I just read in the T&T about the new jobs coming to Greater Moncton. Good news to be sure but a little correction needs to be made.
Speilo’s ultimate parent company is based in Italy and the T&T would have been much more prudent to mention that fact. A foreign company buys out an NB firm and expands it. That’s a good news antidote to the ongoing complaining about foreign firms like Greenbrier or Hershey which recently announced the shutdown of NS plants.
Another point of interest is that our new government continues to harvest call centre jobs. Since being elected the Liberal government has announced the Rogers call centre, the Teletech call centre in Edmundston and Virtual Agent Services expansions in the province.
While I have no problem per se with call centre jobs (I spent the first eight years of my career attempting to woo them into the province), I think the government would be well served to identify a few different strategic growth sectors (other than tourism) and make some key investments and get them moving (like IT, financial services, etc. in Nova Scotia). The former Tory government relied solely on call centre jobs but I am not sure there is enough gas in that tank for another eight years.
Plus $10-$12/hour jobs will not do much to ‘raise income levels 20%’ or attract immigrants or attract expatriates.
So, despite the glowing commentary in the T&T, I think this is more of a mixed news story from an ED perspective.
For some interesting and potentially good news, check out Fatkat’s blog.
The company’s CEO won another award and recently sent a rep to a gaming conference in Vancouver. The company is looking into expanding into the gaming industry.
That’s a far cry from what they currently do, which means hopefully at least a new skillset for employees or some new ones-and with a good contract a few more interesting jobs.