Canada’s Defence Minister, Harjit Sajjan, got this one right. On Saturday, Canada’s grumpy coach/commentator Don Cherry, lamented the lack of people wearing poppies and went on to make a snarky comment about immigrants. Of course this led to the now…
Continue ReadingThe reasons people leave their jobs: You might be surprised
In preparation for the big workforce summit next week I have been crunching a ton of labour force data. If you haven’t registered for the summit, I think it is closed but you might try to find a way as…
Continue ReadingNB government’s economic dashboard: A good first step
The New Brunswick government’s Economic Dashboard is nice – it covers a lot of interesting data points. I hope it sticks. The Lord government also published an economic scorecard that was supposed to be a report card on the economy…
Continue ReadingPutting the ‘season’ in seasonal employment
I was chatting with a colleague recently about seasonal industries and the seasonal workforce in New Brunswick. There are various data sources for this. We can use the unadjusted Labour Force Survey data to compare the highest employment month to…
Continue ReadingExporting professional services: An important way to boost exports and economic growth
When most people think of exports, lobsters, French Fries and 2X4s come to mind. But we can’t forget about services-based exports as they are becoming a much more important part of the export picture. Services exports range from hotel accommodations…
Continue ReadingShould we ease up a bit on the criticism of the JOI investment?
I was a bit taken aback by all the outrage over the New Brunswick government’s investment in JOI Scientific. The company was developing a green energy technology. Now I have no insight into the technology and no particular comment on…
Continue ReadingThe battle for the soul of capitalism
The debate about capitalism has been continuous since the days of Adam Smith but every few decades it comes to a head. In the late 19th Century, capitalists like Carnegie argued they needed protection from British companies to create home…
Continue ReadingPlanting the seeds of economic development
There is an excellent article in the Economist this week about the forestry industry in Finland. It includes interesting stories about the use of technology in the sector (driverless harvesting machines managed by mobile-phone apps), sustainability (they plant 20% more…
Continue ReadingEconomic Development: Seeking small but sweet opportunities
One of my main preoccupations these days is the need for communities and governments to ‘think small’ when it comes to economic development planning. From proactively attracting tourism operators to developing language industries, I think we could have several hundred…
Continue ReadingImmigration: A fact-based conversation
After we presented the new immigration strategy to Moncton Council earlier this week I received several messages and emails from folks around the region and beyond. Their questions revolved basically around three issues: 1) Why do we need more immigrants…
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