In a TJ article today: Stéphane Robichaud requires few words when asked about the future of health care in New Brunswick. Stéphane Robichaud, CEO of the New Brunswick Health Council, says most people are unaware of troubling statistics that show…
Continue ReadingOil sands services outsourcing: An opportunity?
From this article in the G&M today: Finance, engineering, maintenance planning, human resources and supply chain work could be moved from Fort McMurray …. “We estimate that 40 to 60 per cent of all job titles and all work could…
Continue ReadingMusing on growth sectors
I’m out of the province for a few days but I will have a longer than usual column in the TJ five times this week. I am looking at five potential growth sectors – some known, some experimental and at…
Continue ReadingMeasuring success in economic development
I read an interesting article the other day in the New York Times about minor hockey in Minnesota and its new approach to reducing fighting and bad behaviour in the sport. At one point the state was known for its…
Continue ReadingCuriosity killed the cat…. …but grew the economy
I see that Lymbix’s relatively simple idea made the NY Time’s list of big ideas. ToneCheck, an e-mail-outbox filter that works as a sort of emotional spell-check, offers typists a chance to reconsider their words before hitting “send.” How many…
Continue ReadingThe education of Mr. Campbell
It’s been a week of education for me. Over the past seven days I must have talked to a couple of dozen people offering insight into a wide variety of economic development and related topics such as: LJR’s bringing in…
Continue ReadingSingle regulator not the point in New Brunswick
Pierre Lortie made a compelling case yesterday in Fredericton to keep the current system of provincial regulators and not move to a single national securities regulator as advocated by the current federal finance minister. The room was packed with people…
Continue ReadingIs small beautiful?
My column today is on using our size as an advantage. There are two schools of thought on this. One, small jurisdictions can’t really compete with large ones at any level so unless you strike oil, just accept your destiny. …
Continue ReadingA new tactic
My old friend Peter Lindfield has a new tactic to tray and get people interested in economic development. In his column today, he talks about how we need to be more globally connected and touches on the issue of the…
Continue ReadingIn defence of the Irish miracle
A number of people have insinuated that the problems in Ireland have something to do with the large scale foreign direct investment that has poured into that country over the past 25 years. The Irish miracle was driven by the…
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