I came across an interesting article this week in the Economist magazine. According to the magazine's Intelligence Unit, Quebec has been the most aggressive province in providing ten-year tax holidays to attract investments in manufacturing, processing and financial services. The Economist also states that the most ambitious development agency is Quebec’s Societe Generale de Financement du Quebec, which takes equity positions to attract foreign companies. Good promotion for Quebec from one of the most internationally recognized business and economic publications.

Wouldn't it be neat if we substitued 'New Brunswick' for Quebec in the second sentence and Business New Brunswick for the Societe Generale de Financement du Quebec.

And in case you feel that the right wing agenda (you know tax cuts, less red tape, less social spending, etc.) is taking over in New Brunswick, you will be comforted by the latest Economic Freedom of North America report by the Fraser Institute. Here is their definition ofthe economic freedom scale:

Economic Freedom of North America rates economic freedom on a 10-point scale. The all-government index captures the impact of restrictions on freedom by all levels of government. Economic Freedom of North America employs 10 variables in three areas: 1. Size of Government; 2. Takings and Discriminatory Taxation; and 3. Labor Market Freedom.

New Brunswick ranks 57th out of 60 states and provinces on this scale. Now, I usually don't put a whole lot of stock into Fraser's work but they have estimated that even small increases in a province/state ranking significantly increases per capita GDP.

Opps. I'm sorry. That was supposed to be good news but I think I just cheesed off everyone. The economic developers will hate the fact Quebec is internationally recognized for its incentive programs and aggressive economic development. The socialists will be upset that I have quoted a right wing think tank and the Conservatives (capital C) will be annoyed that we still have the 57th most socialist province/state in North America - despite six years of PCs.

Where's Iron Mike when you need him or maybe off the sauce Ralph - Alberta scores 4th in North America for economic freedom. Only Delaware, Colorado and North Carolina have more economic freedom than good 'ol Alberta - a bastion of liberty in a socialist country.

Results of the latest quarterly survey of small-and medium-sized enterprises, by the Canadian Federation of IndependentBusiness (CFIB) were released yesterday. Businesses in Alberta and BC continue to lead the nation in optimism. On the other, businesses in Atlantic Canada displayed sharply lower optimism compared to the previous survey. Indexes in all fourAtlantic provinces are lower than at any time since late 2001.

You think Al over at the T&T will publish this little tidbit? He's probably too busy writing another mindless article about Mapleton Park to notice.

Tony Huntjens gave the closing speech to theCanadian Social Welfare Policy Conference which was held in Fredericton recently. In the speech, I think, Mr. Huntjens was delicately hinting that in the future, the amount of money available for social programs would be limited because of the marked increase in need (seniors programs, health funding, etc.).

I also think that Mr. Huntjens gave us a glimpse of the economic development policy of the NB government. He states:

Good fiscal management today will allow us to embrace the future with optimism, thanks to a thriving economy which can create more job opportunities and more wealth for our province, in order to remain socially compassionate through more investments in our social programs.

Now, I realize this speech was probably written by one of the outlawed and reinstated spin doctors, but really, what does this mean? Good fiscal management? Will it lead to a thriving economy? Has it?

That statement is a little bit like the guy who has massive credit card debt, rapidly increasing bills, and who knows his salary will be rolled back each year until retirment and he thinks that just making the minimum monthly payment on the credit card will ultimately fix everything.

Good fiscal management is only one piece of the puzzle. In fact, I think it can be a crutch. I, for one, would run up a little debt to get good highway infrastructure to the north. To attract significant business investments. To create an environment that is attractive for investment and skilled immigration.

New Brunswick has the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in Atlantic Canada but what does that matter? Alberta has no debt at all. We need to be a little less focused on all this tinkering (marginal tax cuts, shaving departmental budgets, etc.) and make some bold steps to achieve strong economic growth.

The Times & Transcript's feature letter to the editor today entitled "City council needs lesson in democracy" suggests that the opposition to the development of a housing/commercial development at the corner of Mapleton Road and the TCH (on land zoned as highway commercial) is about democracy. It suggest that "Tearing apart our parklands" will be met with horrible vengeance by the public during the next election.

This is not about democracy. It's about a few trouble makers exaggerating and distorting an issue for personal gain. If the public buys in to this notion of 'tearing apart parklands', it will be because of a very small cabal of folks who seem to be hellbent on tearing down efforts by the city to move things forward.

