Originally published in the National Post. This is exciting: the column I wrote earlier this week on the folly of forcing immigrants to settle and stay in Atlantic Canada generated a headline with my name in it. Granted, the headline was, “Dear Marni Soupcoff: go soak your head.” But still. You don’t get your full [...]
Market prices for coal, oil and natural gas have fallen nearly 50% in the last two years, prompting a decline in electricity rates across North America, except in Nova Scotia where electricity rates continue to rise and we continue to pay among the highest rates on the continent. Allowing electricity rates in [...]
Across Atlantic Canada education costs are on the rise. Between 1999 and 2010, per student education costs increased by more than 70% in all four Atlantic provinces. One reason for this phenomenon is that even as school enrollment has been declining over the past 15 years, the number of educators in our school [...]
Canadian universities should publish data that enable the public to evaluate institutional outcomes performance effectively. Our universities may be failing undergraduate students all across the country. At research oriented universities, between 20 % and 30% of first year students fail to proceed to second year, and fewer than 60% graduate within 6 years. [...]
Provincial public sector employment rates in the Atlantic region, relative to population, are higher than in the rest of Canada. Nationally in 2013, 17.8 % of all jobs were in the provincial public sector. By contrast, in the Atlantic provinces, this figure is 22.6%. Atlantic provincial governments could reduce the gap by half, [...]
The development of the internet has challenged our traditional way of thinking about many things. Among which are wealth, value and entrepreneurship. Today, adventurous entrepreneurs are unlocking value from unused portions of their households or unused times for their vehicles. Naturally, we're referring to eBay, Uber and Airbnb. They have taken chunks in [...]
A generation ago, Canada was one of a relatively privileged number of industrialized economies that could afford to provide its citizens with high quality, public education. Today, country's with low skilled and poor populations are rapidly modernizing and are making unprecedented progress in their education and training. When yesterday's generation first entered the [...]
Canadians want better healthcare, but their participation in health reform is difficult. Ordinary citizens don't readily have useful information about waiting times, results of care, the rate of preventable mistakes in their local facilities or even their own health information. The way forward and the most immediate, actionable way would be to promote [...]
AIMS Fellow David MacKinnon suggests that the new government in Ottawa has a unique opportunity to help reset the region out of dependency and into the path of prosperity.