From Commons Committees to Senate hearings, from commentaries to research papers, AIMS was talking about fiscal imbalance before it became the hot topic at the first ministers' table. As this article that appeared in newspapers across the country indicates, political and economic analysts are just now catching up on a topic AIMS brought to the national agenda.
Neil Reynolds, National Affairs columnist for the Report on Business section of The Globe and Mail uses AIMS' research to examine Canada's equalization program. In this column, Reynolds echoes AIMS' position that equalization actual does more harm than good. He says it's time to cut up the credit cards.
It's just days from the federal election, days of political promises and political finger-pointing. In this series of commentaries, AIMS lays out the public policy issues that will mean make a difference in Atlantic Canada. It is not a wish list for handouts or preferential treatment. Collectively they are a request that whoever forms the new government thoroughly scrutinize and quantify the actual effects of existing policies. We believe that such an examination will lead to the same conclusions that many authors published by AIMS have arrived at over the past several years.
A significant foot forward for Atlantica with news of RFPs for two new studies. Also in this edition, a look at the federal election, a new book about Atlantic Canadian business culture, and the Kyoto Treaty.
In this issue of The Beacon, AIMS pays tribute to one of its founding fathers, J.W.E. (Bill) Mingo. There's more news out of Ontario about equalization, from Newfoundland Peter Fenwick talks about emigration and read a Commentary on the dysfunctional rules that make short sea shipping dificult in North America.
En Politiques défensives, Brian Lee Crowley, président de Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, écrit: "Ottawa a du mal à reconnaître le fait qu'une grande partie de ses politiques est inspirée par la crainte du Québec. Par conséquent, nombre de politiques poursuivent prétendument d'autres objectifs. Mais Ottawa dévoile ses véritables intentions par ses déplorables tactiques de défense."
In this op/ed in The Toronto Star, AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley explains that the federal government has sacrificed many of the country's larger interests in a vain attempt to buy the respect and affection of Quebeckers. The upcoming election will be no different.
More and more politicians and journalists are questioning federal transfer payments, whether it is equalization or employment insurance. Many cite the extensive research conducted by AIMS as one of the first to question the value of such programs. In this column from the Calgary Sun, Link Byfield goes back to one of AIMS' original books on the topic.
A second Ontario study uses AIMS’ work to map a road to recovery.
This Beacon follows the Atlantica story from Halifax to Quebec City and beyond. Learn whether Canada has a drinking problem, read an interesting twist on the future of Canada's paper mills and decide who to listen to in the debate on health care economics.