AIMS Radio: In Praise of Sovereign Wealth Funds
Saving resource wealth and spending only the interest brings stability and long term solvency to public finances. http://aims.wpengine.com/en/home/library/details.aspx/3835
AIMS on the Radio
Two new AIMS produced radio spots have taken the airwaves. They tackle important issues facing Atlantic Canada, with the hope of provoking a conversation. Our first spot explains the problems the minimum wage as a policy for helping the poor. We argue it's mostly symbolic, and does more harm than good by raising unemployment among [...]
MEDIA RELEASE: Save And Spend, In That Order
The recent drop in oil prices is an opportunity in disguise for Newfoundland and Labrador, and Atlantic Canada more generally. It’s an opportunity to step out of the intoxicating smoke of provincial resource revenue and say: “What on Earth were we thinking by spending all our oil revenue as fast it flowed in! Let’s get off this roller coaster and transform our oil resources into a permanent financial asset that will pay off in perpetuity.”
Alberta should save all of its resource revenue
It’s blasphemy, but when Peter Lougheed decided in 1976 to put 30 per cent of natural resource revenue into the Alberta Heritage Fund, he got it wrong. It should’ve been 100 per cent. In Lougheed’s defence, he got it a lot less wrong than the premiers who came after him, and he didn’t have the benefit of hindsight. The last 40 years on the resource revenue roller-coaster show that the best way to deal with the volatile and intergenerational nature of resource revenue is to transform it into a permanent financial asset that produces a steady stream of annual revenue.
A Good Problem to Have
Co-authored by Senior Fellow, Robert Roach, Research Associate, Jeff Collins, and AIMS President and CEO, Marco Navarro-Genie, the paper – A Good Problem to Have: Lessons for Atlantic Canada from Alberta’s Experience with Natural Resource Revenue – calls for stability in Atlantic Canada’s strategy to transform non-renewable resources into a permanent financial asset.
MEDIA RELEASE: Righting the Ship In Atlantic Canada: Students Urged To Share Ideas In Essay Competition
Halifax, NS – Undergraduate and graduate students across Canada who are 18 years of age or older are being encouraged to help “Right the ship” in Atlantic Canada by entering the AIMS/on/Campus essay competition. The AIMS/on/Campus essay competition is part of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) campus outreach program. AIMS is a distinctive [...]
NDP Victory in Alberta Is not a Sign of an Orange Wave in the Next Federal Election
Radio Interview with Marco Navarro-Genie, President of AIMS (Atlantic Institute for Market Studies) suggests that the left turn of Albertans had already begun for some time.
NSGEU Holds Rally At Canso Causeway To Protest Budget Cuts
The flag waving and chants of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union protest were part of the latest fall out from the April 9 provincial budget. On Monday, students occupied Nova Scotia Finance Minister Diane Whalen’s constituency office to protest the removal, for one year, of the cap limiting increases universities can make to tuition. On Wednesday, film professionals and their supporters protested outside the legislature over cuts to a tax credit that sees the government refund between 50 and 65 per cent of wages paid in their industry “Bringing the province’s public sector to the Canadian average should be one of the important considerations among the several strategies the province of Nova Scotia could pursue to reduce spending,” said AIMS president Marco Navarro-Genie in a press release the day before Whalen’s April 9 budget that will eliminate 320 full time civil service positions.
N.S. Film Industry Reps Taking ‘Clear Ask’ To Government Friday
Representatives of the Nova Scotia film industry are meeting again with Finance Minister Diana Whalen on Friday over changes to the province’s film tax credit, and they say they know what their goal is. Whalen has said she’s optimistic the two sides can find common ground after the provincial budget she delivered on April 9 announced drastic changes to how much support the film industry gets from the provincial government. The changes come into effect on July 1, and expenses that were once 100 per cent refundable will become 25 per cent refundable. The head of a Halifax-based think, however, believes the changes are necessary. “It seems almost surreal that in a place like Nova Scotia, one of the poorest provinces in the country, we are subsidizing the salaries of people in private enterprise to the tune of 65 per cent,” said Marco Navarro-Genie of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.
MEDIA RELEASE: BUSINESS SUBSIDIES NEED CLOSER EXAMINATION
Halifax – The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) is calling for a market-based solution to a recent budgetary announcement to eliminate the Nova Scotia Film Tax Credit. AIMS believes the Nova Scotia government is correct in examining the Film Tax Credit as it relates to the film industry. In addition, AIMS’ President and CEO Marco Navarro-Genie argues that subsidies are not good enablers of thriving economies and are often exploited by out-of-province companies.