There hasn’t been a lot of foreign direct investment into Atlantic Canada from the United Kingdom. It seems there is not a lot of trade either.
“Sadly, we are aware of only 14 businesses from Atlantic Canada operating in the United Kingdom, and we understand only six of those are from Nova Scotia,” Mr. Armour [Nicholas Armour, director for U.K. Trade and Investment in Canada] said in an interview in Halifax.
They article states that about 700 Canadians companies operate in the U.K. 14 from Atl. Canada.
Giddyup.
However, British interest in Eastern Canada remains sluggish, which is puzzling, he [Armour] said, since trade routes and links are easy to establish, often even easier than relocating to another Canadian jurisdiction.
Trade routes and links may be easy but I would be curious to find out how many man years of effort New Brunswick has put in the U.K. market over the past 10 years. Me thinks it would be days not weeks. I suspect that Nova Scotia has put a similar effort in the U.K.
Somehow we’ve got to get some focus and put some serious investment into economic development.