I have always thought that Equalization was holding back the economic development potential of New Brunswick. I believe the same thing about EI. It’s easier for the feds to cut a cheque than it is to work with the province…
Continue ReadingClarifying have and have not city calculations
Just a few quick points in response to several emails I received on my latest G&M post. First, here is the full table of all CMA and CA areas for the reliance on government transfer income and average income tax…
Continue ReadingShale gas as a source of university revenue
I talked with someone recently that visited the UT and saw this one pad natural gas well site and was told it generated significant revenue for the university. This is from a recent article on the project: “Since wells…
Continue ReadingElliot Lake Ontario Versus Wood Buffalo, Alberta
My upcoming column in the Economy Lab looks at reliance on government transfer income (i.e. CPP, OAS, EI, social assistance, etc.) and income taxes generated to come up with communities that are ‘have’ (i.e. contributing more but taking out less)…
Continue ReadingLooking at New Brunswick’s collective ‘paycheque’
I have been writing lately about how New Brunswickers are far more reliant on government than ever before but it seems more and more are tuning out or becoming increasing cynical. Certainly we are more reliant on government as a…
Continue ReadingDeconstructing the sources of economic growth
In my TJ column tomorrow I will be taking another stab at the question I am frequently confronted with – why does the government attract multinational firms when the focus should be on New Brunswick small businesses. This has been…
Continue ReadingNB Power – the new NBTel?
I got an email yesterday from someone close to the NB Power deal with Siemens telling me that this had the potential to be NBTel-like in that it would lead to a number of New Brunswick IT firms building products…
Continue ReadingIntegrating new graduate and professional immigrants
Got a few questions relating to immigrants who graduate from our universities/colleges and would like to pursue their careers in New Brunswick. I’ll put forward a few thoughts on this. If you think about it, networks matter – informal and…
Continue ReadingIntellectual laziness and public policy
We live in an age of unprecedented access to information, decision support tools and expert opinion. When I started in my career more than 20 years ago, I had to get Statistics Canada data by going to the UNB…
Continue ReadingWhere will the EI changes have the greatest impact?
Where will the EI changes have the greatest impact? The Mowat Centre has been writing op/eds and analysis insinuating the impact will be greatest in Western Canada but if you read carefully – they say at the ‘individual’ level. I…
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