Again, and I say again, if all these naysayers would just put the facts on the table (i.e our old friend Al) and let the public decide in a fair way if this was a serious error in judgement or just developing land in the city in a balanced fashion, we would all be better off. But insinuating with great verbosity and highly inflammatory rhetoric that this is atrocious, tearing, rending or any other violent metaphor they want to use just confuses people (as it did me initially).

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
-William Shakespeare

Tucker Carlson is best known as the 'from the right' person on CNN's crossfire. He got his start over 15 years ago as a contrarian to the perceived left leaning media - CNN wanted to look 'balanced' - whatever that means in a world where Fox News has trademarked that term.

Anyway, I just read an article about Tucker that got me thinking. He has been scrapped from CNN as his ideas have become more radical as right wing thinking becomes mainstream in the U.S. So, what was once, 'right' is now 'centre' so guys like Tucker stray ever more to the 'right' in order to maintain their 'contrarian' image.

Now, ironically, the contrarians are coming from the left in the U.S. But I digress.

My point is this. Wouldn't it be interesting if in a few years blogs like this one became old hat? If my ideas about investment and economic development were so mainstream in New Brunswick, that I would have to stray further and further to the 'right' in the non-ideological - methaphorical sense of that word? If the publisher of this blog cut me off for being too wacko? If the CBC stopped airing my commentaries because they were either boring (mainstream) or I had gone too radical?

Unlike Tucker, I would like to work myself out of a job. If New Brunswick gets serious about economic development and attracting investment and people to the province, I would gladly change the topic of this blog to baseball, music from the '20s or '30s or some other topic that I think I have some knowledge of.

But until then, I will keep my knowledge of Al Jolson, Louis Armstrong, the Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby, and all the other old time singers to myself.

I'll keep preaching to you about the need for our province to attract business investment.

And, no, I do not own any bowties.

I have been watching the foreign direct investment flows into and out of Canada in recent years with increasing alarm. Obviously, there will be ebbs and flows here but the trend is decidedly outward and that is not good, long term, for economic growth here.

The latest OECD figures released this week show that in 2004, an estimated $6.3 billion in foreign direct investment came into Canada down from $66 billion in 2000. The 2004 figure is the lowest inflow of FDI into Canada since 1993 - at the tail end of the recession. Conversely, over $26 billion in investment flowed out of Canada in 2004.

Now, to put this into some perspective. Australia (a country with a smaller population than Canada) had $42 billion in inward investment in 2004, Belgium $34 billion, Ireland $14 Billion, Italy $16 billion and Spain $9.5 billion.

As by far the biggest beneficiary of FDI, Ontario is obviously spooked by this trend. They announced this week the establishment of four new International Marketing Centres in Tokyo, London, Los Angeles and New Delhi. Their sole purpose will be to attract investment from those countries to Ontario.

Even though New Brunswick has never really benefited from FDI, I think we should have a similar focus. A few billion in new investment would be just what the doctor ordered right about now to help the economy start to move in the right direction.

Once in a while I get the feeling that either the rest of the world is crazy or maybe it's just me.

I have been questionning the actual population figure in New Brunswick ever since the 2001 Census data was published. At that time, the Census revealed that New Brunswick's population was 729,500 down from 738,000 in 1996. Statistics Canada provides estimates of population growth/decline in each year since 2001 and the population has either been stagnant or has shrunk a little bit.

So, this sounds fairly straight forward, right? Wrong.

Everyone one and their dog continues to state that the population of New Brunswick is 750,000 - even, you guessed it, Statistics Canada. Click on their population tables (not from the Census) and you will see a population of 750,000.

I just got back from a presentation by the former Minister of Business New Brunswick, Norm Betts, in which he makes the case for more immigration and he cites the 750,000 figures and the slow decline forecasted through to 2026.

Is it 750,000 or 729,000? Apparently the Federal government thinks it is 729,000 as they attempted to claw back Equalization monies based on the lower population count after the Census.

Why does it matter? It matters big time. If guys like Norm and all of the other policy makers and influencers are forecasting a population of 725,000 by 2026 and it is really that level in 2005, there are huge policy implications. By my rough guess (based on an extrapolation of the birth/death data and the out-migration trends), I suggest that without a major change in direction, we will be at well under 700,000 by 2026 - most likely closer to 650,000.

