There is a guy in New Brunswick, let’s call him the Oracle, who has the ability to sniff out interesting new economic development ideas. Because he works in the ED biz, he probably wouldn’t want me to mention him by name on this blog of ill repute.
However, I will give this shout out to him because he is oracle-ish in his thinking.
For example, he believes that the credit crunch in the United States should open up some very interesting economic development opportunities. For example, the electric car. Tesla Motors in California has had to scale back its expansion plans because of the credit crunch and according to the article, while it “waits on government loans to provide new funding”.
As a side note, wouldn’t it be deliciously funny if a project in New Brunswick accessed some of that new $200 million for the auto sector announced by PM Harper? Obstensibly that is a national fund but practically it is a southern Ontario. Delicious.
So why not swoop in with ‘government loans’ not in greenbacks but in loonies? And maybe there is a private investor in New Brunswick who might get on the bandwagon.
I am not saying this one makes sense but there have got to be some low hanging fruit – interesting companies on the cusp of big things – that could be attracted to New Brunswick.