AIMS On-Line for late January 2002
Here is what's new at AIMS, Atlantic Canada's Public Policy Think Tank
Drug Use in Canada: Opportunity Lost
In this piece from the Ottawa Citizen, AIMS Fellow in Health Care Policy, Dr. David Zitner, amplifies the theme of AIMS recently released research paper, Public Health, State Secret. He emphasizes that, although the Canadian government is spending huge amounts of tax-payer money on health information, they are gaining little useful knowledge about what is really happening in the current system. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the field of pharmaceuticals. Dr. Zitner stresses that although Canadians ingested over $15 billion in drugs and complementary medicines last year, no one knows whether their affects were harmful or helpful. No Canadian province has routine systems to systematically inquire and learn about the outcomes of pharmaceuticals, although they would inform clinicians about the results of the care they provide, and save lives. Dr. Zitner is Director of Medical Informatics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Publication: OC, January 28, 2002
Unhealthy secrecy surrounds public health care
Due to conflict of interest, governments avoid clear performance measures for medicare
Public Health, State Secret
Dr. David Zitner and AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley demonstrate that politicians and senior health officials simply don’t know where or why medicare is failing because they still lack the proper tools to evaluate the quality or timeliness of the care Canadians receive.
Un pays urbain
Les villes canadiennes sont des moteurs économiques, sociaux et culturels du 21e siècle immobilisés dans un environnement politique de l'ère victorienne. Leurs gouvernements sont faibles et bornés: les provinces sont hostiles et concentrées sur le milieu rural et le gouvernement fédéral ne sait même plus s'il est censé connaître l'existence des villes. Ce n'est certes pas la recette de la prospérité.
The bucks should stop here, AIMS Senior Fellow in the Globe
In this piece from the Globe and Mail, AIMS Senior Fellow Michael MacDonald, analyses the state of Canada's cities in a primarily rural-dominated, bureaucratic environment and emphasizes the current lack of effective national urban strategy. Dr. MacDonald stresses that cities and city governments are not synonymous, and that therefore many urban problems are susceptible to non-governmental solutions.
The Mazankowski Report on Alberta health care: the AIMS connection
On 8 January 2002 the report of the Alberta Premier's Advisory Council on Health was released. Chaired by former Deputy Prime Minister Don Mazankowski. AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley was a member of the Council and AIMS supplied valuable background and comparative information that was fed into the Alberta process.
AIMS On-Line for early January 2002
Here is what's new at AIMS, Atlantic Canada's Public Policy Think Tank
A better way to help the have-nots
Following up on a highly successful national conference on equalization, hosted by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, and the Montreal Economic Institute, AIMS and its partners collaborated on a National Post Article outlining a new way to approach equalization. According to this National Post editorial, the idea outlined in our earlier article seems to be catching on at the highest levels. On December 20, 2001, Finance Minister Paul Martin spoke at a luncheon in Halifax where he indicated that he is exploring the idea of replacing the billions of dollars in annual federal spending on job creation and economic development in “have-not” regions with lower federal corporate taxes. Based on the work being done by our three market-oriented think-tanks, representing all of the equalization-receiving provinces, this is an idea whose time has come.
Federal Finance Minister Paul Martin endorses AIMS policy proposal
Favourable to idea that is finding significant support