I just wanted to make a quick point this morning about economic impact. This stems from a conversation I had a few weeks ago with someone that owned a company in the proivnce. They were talking about how a specific…
Continue ReadingI heart Norway
From th TJ this morning: Executives revealed Thursday the company plans to spend $700 million on a facility with the capacity to produce an annual output of 5,000 tonnes of polycrystalline silicon – a base material used to make solar…
Continue ReadingMaine and green energy
I know very little about the mechanics or even the business model for most of these novel green energy ideas but this one looks interesting. Riverbank Power; a new start-up founded by a former wind developer who wants to develop…
Continue ReadingBig fish/small fish
It’s a slow news day so I thought I’d serve up a few statistics for your edification. The data below is based on Statistics Canada’s Canadian Business Patterns which keeps track of the number and size of businesses in over…
Continue ReadingTax relief in a dangerous time
The Moody’s briefing on New Brunswick (read the brief here and the TJ article here) gave three reasons for the province’s weak near term revenue outlook: the recession, the tax cuts and what they term as risks associated with the…
Continue ReadingWhat is Equalization?
We have dicussed this ad nauseum on this blog over the past few years but I still think that it remains a valid question. To some, Equalization is a perfectly legitimate – and if you remember former Premier Lord’s fiery…
Continue ReadingI love the spin. It’s an art form. It really is.
I love government spin. It’s fun: From Bloomberg: New Brunswick had its debt rating cut by one level to Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service Ltd. because the Canadian province will record a “sizable” increase in its borrowing over four years,…
Continue ReadingAn instructive example
Somebody sent me this. Oregon Looks to Clean Tech for Revival The Oregon Business Development Department’s network of about 45 economic-development officials has more than doubled the time spent reaching out to clean-tech companies since 2008, said Bruce Laird, clean-tech…
Continue ReadingWalk down memory lane
The Miramichi Leader is running a series of stories on the area’s history and this one is entitled The timber industry becomes a driving force in the Miramichi (19th Century). I wonder when historians are writing about this period what will…
Continue ReadingThe ostrich sticks his head out of the sand for a pronouncement
There is an article today in the TJ where a Fredericton businessman worries the “province risks losing its head offices as business leaders look abroad for companies to acquire their firms.” This is not as cut and dry as some…
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