The employment data for July has been published by Statistics Canada. New Brunswick dropped 3,200 jobs in July compared to June. On the whole, year over year, the total employed population growth in New Brunswick is similar to the national…
Continue ReadingBernie Graham/Shawn Lord
I had to chuckle when I read the T&T this morning. Here’s a pertinent quote: “…..enough snippets of information had dribbled out by the end of the working day to suggest New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham is building a reputation…
Continue ReadingCome clean on Venezuela
As evidenced by my multiple posts on this issue, I am not at all happy with this whole Orimulsion resolution. I might be – if we had been given the whole picture – but with all the fog around this,…
Continue ReadingIf studying equated results
I read this morning in the T&T that the Miramichi is about to announce a committee to “to tackle Miramichi’s economic woes”. I wonder if these exercises are meant to be an end in and of themselves. After all, the…
Continue ReadingAh, Quebec. You have to hand it to them. While New Brunswick diddles around trying to attract feature films with a squirt gun, Quebec brings a bazooka. The Societe generale de financement du Quebec (SGF), the provincial government’s investment arm,…
Continue ReadingHow not to use language to your advantage
I came across an article saying that a community was “serious about welcoming businesses” because it put a Google translation button on its web site. Here’s the comment: The east central Indiana economic development organization Energize-ECI, Inc. is launching a…
Continue ReadingLord of the flies
Before I get to that, it seems that at least one person shares my lack of enthusiasm for the recent Orimulsion settlement. In case you can’t read the link, T&T columnist John Steeves has a piece in today called “No…
Continue ReadingYour chuckle of the day
Someone posted here a few weeks ago that the government does not ‘do economic development’. He/she said that the private sector ‘creates jobs’. Tee hee hee. There’s a Globe story today about the $1 billion+ worth of regional industrial benefits…
Continue ReadingIggy learns a lesson
Michael Ignatieff has an op-ed in the NY Times this weekend – picked up by the Globe & Mail. One thing about Iggy, he certainly seems to be better in print than ‘live’. The piece in the NYTimes as about…
Continue ReadingVindication, sort of
Despite all the confusing double speak, I suspect Bernard Lord feels sort of vindicated by the deal NB Power struck with Venezuela. I was very critical of this thing when it happened and after reading the government press release, I…
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