Today, at 729,000 or 750,000, we need almost $2 billion in taxpayer dollars from other provinces just to pay the bill for government services and the cost of these services continues to rise.

Massive Equalization, costs increasing and population declining.

Is it me?

Lisa Hrabluk's weekend commentary called "Revolutions start by neighbours talking" makes a very good point. She says we need "a citizen's movement" to "set the agenda for New Brunswick's renaissance".

Based on what I am reading about NextNB, we disagree with the subject of the discussion, however.

I hope during all of these 'talks', they spent a lot of time with companies from outside New Brunswick as to why they would never in a million years locate here. That, my friends, is where the real valuable research lives. If you can unlock the secrets to attracting investment, then the people will follow - this is a proven fact in almost every fast growing economy that I have studied.

So, NextNB, continue to tinker. I hope your initiative has some success.

I apologize for the quality of this image but all the green is Mapleton Park and that little piece of orange on the right is where George Leblanc's little old man watches Chickadees. This is the zoning map for the City of Moncton.

Please note the two major highways - the TCH and Mapleton Road - right in Chickadee alley.

Please send George Leblanc's old man to the green area which is much more conducive to Chickadees anyway.

Somebody remarked to me one time that I was mistaken about the figures I use for Employment Insurance. In fact, they said it was ridiculous to think that over 100,000 of New Brunswick's 350,000 working people would be on EI. That, he said, would mean that almost one in three persons are collecting EI during the year. He went on, when you back off all the government-related jobs (administration, health care, education, etc.) that, for the most part do not collect EI, that would mean almost one out of every two non-government workers was on EI. That, he said, was crazy.

Well, crazy or not, it's true.

In 2003, the last year with Tax Filer data, 110,000 New Brunswickers claimed they earned EI income during the year. Now, if we back away the 7,000 women that had babies that year (yes, maternity leave falls under EI), that leaves over 100,000 people on EI during 2003. The total working population that year was just under 350,000 persons so, in fact, one in three and if you exclude government-related work, almost one in two workers collected EI in 2003.

Them's the facts, sir.

Oh, by the way, the number of persons collecting EI is up since 2000. Population down, EI claimants up. Sound's like a recipe for economic success to me.

A gentleman by the name of Bernard Landry wrote a letter to the editor of the Telegraph-Journal today entitled Immigration: jobs first, people second.

Now, either Mr. Landry reads this blog (which is doubtful) or he is one of a select few in this province that gets it. Here's a quote:

There are no jobs now for our own workers. That's why many are leaving this region in the first place.Why don't these premiers spend their time and effort trying to get those who left to come back? Get Ford, GM, Honda, etc., to set up shop in our region. Get other big manufacturers to come here. Get all the federal jobs we have lost to move back here. Get the Armed Forces bases back here instead of shutting them all down. Get shipbuilding contracts for our yards. The push for green energy and the related work could sit right here in our back yard. Let's offer lower taxes for an incentive to companies.

Gosh. Somebody from Rexton that gets it?

Hope springs eternal.

I just read John McLaughlin, the President of UNB's, comments in the Telegraph Journal and I had to reach for the Pepto. It seems every time I hear about this NextNB initiative, I get acid reflux.

Mr. McLaughlin is rightly concerned that no one in New Brunswick seems to understand the population and economic crisis facing our province. He rightly suggests that we have to get busy and solve this crisis.

Then the article states:

He has faith in the ability of New Brunswickers to shape a better future.After all, they did it in the 1960s and after the Second World War, he said. Sixty years ago New Brunswick had a lot in common with what people today consider a Third World country, he said. Yet men and women returned from the war with a renewed sense of confidence and undertook the massive effort of modernizing a province that lacked electricity in rural areas and had a small middle class.

Now, trust me, this is all good rhetoric but what the Prez and all of these guys seem to forget was the massive amount of foreign and national business investment that poured into New Brunswick after the War building new pulp mills, mines, fish processing plants, etc.

So, while the Prez's heart is in the right place for saying that New Brunswickers saw the problem and tackled it (what a romantic), the fact that NextNB seems to be minimizing and/or neglecting the massive external investment needed to support any major economic transformation is, to me, very baffling.

