Norwegian solar company Renewable Energy Corp. plans to build a silicon plant in Quebec, to take advantage of that province’s cheap and abundant electricity. REC, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of silicon and wafers for solar power applications, will…
Continue ReadingEmployment by Industry
This is kind of interesting. The following table shows the change in employment by industry from 2001 to 2006 in New Brunswick (you may have to click to see it better). Overall, the economy added 11,165 employed persons from 2001-2006…
Continue ReadingChickens, eggs and economic development
This kind of thing in my opinion is emblematic of what is wrong with economic development in New Brunswick. This is a CBC story from a couple of days ago: Seven months after the creation of a federal fund directed…
Continue ReadingI don’t want to post another blog about data centres but there is a good article that was sent to me (with some good links) about Iowa’s ability to attract big name data centres. I have posted at least 20-30…
Continue ReadingLight, heat and economic development
This is key to taking advantage of alternative energy from an economic development perspective: State investments of $9 million helped a Germany-based company choose Allegheny County for its first solar mirror production facility in the United States, creating 300 manufacturing…
Continue ReadingNewfoundland Premier Danny Billions
Do you think Danny Williams will be in power in Newfoundland for just about as long as he wants? Hugo Chavez is constitutionally bound to serve only two terms. No such prohibition for Danny. He’ll stay until he gets bored.…
Continue ReadingFreddy to link up with Croatia?
According to the Daily Gleaner, Croatia’s ambassador to Canada hopes that a city from her country can twin up with New Brunswick’s capital. Vesela Korac met with Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside on Tuesday and floated the idea. Korac said her…
Continue ReadingResearch, rail and beet ethanol
Here is a link to my column this morning on the importance of R&D. I take a little swipe at the NBIF in the column – but not really. The NBIF could have never been the ‘cornerstone’ (as former Premier…
Continue ReadingYou can’t manufacture entrepreneurs
If you have ever met this guy, you would agree with me. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, government in Atlantic Canada had the ‘bright’ to encourage unemployed people to start their own businesses and put a number of programs…
Continue ReadingCanada’s top rated smaller cities?
It would be interesting to have some type of benchmarking tool for smaller cities in Canada like the one they have in the U.S. America’s Top-Rated Smaller Cities provides current, comprehensive data on 110 US cities, all top-ranked by Population…
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