La croissance économique n’est pas un mystère
Une nouvelle publication de AIMS révèle aux Canadiens les secrets d’économies qui sont passées du rang de retardataires au rang de stars internationales.
Equalization’s role in the Voisey’s Bay talks
Talks between Inco and the government of Newfoundland and Labrador on the development of the rich Voisey's Bay mineral deposit collapsed recently, and may now be postponed indefinitely. AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley analyses the role played in this drama by Canada's equalization system in his column in The Globe and Mail.
Debt drags us all down
The Nova Scotia Government's program review has attracted a great deal of criticism, much of it attacking the premise on which program review is based. In The Sunday Herald, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley reviews the case for program review and concludes that the arguments for it remain compelling. Not only do the province’s finances need to be put on a sustainable course, but ensuring that Nova Scotians get good value for public spending is indispensable for future prosperity.
Maritime Cooperation Not All It’s Cracked To Be
Publication: HDN October 31, 1999. By Fred McMahon
Perversity of regional policy
Publications:MTT, HDN August 22, 1999. By Fred McMahon
Governments make poor bosses
Publications:HDN August 22, 1999. By Fred McMahon
Deliver us from Liberal MPs’ secret rescue plans
Atlantic Liberals, it appears, believe three things. First, they think the region's economy is still centred on traditional, largely seasonal natural-resource industries such as the fishery, mining and forestry. Second, they believe that the region's already weak economy has been devastated by cuts to unemployment insurance and other transfers. Finally, they see the solution to these problems as being -- surprise, surprise -- a big influx of Ottawa dollars under their control.
A sketch of Maritime economic history
In this 1999 column in the Chronicle Herald, Fred McMahon writes "Many historians claim Confederation's trade barriers devastated the Maritime economy, and there's some truth in that. Yet, the Maritimes' great prosperity and worldwide trading links were almost certainly destined for ruin anyway, as was Halifax's status as a world-class trading centre."
Population Change in Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada's percentage of the Canadian population has declined continuously during the past half-century, and further declines seem likely. In large measure that can be attributed to the fact that the region, and each province in it, receives disproportionately small shares of immigrants to Canada.
Subsidizing offshore exploration
In this article for the Monton Times & Transcript and the Halifax Daily News in 1999, Fred McMahon writes, "Count on it - no matter how badly Nova Scotia messes up the offshore, companies will bid for exploration rights where there's money to be made, and politicians will take credit for it."