I have known some high rollers in my day. Folks who rack up some pretty large scale restaurant bills. But there’s a story in the TJ this A.M. that is a little hard to believe. Andre-Marc Allain, the former managing…
Continue ReadingRaison D’être
You want to know why this blog exists? Check out the front page of the ROB section of the Globe on Saturday: No, it’s not about John Baird. It’s my ongoing discomfort and discontent that while Canada is on a…
Continue ReadingAdvice for ED agencies
Okay, this is not a sour grapes piece. Well, come to think of it maybe it is. I want to recommend that economic development agencies that issue RFPs for grand strategies insist that the winning firm have some actual economic…
Continue ReadingAir Canada and Al Hogan
Hate to keep picking on old Al Hogan, but there seems to be so much content. Just heard on Friday that Hogan so cheezed off Air Canada that they won’t be advertising in the T&T anymore. You know, the ads…
Continue ReadingLabour force data
Statistics Canada is out with its latest labour force survey and there is some interesting data in there related to New Brunswick. First, on an annualized basis, the province is estimated to have added almost 5k jobs in 2006 a…
Continue ReadingIt takes one to know one
Reading Jeannot Volpe and Al Hogan this morning, I feel compelled to plagiarize a line from The Breakfast Club. After hearing Brian talk about his dad, Bender says: “I think your old man and my old man should go bowling”…
Continue ReadingTuition rebates, what’s the point?
I know I have blogged on this before but I remain confused about the value of tuition rebates. Manitoba will now offer $25,000 in tax breaks to new university graduates that stay in that province after school (there’s a TJ…
Continue ReadingTJ greasing the mother ship on this one
As scary as it might sound, it seems for once I am going to agree with some of you posters about the positive Irving bias in the TJ, TT and DG. The TJ is running a story this morning called…
Continue ReadingCity of Toronto Act
This is interesting. The City of Toronto Act proclaimed Monday provides Canada’s largest city with broad new powers and significant new legislative freedoms. The act grants a wide range of new powers, including the ability to regulate store openings on…
Continue ReadingLooking for a few good (non-gender specific) men
I posted a blog a few weeks ago postulating that in front of every good economic development program you will have politicians and behind it you will have a few good civil servants. I got some blowback for this position…
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