One of the largest American call centre outsourcers announced last week it was closing its Truro facility – just about the time the company’s payroll rebate scheme ran out prompting some – including a Minister in the government to suggest the…
Continue ReadingCirtwell should check his facts
Have you ever noticed that some people see what they want to see? Check out Charles Cirtwell’s interview in the TJ today. Much of what he says I agree with – particularly about New Brunswick not being a basketcase. But…
Continue ReadingTelecom wars
I don’t know if you have been following it but the idea of letting more foreign investment into Canada’s telecom industry is a major battle right now – probably second in terms of intensity to the move towards a single…
Continue ReadingPoll-y-anna
As a guy who does a pile of research and data crunching, one of the things I am most fascinated and puzzled by are public opinion polls (and all polls for that matter). The latest CRA poll finds the economy…
Continue ReadingHard habit to break
Was it Chicago that used to sing “you’re a hard habit to break”? We have a new political party in New Brunswick and their economic development policies sound (and act) just like the other two parties. The People’s Alliance of…
Continue Reading1960
I spent some time last night going through the Statistics Canada Year Book for 1960 and comparing some of the data to 2010. It’s my parents 50th wedding anniversary and I thought it would be interesting to look at the…
Continue ReadingSetting the bar quite low
Minister Arsenault is quoted in the government press release saying he is encouraged by the latest labour force survey data. I realize this is likely a boilerplate term but he is encouraged by this: Employment Growth Rate – May 2009…
Continue ReadingA curious anomoly
Apparently NB SMEs are very confident about their economic prospects. The CFIB is reporting that SMEs here have high levels of confident and growing while in Nova Scotia there is a low level of confidence and it is declining. The…
Continue ReadingAtlantic cooperation unlikely
My old friend Peter Lindfield lays down some options for streamlining government service delivery in his column today ranging from program redesign to Atlantic cooperation to outsourcing. I am not particularly knowledgeable about two of the three but I do…
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