NextNB should spend its time figuring out how we are going to bring in new investment, new people and new ideas from outside this province as that is the fundamental challenge.

More money for UNB will mean more trained graduates for Ontario and that may serve UNB's agenda but not the province.

Last night at the theatre, I saw the new New Brunswick tourism advertisement that co-brands New Brunswick with Alpine beer.

It's a relatively good promotion with the actors singing 'New York, New York' while taking in New Brunswick's top tourism attractions (and drinking the beer at the same time - I don't recommend drinking beer and then scaling the cliffs at Cape Enrage - just a little tip).

But, as always, it got me thinking. Apparently New Brunswick has millions of dollars to spend on advertising to attract young beer drinkers to plunk down a few hundred dollars for beer and tourism in the province but almost nothing to spend on advertising to foreign businesses to plunk down hundreds of millions on new business investments.

Priorities, priorities.

Ho hum, southern Ontario just won another auto manufacturing plant. A 1,500 person Toyota plant to be set up near Woodstock, Ontario. $600 million in new investment. A payroll that will likely top $65 million per year.

Is there one person in Atlantic Canada that would like to see a few of these mega economic development projects in our region? Do they all have to go to southern Ontario? According to the Globe & Mail, the province of Ontario will ante up a mere $70-million and Ottawa $55-million for a total of $125 million in incentives.

Just to give you a comparison. This Toyota plant will be 15 times larger in terms of employment than the much ballyhooed Molson plant in Moncton.

So, to recap. The areas in Canada that need the jobs the most (those with shrinking populations) have the least amount of money invested in economic development.

No wonder the OECD has stated that the lack of a coherent regional development policy in Canada is a long term threat to its economic growth.

There used to be an old commentator on U.S. radio namded Paul Harvey who became famous for his And Now the Rest of the Story segments. He would tackle some intiative from a new angle and provide insight that no one else bothered to consider.

I always think of Harvey's segment when I hear some government official pontificating about the success of an economic development initiative like, for example, when the former Prime Minister of Ireland spoke recently about the Irish economic miracle in a speech in Saint John. He waxed on and on about the cooperation and the support of unions and industry and the marshalling of all government officials behind the initiative.

And I was left thinking about the rest of the story. The story behind the story.

In my mind, I have this romantic notion of a few key leaders getting together in the late 1960s in some Dublin bar with copious amounts of Guinness with a vague idea that would change the world as they knew it. They set the stage - declining population, shrinking industries, low incomes, depressed attitudes, intransigent unions. Then they hammered out ideas about how they could transform the Irish economy. Finally, one bright young idealist (remember this is my romantic notion of the thing) suggested that Ireland could become the back office for Europe. The gateway for business in Europe. Call centres, accounting centres, development centres, regional offices. Ireland would attract some of the top global companies to set up on the Emerald Isle.

And it worked. It took 20 years and an aggressive shift in attitudes, unions, the education system, and government itself - but by the mid 1990s, Ireland was leading the world for foreign direct investment.

What a romantic idea. A few leaders with a powerful vision transforming a way of life.

In our own way, we had a mini-version of that through the 1990s (until it was truncated in 1999). McKenna's vision was to turn New Brunswick into North America's back office. Call Centres, accounting centres, customer service and ultimately software development and higher end jobs. During the 1990s, an estimated 10,000 jobs were created as a result of this initiative. For this vision, he was named Canada's Economic Developer of the Year.

After Frank, many others took credit for this initiative. NBTelers. Government leaders. Local leaders.

But there is another side of the story. A side never mentioned in the press or acknowledged by the politicians.

You see, Frank came into power in 1987 with a notion to attract business to New Brunswick. He knew that you could not grow an economy without significant external investment (note to current government) but, what most people don't know is that he had very little success until 1991 - four years after he started.

Around 1990, a little known economic developer working for the provincial Department of Economic Development (or maybe it was called Commerce and Technology) named Kevin Bulmer was looking around. He was evaluating how other provinces and states were tackling this issue of turning around an economy.

There was a major, structural change occuring that would profoundly influence Kevin and ultimately set the stage for 10,000 new jobs in the province. Telecommunications deregulation in the United States was leading to more competition which was driving down costs and leading to significant new innovations. This telecommunication paradigm shift was also occuring (although belatedly) in Canada.

