“Free and fair trade will prevail” was the promise Deputy Prime Minister John Manley made to his Halifax audience during the highly successful Economic Leadership Speaker Series event, held on May 15, 2002 and co-sponsored by AIMS. Mr. Manley discussed the need for an aggressive stance by Canada when negotiating settlements for the boiling trade disputes with the United States.
AIMS Economic Leadership Speaker Series welcomes Canada's Deputy Prime Minister to discuss Canada's US agenda.
In his regular column appearing simultaneously in the Chronicle Herald and the Moncton Times and Transcript, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley, shares his recent frustrating experience while crossing the Canada/U.S. border. With new areas of border cooperation constantly being explored between our two nations — including an eventual jointly administered continental perimeter, having U.S. customs inspectors working in the Port of Halifax — the importance of intelligent border priorities is crucial. Crowley explains how the current focus on what the U.S. does at the border has caused Canadians to lose sight of their own country’s priorities. For a country whose livelihood depends on free trade with its neighbour to the south, Canada’s border operations look unorganized and petty to an individual trying to bring in commercial goods in a tiny one-time transaction. Just imagine what a nightmare it must be for those who have to get that $1-billion in commercial trade across the line every day
Derek Oland, a long time friend and supporter of AIMS, recently spoke to the Empire Club in Toronto about the lost opportunities of regional trans-national trade initiatives. Speaking about the beleagured economy in Atlantic Canada, Oland was quick to point out that it wasn’t always this way.
It makes sense for us, their biggest trading partner and closest ally, to work with [the U.S.]… This was the theme in an address by AIMS President, Brian Lee Crowley, AIMS Senior Fellow, Michael J. MacDonald, and Perry Newman, former Director of International Trade to the state of Maine and current President of the Atlantica Group of Portland, Maine, to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee studying North American Integration. The presentation introduced the Committee to AIMS’ “Atlantica Initiative” and explained the benefits of re-discovering and fostering the region’s historical north-south economic ties which North American free trade has begun to reinvigorate. In their comments to the Committee, Messrs. Crowley, MacDonald and Newman also underlined how the post-11 September climate opens up possibilities for closer collaboration on security issues. The Atlantica region could be the scene of numerous pilot projects, including at the Port of Halifax and the region’s airports, as we
Three key players in AIMS’ Atlantica project met with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade to discuss the concept of Atlantica and its importance to this region and the country as a whole.
The Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association invited AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley to speak at their Annual Convention recently to speak about the Institute's concept of Atlantica and the management of the Canada-US border.
In this feature in Business Voice magazine, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley discusses the impacts for the Atlantic business community of the tragic events of September 11. Crowley sets the tone for the article by emphasising the special nature of the relationship between Canada and the U.S., “beyond the business ties, Canada and the U.S. are bound together by affection and emotion.”
The stakes at the US-Canada border now are as high as they have ever been for Canadians, and AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley takes a look at these stakes in this regular column. He concludes that this country needs to make absolutely clear to the Americans that we are a trustworthy partner who is ready to work with them to create a well-policed continental perimeter within which we can all feel as safe as possible.
In a thought provoking article in Atlantic Progress, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley challenges the preconception that deregulation in the electricity industry seems to have created nothing but grief for those who have tried it, and the benefits seem elusive. The old local monopolies that serve captive provincial markets have brought stability of supply and reasonable reliability of service. For Crowley, safety does not lie in resisting the changes that are sweeping the electricity industry, but in steady deliberate movement toward deregulation, in order to capture the technological, economic and industrial benefits that it offers. Reform of the electricity market is an idea whose time has come, and the Maritimes, like the rest of the country, have a great deal to gain from it. Publication: Atlantic Progress, October, 2001