage. The conference at Brudenell River Resort sponsored by The Canadian Aquaculture Institute and AIMS brought together producers, scientists and policy-makers who were told that while phenomenal growth exists in Canada, opportunities and investment are going elsewhere because of the impediments facing domestic expansion.

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Aquaculture fin-clipped by government policies

By | September 30th, 2000|In the Media|

Like Gulliver pinned down by those frightened Lilliputians, the phenomenal growth potential of Canadian aquaculture is being hog-tied because of government and financial policies that are suffocating development. That was the message delivered on the opening day of How to Farm the Sea, an international conference co-sponsored by AIMS and The Canadian Aquaculture Institute.

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EI makes fishing worthwhile

By | September 28th, 2000|In the Media|

The 1996 changes to the Employment Insurance system were supposed to encourage seasonal workers to work more and draw less from the EI fund. For fishermen, at least, that hasn't happened. Instead of discouraging people from becoming seasonal fishermen, the system has increased the number of fishermen over the two years since the reforms were implemented. Prior to 1996, fishermen needed to work for at least 12 weeks and had to earn a minimum amount to qualify for unemployment insurance. But in 1996 the basis changed from weeks worked to sales alone. Net sales of as little as $2,500 worth of fish were enough to qualify a fisherman for a half year of benefits In total the easy availability of fisheries EI benefits contributed to many more people entering the fishery than were bought out during the moratorium. Communications Director Peter Fenwick argues that the time limit must be restored if a disaster is to be averted Publication: NP, September 28, 2000

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Lazy Edmontonians

By | September 15th, 2000|In the Media|

Far from being an economic backwater, Atlantic Canada especially in the urban areas, is on a roll. The unemployment rate in Halifax is lower than Edmonton's. Virtually all the urban areas of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and mainland Nova Scotia are behaving like normal economies. But rural Atlantic Canada is still mired in too much EI and too much government interference says Peter Fenwick, AIMS Communication Director. When un-informed members of the political parties call maritimers "lazy", they do so with badly outdated information. Publication: HDN, September 15, 2000.

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Don’t Claw Back the Clawback

By | September 9th, 2000|In the Media|

Attempts by politicians to restore Employment Insurance to highly paid seasonal workers should be resisted says Peter Fenwick, AIMS Director of Communications. As the parties gear up for the coming election some MPs are demanding that the reforms of four years ago be repealed. One of the most significant reforms was the clawback, a provision that effectively took away much of the employment insurance highly paid seasonal workers. Part of that deal in 1996 gave significantly higher benefits to lowly paid EI recipients. It was part of a restructuring that made the whole system much more equitable. Publication: ETSJ, September 9, 2000.

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A toast to liquor privatization

By | August 30th, 2000|In the Media|

Nove Scotia should press ahead with its proposed privatisation of the province's government liquor monopoly if Alberta's experience is any guide, says AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley. "... here's the trade-off we'll be facing if the government follows through on its promises: four times the employment, five times the product selection, lower liquor prices, many new tax-paying businesses, longer service hours. In other words, a consumer and taxpayer bonanza versus preserving a handful of protected jobs that pay way over the odds at the expense of consumers and taxpayers throughout the province." Publication: CHH, August 30, 2000.

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