Omaha, Nebraska had become the 'call centre' capital of the U.S. (although that term wasn't used) promoting its central location which made it the ideal for mail order distribution and for taking/making calls.

Kevin saw, before everyone else, the emergence of 1-800 numbers, the massive decreases in costs and the new emergence of the telephone as the tool to facilitate customer service and transactions. He began to socialize the idea of New Brunswick becoming the next Omaha of Canada. With its bilingual workforce, good telecom infrastructure and ample available workers (12% unemployment), New Brunswick, if promoted heavily, could attract dozens of top shelf global corporations.

And he was right. Frank McKenna grabbed this idea by the horns. Legend has it he made 30 cold calls a day to major corporations in North America. Legend has it that Frank had a suite on reserve at the Royal York because he spent so much time in Toronto pitching CEOs.

And the rest, as they say, is history - literally. Just when Frank was getting his stride in the mid 1990s, the media (led by our friends at the T&T) started a deliberate campaign to force Frank to quit. He had once said that a Premier should only stay in power for 10 years (after the 17 years of Hatfield). The media dusted off this statement and ran story after story until the day that Frank quit - almost exactly 10 years after he started as Premier.

At least he had the integrity to stand by a promise (more than I can say for some) and he has been handsomely rewarded in his post-politics life.

But I digress.

The rest of the story is this. A guy by the name of Kevin Bulmer had an idea. That idea exploded into the single most impressive job creation effort - directed by government - in the province's history.

My question is this? Who is sitting around the cafes and bars of New Brunswick today and envisioning a province that can attract the best global companies to help us rebuild and grow new industries? Certainly not NextNB. I have read almost every word coming out of that think-down-the-tank and besides a blantant push for more UNB funding there is not much good there. Where then? Some are calling for more immigration. Some are calling for more R&D. Some are calling for more tourism.

Where's the next big idea? Is it e-Learning? Will New Brunswick become the world leader in electronic learning with thousands of developers creating multi-lingual content for the globe? Not likely. Just ask Rory McGreal who was NB's e-Learning Czar in the 1990s. He left a few years ago, totally frustrated, and now is developing the e-Learning industry in Alberta. Is it forestry. Chuckle, chuckle - this doesn't need an explanation. Is it aquaculture. Let's cross our fingers, but.....

Where's Kevin Bulmer when you need him?

He's around and maybe, if we get lucky, he'll have another transformational idea.

Somebody buy that guy a drink.

Every province in Canada does some level of promotion to the outside world that it is a 'great place for business'. Some do it better than others.

I have often said that if you advertisments go to the U.S. or Europe, you need to use recognizable brands. You need to convince companies that other like-minded firms have set up here.

Now with that as the background, check out British Columbia's approach to promotion from its web site www.investbc.com:

Between 2001 and 2004 companies from outside Canada spent over $17 billion for business expansion, modernization and new facilities in British Columbia. Nokia, Electronic Arts, PeopleSoft and Toyota are just a few companies that have recently expanded their British Columbia operations. This year we’ve also attracted top firms like eBay, Intel and BusinessObjects. Over 1,600 non-Canadian firms have discovered the pay-off from being here.

Impressive.

$17 billion in foreign investments
Nokia, Electronic Arts, PeopleSoft, eBay, Intel, BusinessObjects and Toyota - all Fortune 500 brands
Over 1,600 non-Canadian firms have invested in BC

This is a short but powerful statement of the investment climate in BC.

Now turn to New Brunswick's investment site at www.newbrunswick.ca/investment.

Congratulations! You're looking at New Brunswick for your next business expansion location, and that's a very smart move.

There is no mention of the level of foreign investment and no mention of specific big name firms that are located here. There is a 'Success Stories' section which includes Virtual-Agent Services (which is a great project but has zero brand recognition); OAO Technologies (zero brand recognition); Irving Oil (outside of Maine, what CEO would know Irving? - plus this is not foriegn investment); Aliant (chuckle, foreign investment?); Saeplast (they may be big but would the average CEO in the US know them?); Spielo (locally grown company); etc.

You get the picture. The only brand name on the list that would be recognized by more than 10% of the Fortune 500 CEOs was Xerox.

Now, some would say that you can't turn a skunk into a minx and I realize that the brand name firms that have located in New Brunswick are few and far between but there are a few and I would have used them in my promotional materials. IBM, Xerox, ExxonMobil, GE (Camco), UPS, FedEx, etc. These are all recognizable brands that show a track record of foreign investment here.

