It’s kind of funny. Minister Leonard makes an impassioned defence of NB Power in this opinion piece today positioning the company as a paragon of fiscal management. He never mentions the stranded debt. Never mentions the industrial power rate…
Continue ReadingDispatches from the road: Sao Paulo
The family and I are here for our now bi-annual pilgrmage to see my in-laws in Brazil. I was here two years ago but in that short time the country had a significant growth spurt and significant foreign investment flowed…
Continue ReadingBirth of a travelling salesman
I have made six different public presentations related to economic development in the past two weeks. I am starting to feel a little bit like a travelling salesman. I have my pitch lines down and I inject a little rah,…
Continue ReadingDoes size matter?
One of the interesting discussion threads yesterday at the Social Policy Research Network forum (at least in the groups I was in) was this issue of size. Dr. Haan made the case that he can’t see much correlation between…
Continue ReadingProfessor Haan: Rock Star
I got to see Dr. Michael Haan’s demographics presentation last night for the first time. Haan is the Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Population and Social Policy at UNB. His stuff is sobering and clearly shows the impact of out-migration…
Continue ReadingAddressing the ‘lost’ generation?
One of my first and most profound memories as a young government employee in the early 1990s was one where we were trying to determine the ‘available’ workforce in the province. Essentially, we wanted to determine how many people would…
Continue ReadingJack Mintz is spoiling for a fight with the CFIB
Jack Mintz is spoiling for a fight with the CFIB. Providing low taxes and other support for small business has been public policy across Canada for years. Mintz is now suggesting that low small business taxes may be bad for…
Continue ReadingMeasuring economic activity in NB: A different perspective
There is a core inflation rate as well as a regular inflation rate. The core inflation rate excludes such things as energy and food which are considered to be highly volatile. I think New Brunswick needs to apply this thinking…
Continue ReadingRedefining ‘major’ projects
What a difference a few years can make. The provincial government and APEC both published lists of ‘major’ projects underway (or with potential in the case of APEC) in the last week or so and I have never seen such…
Continue ReadingEnergy for economic growth
My column this morning laments the fact that our energy providers/regulators don’t seem to put much emphasis on economic development. I particularly am concerned when both Enbridge and NB Power are not forecasting any new large industrial clients well into…
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