Catching Up with Canada: A Prosperity Agenda for Atlantic Canada is the first study from the Institute’s new Atlantic Canada Initiative. It finds that even though Atlantic Canada currently lags the rest of the country in several key economic indicators—including household incomes, GDP per capita and the employment rate, among others—the region could close the gap by pursuing pro-growth policy reforms similar to those enacted recently in Michigan and Ireland. In fact, if Atlantic Canada could achieve an inflation-adjusted economic growth rate of 1.6 per cent—0.9 percentage points above forecasted growth for the rest of Canada—the region would catch up with the rest of Canada within 20 years.
Evaluating Alberta’s Energy Regulator finds that any meaningful reform of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) must target the corporation’s regulatory objectives, decision-making process and procedures because a sleeker, more efficient AER would be a big step in the right direction for Alberta and Canada as a whole.
The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. For more, call (800) 665-3558 ext. 590.
