You will recall my main concern when the province and the feds cut funding for regional economic development agencies. I wasn’t particularly worried about small business access to government financing programs. The Dept. of Economic development put new offices around…
Continue ReadingShale gas semantics
I haven’t written much lately on shale gas for a number of reasons including 1), I am fatigued with the subject and 2) I am disheartened with the quality of the debate. But I will say this. Words matter. Maybe they…
Continue Reading“Firms take the subsidy and then leave when it runs out” Really? No.
For many of you this will sound like a broken record but I feel compelled to respond when after a job announcement someone rolls out the tired “these firms take the big government subsidies and then leave town when the subsidy runs…
Continue ReadingNew Brunswickers versus aliens: Redux
Got a couple of emails about my interview on News 91.9 this am. Not particularly positive ones. Let me just reiterate as it seems some folks here what they want to hear not what was actually said. I understand this is…
Continue ReadingOn Verizon and the level playing field
I see someone has made a parody video of the Bernie Lord campaign to keep Verizon out of Canada. To me this is another example of the difficulty of developing complex public policy in the 140 character world. This is…
Continue ReadingSeeking economic revival
From a recent column in the TJ: Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a little country Baptist church in Upper Blackville a small community located on Route 8 between Doaktown and Blackville along the southwest branch of the Miramichi…
Continue ReadingAccess to workers will be key to economic turnaround
From a recent column in the TJ: They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You could make the same claim about the road to economic prosperity. The federal government’s new clamp down on temporary foreign workers…
Continue ReadingNew Brunswick energy politics 101 (or maybe 701?)
It was pretty amazing to see the widespread support across New Brunswick for the proposed TransCanada Energy East pipeline. The leaders of four of the five main parties were lockstep in support of it – PCs, Libs, NDPs and even the…
Continue ReadingWho wins when there is strong economic growth?
One of the questions I get asked a lot is “who wins when a jurisdiction goes through a period of strong economic growth”? Of course the answer to that varies widely but we can use Statistics Canada data to assess…
Continue ReadingOh Davey boy the pipes, the pipes are calling
The Wood Buffalo-Saint John oil pipeline project announced yesterday is an interesting one. The reaction ranged from a game changer, nation building exercise to an expensive bluff to get Keystone approval. There are two reasons why this is good for the…
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