For some of you, my comments this morning will seem a little schizophrenic but it is really not. I fully support efforts by government to use taxpayer funds (and tax credits) to attract industry to the province if it is…
Continue ReadingThe tax cutter crowd need some perspective
I don’t like to pick on people by name in this blog but I do once in a while to illustrate a point. The point today is that the tax cutter crowd (those who only want government to cut taxes)…
Continue ReadingThe great NDP experiment
Nova Scotia has an NDP Premier with a majority government. Politically it represents a major breakthrough in Atlantic Canada. I’ll be very interested to see how the NDP tackles economic development in Nova Scotia. The political temptation (or at least…
Continue ReadingIt can be done
I’m always on the lookout for interesting economic development examples that may have relevance to us here in New Brunswick. Take the example of Kannapolis, North Carolina. It’s located about 80 kms outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. The City was…
Continue ReadingThere big ideas and then there are big ideas
You can’t say that newspaper columnists are ones to back down. This guy in the Halifax Herald still thinks that electric car manufacturing could go in Nova Scotia. The fact that he never mentioned the federal government in either his…
Continue ReadingOdds and ends
A few interesting stories this morning in the local media. From the TJ, family incomes in New Brunswick increased at the second-worst pace in the country in the decade between 1998 and 2007. New Brunswick’s median income level was the…
Continue ReadingBaby boom?
The TJ has a story today about New Brunswick’s baby boom. New Brunswick came out on the plus side of the life-cycle equation with a total gain of 1,376 new citizens, compared to 421 in P.E.I.; 134 in Nova Scotia…
Continue ReadingYou got to love academics
There is no doubt that university profs/Phds tend to be smarter than the average joes like the rest of us but when it comes to economic development even the profs show some sophomoric tendencies. Consider Université de Moncton economist Pierre-Marcel…
Continue ReadingTiming is everything in economic development
It’s kind of obvious but for a small province like New Brunswick, timing is everything when it comes to economic development. Take the idea of electric car manufacturing. Just 3-4 years ago if New Brunswick had said it wanted to…
Continue ReadingAn Ode to Steve Dempsey
I tip my hat to the outgoing CEO of the GHP in my column today. Whenever someone leaves the top position at an economic development organization like this, I hope to see some sort of public debriefing exercise where the…
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