A viable fishery

Never let it be said that Kevin O'Brien suffers from a surfeit of gorm.

The Atlantic Institute of Market Studies — who were useful enough back in the day when they backed Our Dear, If Malleable, Stance on Equalization — are now Enemies of the People.

On Monday, VOCM reported:

Gas Price Regulation Costing Atlantic Canadians; AIMS
February 2, 2009

The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies says Atlantic Canadians have paid more than $150-million extra for gasoline because of price regulation. Now, they are using a web site to let consumers track it. The AIMS Money Guzzling Gas Regulation Gauge shows the tally province by province, second by second, dollar by dollar. All four Atlantic Canadian provinces have gas price regulation. AIMS says In Newfoundland and Labrador, the cost of regulation tallies some $65.2 million since regulation began in October of 2001.

And on Tuesday, the Cabinet Minister retorted:

Minister Reacts to Fuel Study
February 3, 2009

Government Services Minister Kevin O'Brien is disputing figures released by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies on gas price regulation. This week, the right-wing think tank released numbers suggesting that gas price regulation costs consumers on average about 1.5 cents a litre. On VOCM Open Line with Randy Simms, O'Brien said regulation costs the province about 500 thousand dollars annually to administer the program. That's far less than what the AIMS study found.

The AIMS study is silent on the administrative costs of price regulation, but deals at great length with what it finds to be the economic cost of regulating the price.

As difficult as this may be for members of the Danny Williams-Government to grasp this concept — after all, they have something called the Department of Business — the economy, and the public purse, are not the same thing.

But never mind; with the government of the same Rhodes Scholar who once disengenuously boasted that "our taxes and our duties and our CPP to Ottawa exceed our transfer payments from Ottawa", you can guarantee that the red herring fishery will continue to fill your boats.