After reading Richard Currie talking about New Brunswick as a failing state sucking money from a fed up rich uncle, I figured it was likely time for a bit of a reset. There is nothing wrong with Equalization or efforts…
Continue ReadingSome like their Currie hotter than others
Richard Currie gave a fairly painful speech this week at UNB. His comments are summarized here. He said New Brunswick is a “failing province,” “The rest of Canada has been too indulgent towards it.” “And like all indulged people or…
Continue ReadingAt what point does this become a concern?
Comparing October 2009 to October 2010 total employment is down 7,800 (seasonally adjusted) in New Brunswick. At what point does this become a concern? The only other province in Canada with a declining employment year over year is Nova Scotia…
Continue ReadingNumber crunching fatigue
I have been crunching so much data in the past few weeks and months that I am getting fatigued. It seems to me we have ample evidence from all sides as to the challenges ahead. The following is the percentage…
Continue ReadingHarper the Pragmatic
Say what you will but Stephen Harper has become the ultimate pragmatist. You see it in his dealings with Quebec, and Ontario, and on the stimulus and now with the potash acquisition. The ‘conservative’ is supposed to be a free…
Continue ReadingFinn and politics
An economic development consultant colleague from outside New Brunswick asked me the other day about the Finn report – he had read about it in the paper while in the province. He asked me what the big deal was. 35%…
Continue ReadingAim high, just don’t set expectations too high
There’s an opinion piece in the TJ this morning arguing that “Obama is no Moses” and that maybe expectations were a little too high when he came to office. It seems to me that in this environment, politicians would be…
Continue ReadingWhere are the Gazelles?
I ran into a journalist colleague of mine today who expressed her frustration at what she sees as wannabe entrepreneurs that do own small businesses but haven’t really done anything, in her view, to earn the term ‘entrepreneur’. For her,…
Continue ReadingCliff Claven’s (maybe not so) Useless Fact #37
Did you know that the local, provincial and federal governments have spent an estimated $3 billion on economic development in New Brunswick since the 1999-2000 budget and total corporate income taxes are up by $30 million per year? In the same period,…
Continue ReadingThe lesson of NBTel
I see the retrenchment of NBTel back to a POTS is complete. It took over a decade but after the sale of XWave this week, it is done. At its zenith, NBTel (now BellAliant) was churning out innovative divisions and…
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