It’s been a busy season for economic development-related policy issues but I have been plowed under at work and haven’t allocated much time to blogging and now I am thousands of KMs away in California on a vacation.
What I should be blogging about:
-The federal budget pointed to EI changes to come.
-The provincial budget shows flatlined transfer payments from the feds.
-The province announced changes to the Crown forestry.
-NRC – leaving Freddy and Moncton?
But it’s hard to carve off enough time. So, the lightening round looks like this:
We need to change the EI system but I think the process of change should be driven bottom up and paying particular interest to the places that will be hurt the most. Don’t just impose from on high. How about a Royal Commission that goes into a lot of these small communities and talks about the need for change?
The feds austerity is going to bite – tight transfers, lower direct spending, fed job cuts, cuts to EI, etc. Should have reduced exposures in the good times back in the early mid 2000s.
Not sure I like this new policy of ensuring all sides are pissed off (Crown forestry). Applying the arbitrage principle to public policy is not the way to go.
NRC? I don’t like all the rumours but it really is hard to say without knowing actually what is being proposed.