I wanted to follow up on three comments I received after my TJ column on Saturday about entrepreneurship including a guy who wrote me a thoughtful letter on the subject. The three issues were: 1) Government should give its grant…
Continue ReadingDon’t be passive on Energy East Pipeline
According to the economic impact statement prepared for the proposed the Energy East Pipeline, it is supposed to generate $1.2 billion worth of GDP in New Brunswick and create 11,000 jobs. This type of economic impact assessment is based on Statistics…
Continue ReadingWill fed immigration policy stymie NB growth potential?
Jason Kenney, a man for whom I have considerable respect as he almost singlehandedly rebuilt the Tory profile within Canada’s immigrant community, was tweeting gleefully away from his visit to Saskatchewan this weekend. He tweets were filled with warnings about the shortage…
Continue ReadingThe art of decoupling: NB edition
Some people seem to have a hard time differentiating between national and global issues and New Brunswick-specific issues. I say we need a moderate level of GDP and population growth to stabilize our fiscal situation and ensure we have the…
Continue ReadingImmigration and the end of the NB slump
From my TJ column on Wednesday and by popular demand: New Brunswick needs new sources of economic growth. I contend that expanding immigration could be an important source of much needed new economic activity. However, I am told the federal…
Continue ReadingProfs on strike: A nice dilemma
You may or may not be surprised to know that at least a half dozen people have asked me to comment on the UNB strike. I have resisted because a) I know a pile of profs and may not be…
Continue ReadingMoncton 2030: Drones, driverless trucks and political primacy
One of the things that was missing from the 2014 Economic Summit compared to 1994’s version was the lack of futurist/future thinking. That was deliberate as the goals of the summit were to rally the stakeholders around a shared model…
Continue ReadingTrevor MacAusland: Right place, right time?
The Economist magazine has an excellent primer this week on the start-up revolution and why this time is different from the Dot.Com boom of the late 199os. One of the articles is on the importance of accelerators – a space in…
Continue ReadingConfessions of a proud herring choker
My mother tells me her uncle used to make fun of New Brunswickers. He was from Nova Scotia and was a ‘bluenoser’ while New Brunswickers were ‘herring chokers’ (pronounced ‘heron chokers’). I googled this term and sure enough, my great…
Continue ReadingDeeper dive need: Growth from within
At the Greater Moncton Economic Summit a number of speakers reiterated the now well worn refrain about “growth from within”. “Eighty percent of all new jobs come from within and not by attracting industry”. This or some variance is widely…
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