Individual schools should be given more control over finances.
AIMS brought one of North America's top educators to the PEI Task Force on Student Achievement. You could hear a pin drop as Angus McBeath, superintendent of Edmonton Public Schools, shared with the task force members his experience and success making the Edmonton school system one of the best in the country. Mr. McBeath's comments prompted several newspaper articles, including this one that explains that the purse strings need to be taken out of the hands of the central office.
Equalization Reform that Works
Equalization has failed. The system encourages dependence not independence. It promotes debt not fiscal prudence. In this commentary, presented to the Expert Panel on Equalization and Territorial Financing Formula, AIMS provides four key public policy changes that can make equalization work.
Providing Expertise
AIMS Brings Top Educator to PEI Task Force on Student Achievement
The Beacon, July 5, 2005
In this edition of The Beacon, ignore the hype and look at the true opportunity LNG provides the region, consider the crisis that could soon face the NB forest industry, understand why the regulation of gasoline prices hurts consumer, and examine the regulation of land use and its cost to consumers, particularly low income families.
LNG: A fleeting opportunity.
Liquified natural gas (LNG) is all the buzz through the Maritimes these days. There are terminals planned for Saint John, NB, Bear Head, NS, and Goldboro, NS. In his fortnightly column in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald and the Saint John Times & Transcript, AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley points out the opportunity may be golden, but it's also fleeting.
Regulating the Land Market
Canada’s national anthem may intone that God keep our land glorious and free, but across the country more and more urban centres are adding more and more regulations that are making land use anything but free. In this AIMS commentary, based on comments written for his participation in a panel on Urban Sprawl and Smart Growth for the Canadian Regional Science Association in Toronto, Samuel R. Staley warns the increasingly complex regulatory regime for land use in Canada’s urban markets is limiting choice and increasing costs for housing, especially for low-income families.
The Beacon, June 28, 2005
This special edition of The Beacon brings you to AIMS' Celtic Tiger Dinner in Saint John, New Brunswick. The evening was called "thought-provoking and fascinating" by New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord. Read through this Beacon to learn why the Premier found the AIMS event so inspiring.
Carpe Diem: The modest fleeting opportunity LNG represents for Atlantic Canada.
It's heralded as the next big development. The next economic saviour for Atlantic Canada. It's Liquified Natural Gas. There are three proposals on the books for this latest entry in the region's energy projects. In a talk to the Canadian Institute's LNG/CNG Conference, AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley says the window of opportunity is closing. He points out Atlantic Canadian jurisdictions have to move quickly and cooperatively, the lack of which have sunk a few "economic saviours" in the past.
Leçons irlandaises: Favoriser la dépendance n’est pas la recette assurée pour l’indépendance.
Brian Lee Crowley, président de Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, écrit "Je n'avais jamais songé aux leçons que le Québec pouvait tirer de l'expérience irlandaise. Mon institut a célébré dernièrement son 10e anniversaire par un banquet à Saint-Jean, au Nouveau-Brunswick. Notre conférencier invité était Garrett FitzGerald, l'un des grands architectes des réformes politiques qui ont transformé la République irlandaise en " tigre celtique ". En écoutant l'ancien premier ministre irlandais exposer si éloquemment comment la République d'Irlande avait échappé au sort de l'Irlande du Nord par un simple accident temporel, je ne pouvais m'empêcher de penser au mouvement souverainiste au Québec."
Small businesses spur Nova Scotia’s job growth; Jobless rate falling steadily Lower in Halifax than Toronto
When Kelly Toughill of the Toronto Star wrote a story about the graudal economic turnaround of Nova Scotia, she turned to the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies for insight.