AIMS wraps-up another great year
2000-2001
AIMS Launches Health Reform Website
Health Care's Hidden Face: The Private Sector and its Relationship with Medicare
Breathing new life into dead labour and dead capital in our coastal communities
In a keynote speech to the NB Seafood Processors Assoc. Annual Convention Moncton, 6 December 2001, AIMS' president Brian Lee Crowley shares his vision of how we can revive dead labour and dead capital, giving back to our communities a dynamism that exists today as an unrealised potential.
Why business and politics don’t mix
Five years ago the four provincial governments, plus Ottawa and some private-sector outfits such as the chartered banks, clubbed together and put $30 million into their new creation: ACF Equity Atlantic Inc. Now, at the five-year mark in its planned 10-year lifespan, questions are being asked about its performance.
The premier who saved Christmas
In his regular column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley discusses the evolution of Christmas in a multi-cultural society. The discussion centers on the decision made in the 1980’s to call the “Christmas tree”, erected each year outside the Manitoba Legislature, a “multicultural tree”…and how Manitoba’s Premier, Gary Doer, recently reversed that decision. Dr. Crowley takes us on a historical retreat exploring the early Paganistic, Scandanavian, Christian, and German origins of today’s Christmas tree, and highlights the true meaning of the season. Publication: CHH, December 5, 2001
AIMS On-Line for December 2001
Here is what's new at AIMS, Atlantic Canada's Public Policy Think Tank
The AIMS commentary series on Swedish Health Care in Transition
Johan Hjertqvist explores the rapid transition in the style and format of health care being experienced in the Stockholm metropolitan area.
Equalization’s good intentions are not enough
In the November/December 2001 edition of The Taxpayer Magazine, Brian Lee Crowley, AIMS President, continues to point-out the problems with Equalization. He emphasizes that after 44 years and close to $200 billion in equalization spending, the Atlantic provinces are only barely more able to meet the needs of their citizens with their own revenue sources than they were when equalization was introduced in 1957. In addition, the incentives attached to equalization can penalize the poorer provinces for developing their economy and encourage them to settle for permanent reliance on federal transfers. The article then outlines two positive suggestions on what can be done to break this provincial “welfare trap”.
What’s the Canadian dollar worth?
At a time in 2001 when the Canadian dollar sat at 63 cents, Brian Lee Crowley's gave this commentary on CBC Radio. He argues devaluation often looks like a good deal in the short run, but it almost always masks a declining standard of living. Bitter experience from around the world teaches that you cannot devalue your way to prosperity.
Pay the people, not governments
In this op-ed piece from the National Post, AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley partners with Peter Holle, the President of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and Michel Kelly-Gagnon, the Executive Director of the Montreal Economic Institute to discuss the potential benefits of targeting equalization at individuals rather than provinces.