One of my first and most profound memories as a young government employee in the early 1990s was one where we were trying to determine the ‘available’ workforce in the province. Essentially, we wanted to determine how many people would…
Continue ReadingJack Mintz is spoiling for a fight with the CFIB
Jack Mintz is spoiling for a fight with the CFIB. Providing low taxes and other support for small business has been public policy across Canada for years. Mintz is now suggesting that low small business taxes may be bad for…
Continue ReadingMeasuring economic activity in NB: A different perspective
There is a core inflation rate as well as a regular inflation rate. The core inflation rate excludes such things as energy and food which are considered to be highly volatile. I think New Brunswick needs to apply this thinking…
Continue ReadingRedefining ‘major’ projects
What a difference a few years can make. The provincial government and APEC both published lists of ‘major’ projects underway (or with potential in the case of APEC) in the last week or so and I have never seen such…
Continue ReadingEnergy for economic growth
My column this morning laments the fact that our energy providers/regulators don’t seem to put much emphasis on economic development. I particularly am concerned when both Enbridge and NB Power are not forecasting any new large industrial clients well into…
Continue ReadingEnergy prices and economic development
Not that I want to raise this issue, again, but I listened to the Spin Reduxit podcast for this week and wanted to make a little clarification as is my wont. Let me say first, however; that I hope the…
Continue ReadingNBers prefer ATVs to video gaming
I was involved in a very interesting conference yesterday discussing the forestry industry in New Brunswick and one of the points in my presentation was that New Brunswickers are using the forest for recreation more than most other provinces. I…
Continue ReadingApache backs out
It’s hard to know the real reason why Apache has decided not to proceed with its shale gas joint venture with Corridor. You would need a phd in geology to understand the language in the press release. Corridor doesn’t…
Continue ReadingEnergy subterfuge – a lesson in strange language
I’m told the Energy Minister, Craig Leonard, is one of the brightest lights in the Alward Cabinet. The strange, almost weird, language used in this article makes me wonder. It is possible the journalist misquoted him or the words got…
Continue ReadingIs everyone in New Brunswick on Facebook?
This guy says that 418,700 New Brunswickers are on Facebook. I will be interested to see his methodology when the report comes out. There are about 750,000 New Brunswickers but 73,000 of them are nine years old and under.…
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