Lead or be squeezed” – AIMS author Gordon Weil to NB Power
NB Power must accelerate its restructuring or risk becoming a victim of regional power integration according to Gordon Weil, author of the AIMS paper The Atlantica Power Market: A plan for joint action. In addition to writing the paper, Mr. Weil, a U.S. energy consultant, has participated in several AIMS events focusing on regional integration. In an interview with the Moncton Times and Transcript’s Daniel McHardie that reflected the themes he has developed in his work for AIMS, Mr. Weil says, "N.B. Power has been very averse to becoming involved on the U.S. side of the border for fear of U.S. regulation. In effect they are now getting the effects of U.S. regulation without having a role to play." He added however that NB Power could start reversing the negative impact on its revenue by positioning itself as a larger player in the regional transmission system.
Five Big Ideas: AIMS’ Roadmap for Atlantic Prosperity
Think tank seeks to inspire federal party leaders to rethink policy for Atlantic Canada
AIMS Online Special – April 26, 2004
Five Big Ideas: AIMS’ Roadmap for Atlantic Prosperity
You CAN Get There From Here: How Ottawa can put Atlantic Canada on the road to prosperity
The paper is co-authored by AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley and AIMS Director of Research, Don McIver. Based on the Institute’s extensive body of research on the impact of federal policies on the region, You Can Get There From Here is an invitation to all federal political parties to re-examine their past policies and declare how they intend to bring Atlantic Canada back into the nation’s economic mainstream.
Equalization Can Be Reformed: The constitution is no excuse
Equalization’s intention is to ensure that Canadians, wherever they live, have access to reasonable levels of public services, like health care and schools and roads, without having to endure ruinous levels of taxation to pay for them. But the unintended consequence of these transfers from Ottawa is that equalization catches recipient provinces in a welfare trap where growth is penalized and dependence rewarded. Those who support it say equalization is constitutionally entrenched, so live with it. But, what does the constitution really say and does it stand in the way of meaningful reform? In his regular column in the Chronicle Herald and Times & Transcript, Brian Lee Crowley points out that, based on history, present practice, and the weak language entrenching equalization, it is hard to see why the constitution should be a serious bar to a cleverly designed equalization reform.
First Nation Innovation – AIMS on native healthcare initiative
Canada's first aboriginal-run MRI clinic is scheduled to open on Muskeg Lake Cree Nation land, in east Saskatoon, in the spring of 2005. Clinics on reserves are not subject to provincial legislation, and First Nations are carefully examining the unique legal status this confers. This may create an opportunity for a tectonic policy shift in Canadian medicare as First Nations open a crack in the crust of the public sector healthcare monopoly. In this commentary for the National Post, AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley says we may be witnessing the birth of a parallel system that will not only provide superior healthcare choices to Canadians, but may indeed ensure the sustainability of the public system.
Une nouvelle avenue: L’ouverture d’une clinique IRM dirigée par des autochtones pourrait remettre en cause notre régime de santé
La première clinique d'imagerie par résonance magnétique (IRM) dirigée par des autochtones doit ouvrir ses portes sur le territoire de la nation crie de Muskeg Lake, à l'est de Saskatoon, au printemps 2005. Cette occasion convient parfaitement aux entrepreneurs d'un bout à l'autre du pays qui cherchent à trouver une faille dans le régime d'assurance-maladie qui permettra l'émergence d'une solution de rechange sous forme d'un secteur privé de soins de santé. Dans sa chronique régulière dans La Presse, le plus grand quotidien de langue française de l’Amérique du Nord, le président de AIMS, Brian Lee Crowley observe que, «Seule la venue d'une véritable concurrence, par laquelle les patients auront vraiment le choix de l'endroit où ils pourront bénéficier de soins de santé et par qui ils seront dispensés, est capable de sauver le système public.»
A tide of red ink erodes services in Canada
A change in government and an ensuing public sector labour dispute brought into focus the desperate fiscal situation facing Newfoundland and Labrador in the spring of 2004. But Newfoundland and Labrador are not alone. Canada's 10 provinces collectively registered budget shortfalls of more than $4 billion last year the weakest financial performance in six years, according to the Dominion Bond Rating Service. In this article in the International Herald Tribune, AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley attributed some of this poor performance to the fact, "We have created a health care system that is a voracious devourer of every public dollar we have."
AIMS Online April 16, 2004
Peter Fenwick comments Newfoundland’s Showdown with its Unions, AIMS contribution to the Chronicle Herald's series on ACOA, David Zitner on health care co-ops and Brian Lee crowley examines tax cuts in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Transforming equalization
Last month's federal budget renewed one of Canada's most sacred policy cows -- our $10-billion equalization program -- for another five years. The last of a three-part series looks at how equalization can be transformed.