What's that you say? All these firms arrived here ten years ago or more?

Ah, but's that's another side of the story.

Stay tuned.

You would think that Al Hogan over at the Times & Trashscript must be on the government payroll the way he fills his 'We Say' editorial pages with glowing reviews of everything the government does. Today's We Say is no exception. Al waxes long and hard about the value that the government is getting from Bristol Communications and that, yes, they are politically connected but so what, Mr Hogan says, the Liberals did it too.

No doubt they did.

Al finishes by saying:

New Brunswickers ought to be happy, not critical, that the province's money is being well-spent on a quality product. And that is the same argument the former Liberal government would have used had anyone objected to which firms it had directed the bulk of its advertising and promotions business.

While Al Hogan is not qualified to determine if Bristol's work represents a 'quality product' he is right when he says that this "is the same argument the former Liberal government would have used had anyone objected to which firms it had directed the bulk of its advertising and promotions business."

It's just that it would have been the Liberals saying that, not the editor of the local newspaper.

Just a 'slight' difference, Al.

Stop the silly bias and buffoonery and start reporting news again, please.

The Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness is taking place in Antigonish this week. The conference is "profiling initiatives around the world that integrate sustainable and equitable economic development with environmental conservation, social and cultural cohesion, and good governance."

Now, I would be the first person to acknowledge that economic measures are not the ultimate measures of a person's or a community's happiness. Happiness or, in Abraham Maslow's words, self-actualization come from a much broader level of mental and spiritual health.

In fact, I read somewhere sometime that the rate of suicide among millionaires is higher than the general public.

But, and with me there always seems to be a but, economic issues are foundational to happiness. If you are starving, you have less time to focus on more important things.

Maslow recognized this in his hierarchy of needs (that Psychology 101 class does come in handy). He realized that the fundamental, or first level of need is related to economics - food and shelter (physical health). Once that is in place, a person works on emotional health which supports mental health which can lead to spiritual health and self-actualization.




As the environmentalists and anit-globalists meet in Antigonish this week, I hope that they keep this stuff in mind because there is a lesson in here for economic development.

I suggest that, loosely speaking, Maslow's hierarchy of needs could be applied to a community's self-actualization. At the first level, we need to a have a strong economic base with a balance of large and small firms offering good paying and positive employment, a climate that fosters entrepreneurs and community leaders committed to ensuring that the economic foundation remains strong.

Once we have that strong economic foundation, and are not distracted by it, we can work on a community's emotional, mental and spiritual health. Don't get me wrong this is not a literal or linear thing. The idea here is about the interplay between physical needs and spiritual needs. Sort of like the Preacher trying to save a poor person's soul while neglecting the fact they are starving.

If we let our traditional industries die.
If we do not stimulate new economic development.
If our rural communities continue to shrink.
If 140,000 New Brunswickers remain on EI and welfare.
If we remain the second least educated province/state in North America.
If we continue to have among the lowest income levels in North America.

...then the road to self-actualization at the community level is more difficult.

A young person wrote a letter to the editor of the Telegraph Journal this week with an ambitious defense of the current government's strategy for economic development. He stated in his letter that "New Brunswick's economy has never been better". After reading this, I am left asking--like the Professor in C.S. Lewis's The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe--"What are they teaching in schools these days?" If young people like Mr. White (although his writings in The Brunswickan indicate he is most likely an dewey eyed, pimply Conservative dragon slayer) can't see what is right in front of them, who can? The youth tend to be the most critical of institutions and of having the wool pulled over their eyes but Mr. White's analysis sounds like a cut and paste from a government press release.

Mr. White goes on to say:

Unlike Mr. Graham, I want to live in a province that rewards hard work, perseverance and determination and where people look to create a job instead of feeling entitled to a job. I want to live in a province where the last spot people look for help is the government. Finally, I want to live in a province where it is expected that children will grow up and work in the communities and cities where they were raised and not feel like they have to leave to find success and prosperity.

Now the overtly Young PC-schtik spewed forth by Mr. White actually makes sense. But when you have a government that drops economic development to the bottom of the priority list, how exactly does he think we will get over this dependency on government? How does he think people will be able to live and wo