For the past at least five years – more like ten – people have been talking about getting immigration in Canada to be more dispersed into places like New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. But little has been done – New Brunswick’s…
Continue ReadingTouché
From a Chronicle-Herald story: Farms Ontario, a non-profit organization helping farmers in that province and the Maritimes hire foreign workers, says there will be 14 Nova Scotia farms relying on outside help this year, up from three in 1998. The…
Continue ReadingVirtual-Agent Services to create 50 jobs in Stanley
Election fever. Three jobs announcements in two days. There haven’t been that many in the last two months. An Illinois-based provider of contact-centre solutions, Virtual-Agent Services (VAS), has established its 16th New Brunswick customer contact centre in the Village of…
Continue ReadingExports should be an election issue
There are two reasons why exports should be an election issue: 1) Because when you exclude the Irving refinery, total exports are down by $800 million from 2000 to 2005. This translates into thousands of lost – mostly rural and…
Continue ReadingKeep an eye on this
Keep an eye on this. Lest you mistake my intent, I have never said we need to exclusively focus on attracting foreign investment. I think that is a key component but my real focus in on attracting our share of…
Continue ReadingGood news for government on industrial R&D expenditures
The latest data on industrial R&D is out and New Brunswick’s amount increased to $76 million compared to $62 million last year. Since 1999, total industrial R&D spending has doubled – the best growth rate in Atlantic Canada. But there…
Continue ReadingKeep the faith (once we get it)
Just a quick reminder, fundamental economic change takes a time. But you have to start at some point. Time Magazine cover of July 12, 1963, following the State visit of US President John F. Kennedy to Ireland – – Sean…
Continue ReadingLabour shortages – cause and effect
The government loves to talk about the ‘lowest unemployment rate in 30 years’ and beam from ear to ear about how this proves the success of their economic program. The reality is that the mix of high out-migration, seasonal employment,…
Continue ReadingHere’s an interesting story in the Edmonton Journal called: Tories get Liberal on contracts You can imagine the story without reading it. However, for your edification here are a few quotes and my comments (as usual): Stephen Harper and Tom…
Continue ReadingLearning from Boise, Idaho
Couple of things interesting in this article: The Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce raised $5 million from local businesses to recruit industry to that city. Now, the implications of this are fairly obvious. Boise has a population of 190,117 people…
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