The Premier’s new chief of staff is talking economic development as his number one priority so I’ll give him the same tip I gave the PCs when they came into office and the same tip I gave the Liberals and…
Continue ReadingLearning from the Scots
From a recent column in the TJ: There was an excellent article in the Economist magazine this week discussing Scotland’s efforts to attract business investment and create jobs by luring multinational firms. While most inward investment into the United Kingdom…
Continue ReadingProfits, markets and a thoughtful vacation
Greed twists eternal in the human breast But the market has no brain It doesn’t love it’s not God All it knows is the price of lunch -Bruce Cockburn, You’ve Never Seen Everything (2003) Somewhat unintentionally, my visit to Brazil…
Continue ReadingSometimes a kiss is just a kiss, a profit is just a profit
I received a couple of interesting emails about my column last Saturday where I made the case that New Brunswick should be a place where companies can make a profit and that we should take it seriously when whole industries…
Continue ReadingPositive unintended consequences of scrapping the Enterprise agencies
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…
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