It's The Economy, Stupid

There is a pervasive view that in order for New Brunswick to grow it has to empty  its rural population into its urban centres.  We are too rural and that is the problem we are told. Once again many people…

Good golly, Miss Molly. We heard about an interesting program today.  It’s the U.S. Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).  The mission of EPSCoR is: “to assist the National Science Foundation in its statutory function “to strengthen research…

I have to admit feeling quite blue when I read that SWN is postponing its seismic testing for natural gas until 2016.  I guess we all knew it was coming given the price of gas right now but it is…

I like ACOA and I, in fact, do work occasionally for the agency and find the people very professional.  I hope I will continue to do work for the organization in the future. But I think they are treating the CEDAs badly…

I’m in Boston all week on a course looking at innovation as an economic development driver.  I haven’t formally taken courses in a few years and I felt now was a good time and this was an important subject. However,…

It’s interesting to see the animals moving into New Brunswick.  The wild turkey population is reaching a level that there is interest in starting a hunting season.  A few weeks ago, a cougar was caught in a trap near Sussex…

I want to clear up an important statistic.  People are now widely using the 110,000 figure to talk about the number of NBers who collect Employment Insurance each year.  That is the correct number but there are two points to…

My TJ column tomorrow discusses the fact that New Brunswick has pervasive broadband Internet ‘access’ (i.e. availability) but the lowest percentage of households ‘accessing’ it.  If you strip out the urban areas of Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John, the percentage…

I have been thinking a lot lately about the limits to migration.  With the revelation that the federal government has been asking Atlantic Canadians what it would take to get them to move out of their communities to where the…

I’ve never been a big fan of the retail sector as an economic development focus.  I was reminded of this fact after reading this article discuss the great length communities are going to in their desire to attract Apple Stores.  …