AIMS is releasing its second in a series of publications examining the role the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency plays in the economic development of the region. In this edition of ACOA Watch, Brian Lee Crowley and Bruce Winchester consider the recent work by Jack Mintz and Michael Smart of the C.D. Howe Institute "Brooking no Favorites"
Newfoundland’s Auditor General John Noseworthy has been painting with numbers, and the resulting picture is very bleak indeed. “Fiscal Realism” has proved especially shocking as Newfoundlanders are made more aware of the distinctions between “cash” deficits and accrued deficits. Peter Fenwick comments from Newfoundland.
Irish Rock star Bono used the Liberal leadership convention as a platform to convince Canadians of a need for higher levels of foreign aid for Africa. Bono’s desire to improve the lives of the desperately poor in Africa is well-meaning, but the open-handedness he advocates is perilous policy. Tripling Canada’s foreign aid budget will not solve Africa’s troubles, and in many cases, it will sabotage efforts to improve conditions.
Don McIver, Director of Research AIMS presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance
Mike Harris spoke at the Fraser Institute's eighteenth annual Dr. Harold Walter Siebens Lecture
Polls are indicating the Progressive Conservative Party will come to Power in today's Newfoundland provincial election. Questions will now be asked about the policy direction of a government under PC Leader Danny Williams. AIMS Fellow Peter Fenwick, who writes for AIMS on Newfoundland policy issues, has turned his mind to what a Williams government's priorities will be, given the leader's policy positions and the evolution of the election campaign. In this item originally published in the October 21st National Post, Fenwick says beyond a modest commitment to eliminate civil servant positions and balance the budget, the PC agenda appears to be business as usual.
UNLEASHING CANADA: A Luncheon with Mike Harris
The debate over Employment Insurance has re-emerged after Human Resources Development Canada launched its largest fraud investigation in New Brunswick history into the EI claims of some 2,000 fishplant workers in Southeast New Brunswick. In this editorial published in the Moncton Times and Transcript, Ottawa Bureau Chief Campbell Morrison argues HRDC should not be shouldering the responsibility of 'fixing' the EI system and questions the absence of other departments in finding solutions to the EI problem. Local MP Dominic LeBlanc and AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley are quoted as two supporters for a solution involving more than one agency. ACOA Minister Gerry Byrne, however, disagrees and sees no role for his agency until the investigations are complete. Morrison and LeBlanc are disappointed by this lack of initiative on all fronts, but as Crowley points out "EI has become so politicized that everybody is scared to death to open their mouth" and that, says Morrison, is too bad.
An invitation to lunch with urban visionary Mayor John Norquist of Milwaukee, lessons from the west coast's experience with property rights in the fishery and Brian Lee Crowley on how Employment Insurance causes unemployment.
Politics may play a part, however the move toward lowering taxes in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shows provincial governments in Atlantic Canada are increasingly giving signs they understand that growth - and taxes- matter.