According to Statistics Canada data, there were 17,100 people at the minimum wage in 2009. As a percentage of total workers, it is lower than the national average but it is up considerably since 2004 (around the time government started…
Continue ReadingLiberals and coherency in economic development policy
I have a lot of respect for guys like Roger Melanson and Chris Collins but I worry that a good Liberal economic development policy is being co-opted by raw realpolitik. While Melanson was out a few days ago with a…
Continue ReadingThe only effective source of innovation is pissed off people
I picked up Tom Peters 2010 book “The Little Big Things” yesterday in Fredericton. We are all products of our environment and history and I was a huge devotee of Tom Peters back in the 1980s and have bought most…
Continue ReadingThe power of collaboration
I have been thinking a lot lately about how jurisdictions proactively foster new growth sectors in an economy. New Brunswick, right now, doesn’t have a lot of sectors that have obvious growth potential. We put a lot of faith in…
Continue ReadingDeconstructing an ‘incentive’ deal in NY
At first glance it looks like the New York government gave up a pile of cash to get 108 Norampac jobs but how much did this deal actually ‘cost’ New York? The company got $60 million in brownfield tax credits,…
Continue ReadingAnother rough month on the jobs front
Another rough month for employment in New Brunswick. Total employment is down almost 2,000 month over month. Full time employment is down by 9,400 from June 2010 to June 2011. That is a big drop. Canada as a whole added…
Continue ReadingDaycare nation: Liberals and the cynical politics of shale gas
Politics in New Brunswick sometimes feels like a daycare. I said here last week the Liberal party would likely call for a moratorium on shale gas drilling just because…. Does everything have to be politicized? I remember when…
Continue ReadingIt’s a small world, afterall
My father-in-law went to a reception yesterday with Minister Ed Fast, Canada’s Minister of International Trade. Apparently there is a big trade mission from Canada going on right now here in Brazil. Brazil is a growing market there is no…
Continue ReadingIt’s our hill and these are our beans
In my favourite movie, Casablanca, Rick tells Ilsa that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this world (or something similar). In the less famous Hot Shots, Charlie Sheen says “but this is…
Continue ReadingSetting the shale gas context
I promise I am not going to turn this blog into cheer leading for shale gas development. However, it is a potentially important industry and the question that those for and against need to answer is “why not New Brunswick”.…
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