Radio Project audio
Radio: Looser Employment Insurance
Some changes that Ottawa has made to the employment insurance program are perfectly sensible, such as extending benefits to those living in provinces experiencing the energy sector downturn. But making it easier for young workers in Atlantic Canada to qualify for EI is a bad idea. By dramatically lowering the work requirement from [...]
Radio: A $30-Billion Federal Defecit
For the past twenty years, the federal government has made prudent fiscal decisions. But now the Trudeau government’s first budget will overspend by 30-billion dollars, and add 118-billion to Canada’s debt over the next six years. The campaign promise to limit the deficit to 10-billion and balance the budget in four years has [...]
Radio: Making the Most of Immigration
Atlantic Canada needs more people. With birth rates in decline and young people leaving, the region will continue to experience a shortage of workers. Fortunately, immigrants can help offset this problem. But for our investment in immigration to succeed, more must be done to encourage newcomers to stay in our region. Because immigrants [...]
Radio: Atlantic Natural Gas
Atlantic Canada’s energy costs are high. We have a small population, cold winters, steep fuel taxes, and costly infrastructure. Individuals and businesses often struggle to contain their energy costs. Thankfully, experts say that our region may be rich in onshore natural gas deposits. Extracting this resource could lower heat and power costs, and [...]
Radio: Energy East Pipeline
The Energy East Pipeline is good policy. It's needed to transport oil from Western Canadian provinces to the refinery in New Brunswick. This 12 billion dollar infrastructure project would increase pipeline and refining work and provide well paying jobs throughout our region. It would also make us less dependent on foreign oil. Pipelines [...]
Radio: Spending Problem
Our governments in Atlantic Canada spend more money than taxpayers can afford. Overspending means too much money from taxpayers goes to paying salaries instead of funding services we really need. Atlantic Canadians pay more taxes for more government workers than the national average. That's a fact costing us almost 2 billion dollars. If [...]
Radio: Electricity Rates in NS
Market prices for coal, oil and natural gas have fallen nearly 50% in the last two years, prompting a decline in electricity rates across North America, except in Nova Scotia where electricity rates continue to rise and we continue to pay among the highest rates on the continent. Allowing electricity rates in [...]
Radio: The Cost Disease
Across Atlantic Canada education costs are on the rise. Between 1999 and 2010, per student education costs increased by more than 70% in all four Atlantic provinces. One reason for this phenomenon is that even as school enrollment has been declining over the past 15 years, the number of educators in our school [...]
Radio: National Childcare
Quebec’s $7/day rate structure for childcare is often touted as a model for Canada because it supposedly makes childcare affordable for Quebecers. In reality, it masks the costs with subsidy, and defers the cost onto others. Childcare operators can survive on $7/day, because they receive as much as five times that amount in [...]
Radio: Fixing Undergraduate Education
Canadian universities should publish data that enable the public to evaluate institutional outcomes performance effectively. Our universities may be failing undergraduate students all across the country. At research oriented universities, between 20 % and 30% of first year students fail to proceed to second year, and fewer than 60% graduate within 6 years. [...]