HALIFAX, NS – The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members for its research team. Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Dean of the Dalhousie School of Management, and Dr. Mark Raymond of Saint Mary’s University headline the appointments as new senior fellows. They are joined by Research Associate Patrick Webber from New Brunswick.
“We are enthusiastic about welcoming Sylvain, Mark and Patrick to the AIMS team,” said President & CEO Marco Navarro-Génie. “They will all be important components in our mission: to rigorously study key public policy issues and propagate ideas for Atlantic prosperity.”
As Nova Scotia’s top academic institutions, bringing the expertise of key faculty members at Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s universities creates exciting possibilities for the Institute.
Dr. Charlebois is a renowned scholar for his work on food policy, safety, distribution, and security. He is author of the book Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking. He acts as special advisor to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to Health Canada on food safety issues, and to Agriculture and Food Canada on agricultural policy.
As a senior fellow, Dr. Charlebois will provide regular commentary on food issues. He is avaluable resource for the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies in its related publications.
Dr. Raymond is a professor at Saint Mary’s University and chair of the economics department at the Sobey School of Business. He completed his PhD in 2001 at Guelph University with a thesis on regulatory issues in environment economics. As a senior fellow, Dr. Raymond will be instrumental in bolstering AIMS’s Energy and Environment research agenda and fulfilling the Institute’s role in measuring the progress of the One Nova Scotia initiative.
Patrick Webber joins AIMS as a research associate, based in Fredericton. He holds a master’s degree in history from the University of New Brunswick. Webber is the author of the 2016 study Measuring Austerity in Atlantic Canada and of a forthcoming paper about New Brunswick’s tuition-access bursary. He formerly served as Research Coordinator with the provincial New Democratic Party. Webber will provide regular commentary on New Brunswick issues.
This announcement is part of an expansion period at the Institute. More than ever, its mandate to research public policy from a market orientation is necessary in Atlantic Canada. For the first time in its history, the AIMS team extends to all four Atlantic provinces, with a broadening topical expertise. The appointments of Dr. Charlebois, Dr. Raymond and Webber will advance these goals.
AIMS is Atlantic Canada’s only independent, non-partisan public policy think tank. Unique among regional think tanks, it operates entirely free of government subsidy. Since 1994, AIMS has provided a distinct perspective on policy issues in the region. Readers across the country are familiar with AIMS’s peer-reviewed policy studies, regular commentaries in newspaper op-ed pages, and appearances in public discussions of many topics, from healthcare and education to energy policy and public finance.