I see the TJ is calling for sin taxes as a way to raise revenue although they roll in pop and chips under this rubric. I am not sure Vachon Cakes should be in the same category as gambling, booze…
Continue ReadingHiggs, Holt and the Looking Glass
Fredericton’s worst kept secret – that the province would not be able to balance its books by the next election – came out today. If you read this blog from the first Tory budget you will see that I said…
Continue ReadingJim Meek and the charge of the light-thinking brigade
Jim Meek has a good editorial in Progress magazine this week. Edgy and more caustic than usual, Meek makes the point that we have to face up to our challenges and not just gloss them over. Progress magazine – in…
Continue ReadingDispatches from the road: Dallas
I am spending a few days in the Dallas-Forth Worth area on vacation with a side objective to check out the development of Barnett shale gas down here. I wasn’t interested in plowing through all the literature on this. My…
Continue ReadingEI and local labour market distortions
My column in the TJ today was on the EI changes and the growing protests. Someone asked me to clarify a few points so here goes. First, one of the main problems with the EI system particularly in rural and…
Continue ReadingFDI through acquisition: The BioVectra example
In the old days (when I was active in the FDI attraction biz), we were 100 percent focused on attracting greenfield investments. In other words, we were trying to attract a firm from somewhere else to establish a manufacturing facility,…
Continue ReadingJobs, jobs, jobs: Redux
My column today in the TJ talked about the potential of wooing NB’s diaspora back to the province to work and build their careers. I wrote it before the latest labour market report showing more declines in the province’s workforce. …
Continue ReadingWords matter: Learning from shale gas
You have probably noticed all the interest in shale gas and related developments in British Columbia. There was concern over a state-owned Malaysian firm offering billions of dollars to buy into a northern BC shale play. Now Chevron wants in…
Continue ReadingImagine New Brunswick as the Learning Province
Two years ago the NB2026 Roundtable identified literacy, education and training – under the rubric of learning – as one of the principal roadblocks to New Brunswick’s development and prosperity and set out to do something about it. A two…
Continue ReadingNow you are cooking with gas
Long before New Brunswickers were using natural gas in their homes (at least this time around – gas was used 100 years ago in Moncton) my father used to intone “now you are cooking with gas” when someone was getting…
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