I know, king of statistics and all that jazz. But this one matters. A lot. We need to attract more people to New Brunswick but the best data source on who is coming and staying, the Census, doesn’t paint a…
Continue ReadingIt’s time for a charm offensive. Calling Terry O’Reilly, Part 2
It’s not like we haven’t had disagreement on public policy in New Brunswick over the past 150+ years. In Richard Wilbur’s annual review of the New Brunswick between 1960 and 2006, he uses the word ‘protest’ 115 times or an…
Continue ReadingBulletproofing your economic development organization
I have worked with over 60+ economic development organizations over the past decade and I would say the majority of them have faced serious questions about why they exist and if they are adding any value – if they are…
Continue ReadingAlbert County: The spark that started a 170 year global economic renaissance?
There is a fascinating story in the Times & Transcript this weekend about Albert County and its role as the “birthplace of the petroleum industry”. He is making his pitch and getting traction. The Petroleum History Institute is “making a…
Continue ReadingWill Atlantic Canada finally become a hotbed for IT?
I still remember a speech given by former PM Jean Chrétien in the mid 1990s talking about the promise of the information technology (IT) sector. He said that unlike manufacturing or transportation or even other services that are based on…
Continue ReadingYou want to retain population? Restrict immigration. Warning, this will come with a cost.
There is a lot of focus these days on immigrant retention. We have a new source of data, Medicare cards, to help us track the flow of new immigrant populations within Canada. In fact, population retention – not just immigrants…
Continue ReadingAre we losing the art of persuasion?
I love Terry O’Reilly’s CBC show, Under the Influence, but a much preferred his earlier title for the show “The Age of Persuasion”. In our modern times, influence is a much more pejorative term than persuasion. When I am…
Continue ReadingMake no mistake, the Boomers are critical to our future
One of the interesting aspects of the iconic TV series Mad Men is its portrayal of age in the 1960s. When looking to position the ad agency as youthful, Duck Phillips decres how old the core team is (average age…
Continue ReadingSeeking a rural and small town entrepreneurial renaissance
I only knew Zita Cobb by reputation until I was asked to sit on a panel discussion related to productivity for the Public Policy Forum in Halifax recently. Zita was sitting to my left and after I gave what I…
Continue ReadingThe kids (and most of the adults) are all right: Thoughts from my whistle-stop tour of the Maritimes
I just completed a seven week period that included 12 public speaking engagements in all three Maritime Provinces (not including presentations of client work). I talked with industry groups including construction and forestry, spoke about immigration, labour markets, productivity and…
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