The Equalization Initiative
For the third time in six years, Atlantic Canada’s public policy think tank has been honoured by the international think tank community. At a ceremony last Wednesday evening in Philadelphia, AIMS was awarded one of [...]
Better Medicine
Better Medicine: Reforming Canada’s Health Care, published in April 2002, is a brilliant collaboration of essays by some of Canada’s leading authorities in health care policy.
Fiscal Equalization Revisited
In this paper, the "father of equalization" Professor James Buchanan returns to his original contribution to our knowledge of federalism and adds the perspective for which he is most famous: public choice.
The Benefits of Allowing Business Back Into Canadian Health Care
The Benefits of Allowing Business Back Into Canadian Health Care provides a review of the direction of health policy reforms in the rest of the world that indicates that Canadians are not alone in preferring balanced approaches to health policy reform.
Medicare, the Medical Brain Drain and Human Resource Shortages in Health Care
Brett Skinner argues that as Canadian medical professionals begin to realize the degree to which the public health care monopoly exploits their services and suppresses their earnings, the more likely it is that they will leave this country for the US.
Improving Canadian Health Care
Improving Canadian Health Care takes a serious look at the alternative mechanisms available to introduce new money into the health care system in Canada.
Newfoundland Brings in Election-Style Budget
Newfoundland and Labrador, like all Canadian provinces, is in danger of hitting the health care wall, the point where insatiable demands of the health care system smack into the limited resources of the province. On March 22, in its latest budget, the province hit the wall, but through some rapid juggling of numbers it claims to have balanced its budget. This is the first in a new series of articles that Peter Fenwick will be contributing about public affairs and public policy in Newfoundland.
The Battle over the Newfoundland Fishery
AIMS’ voice on the Newfoundland scene, takes aim in this piece at the anti-business stance of the Newfoundland and Labrador government in its dealings with Fisheries Products International. The company has developed plans to invest millions in new technology to create a high quality, highly professional fishery with plants that operate year-round. All agree that a modernized fishery is in the best interests of Newfoundland; the problem arises because a modern fishery requires a smaller workforce and work is already scarce in Newfoundland. Moving to protect current constituents from harm, the government is acting in a manner that, Fenwick argues, amounts to “nationalization without compensation” and will threaten, not protect, the very jobs the government is trying to preserve.
Canada’s modern taxes: Thank the USA!
In this excerpt from Mark Milke’s new book, Tax Me I’m Canadian – Your Money and How Politicians Spend It, the idea that low taxes and a competitive edge are inherently American while the continual creation of new taxes or increases of existing taxes are purely Canadian obsessions is turned on its ear. As Milke points out: “For our earliest founders and Finance ministers, attracting immigrants and investment to Canada through the promotion of a low-tax regime was the stated goal for at least the first 50 years of our country’s existence. The Dominion’s leading politicians trumpeted Canada's lower taxes compared to the tax-happy Americans…” Contrary to what many tax advocates argue, cutting taxes and promoting immigration and investment isn’t about copying the pro-business agenda from the United States it is about getting rid of the American influence that has taken us so far from our own roots and left us uncompetitive in the global marketplace.
What’s A Degree Worth
Atlantic Canadian taxpayers give substantial financial support to our region’s university students. Similarly, students invest considerable resources in time, tuition fees and forgone income, to get their university degrees. But what value do taxpayers and students respectively get in return for their investment? And does each contribute to the cost of a university degree in proportion to the benefit they receive from it?