The Beacon, 11 May 2006
Reaching consensus - AIMS invites discussion through the Canadian Health Care Consensus Group; AIMS tackles the catastrophic drug coverage problem in Atlantic Canada; and the institute publishes two new papers.
Is competition wasteful when it comes to “waste management”?
In his regular column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley takes a critical look at HRM Mayor Peter Kelly's call for a provincial law forcing garbage created within a municipality to be dealt with in that municipality. Rather than being a call for not dumping on your neighbours, Crowley concludes the mayor's latest effort is simply a monopolist's attempt to capture the market and continue to collect fees out of line with the service provided. hh
Moving beyond the rotary phone
The methods of interpersonal communication have changed dramatically in the past decade or two. From that one black rotary telephone that sat in a central location in the home, to the world of wireless, digital communication that includes text, audio and video. In this column, AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley points out Canada needs to regulate for the times, not the bygone ages.
The Bad Idea that Will Not Die: Gas Price Regulation
It may sound reasonable, regulating the price of gasoline. But as Brian Lee Crowley explains in his fortnightly column, appearances are deceiving. He writes, "regulation cannot lower prices for gasoline. The price to get gasoline into our local markets is set internationally and we have no control over it whatsoever. We either pay the going rate or we don’t get what we need."
The Beacon, July 5, 2005
In this edition of The Beacon, ignore the hype and look at the true opportunity LNG provides the region, consider the crisis that could soon face the NB forest industry, understand why the regulation of gasoline prices hurts consumer, and examine the regulation of land use and its cost to consumers, particularly low income families.
Regulating the Land Market
Canada’s national anthem may intone that God keep our land glorious and free, but across the country more and more urban centres are adding more and more regulations that are making land use anything but free. In this AIMS commentary, based on comments written for his participation in a panel on Urban Sprawl and Smart Growth for the Canadian Regional Science Association in Toronto, Samuel R. Staley warns the increasingly complex regulatory regime for land use in Canada’s urban markets is limiting choice and increasing costs for housing, especially for low-income families.
Gas regulation is a tangled and costly web of deception for consumers.
The Nova Scotia government started on its road to gas re-regulation to appease consumers indignate over gasoline at a dollar plus a litre. But as Brian Lee Crowley explains in his fortnightly column in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, the road has veered off course and now heads to even higher gas prices for consumers.
The Media Elite’s Grip on the News is Almost Over.
The old elite grip on the media is almost finished. Whereas 20 or 30 years ago, it was media elites and others on the left who hounded presidents out of office, today it is media bloggers on the populist right who hound the Dan Rathers of this world into retirement – not just because they disagree with him, but because the old media elites are now themselves held accountable.
Taking a moment to reflect on how to avoid MAN made disasters
ASIA'S devastating tsunamis are only the latest vast natural disasters that humble humanity's beliefs in its own power and in the benevolence of Nature. Yet, the devastation and grief offer us another opportunity to head the advice of Voltaire and "cultivate our garden". In this latest column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley explores how, through our own actions in the rich industrialized world, we cause a Third World disaster that kills far more people every year, year in and year out, than the Asian tsunamis. The disaster, as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote the other day, is that mosquitoes kill 20 times more people each year than the tsunamis did, disable many more, and undermine local economies in the process. These deaths, disabilities and debilitation can easily be avoided, read the full column to learn how.
Problem gambling a problem that can be ignored no longer
In this piece from the Chronicle Herald, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley explains why government has to make it more difficult to gamble in Nova Scotia. Money derived from gambling, unlike normal taxation, comes from one group of residents and the province relies too heavily on that cash to pay for public services such as health and education. If we really believe the services we're paying for publicly are worthwhile, everybody should contribute and not take advantage of the illness of a few. Yet the province expects to take in about $133 million from video lottery terminals by the end of the fiscal year and people considered problem gamblers account for about half of that profit.