I am a big believer in a return on investment approach to economic development. I don’t know how else we can justify spending tax payer dollars in this area unless it can be shown to provide a return on that…
Continue ReadingFrench immersion: redux
I still think we haven’t had the proper discussion about french immersion in the schools and about bilingualism in general. For the past 40 years or so, bilingualism in New Brunswick has meant a serious effort to ensure there are…
Continue ReadingThat tricky wage thing
You know me. I love to stir the pot a bit. The following table (taken from Stats Can) shows the average annual employment income (from the 2006 Census) for three jobs: general doctors, senior government managers and everyone. These figures are…
Continue ReadingNew journalism
Jacques Poitras over at the CBC has brought political journalism in New Brunswick into real time. He live tweets (twitters?) from the Legislature when it is sitting. The Spin Reduxit blog is also a reflective look at the politics of…
Continue ReadingMoncton on YouTube
In my opinion this is a pretty impressive powerpoint presentation/video on Greater Moncton’s evolution over the past 15-20 years. Have a look.
Continue ReadingOpposition needs to come up with new ideas
I’m a big believer in the importance of a strong opposition in the Legislature to provide oversight and keep the governing power on its toes. I had hoped that once the NB Tories elected their new leader, we would see…
Continue ReadingGetting beyond the zero sum game
I have been talking to a lot of people lately about a project I am working on and there seems to be a consistent theme. Just about everyone views economic development as a type of zero-sum game where in order…
Continue ReadingPurgatory for Mulroney
It’s not related to economic development – or is it? I guess the Airbus affair was an economic development file – Mulroney says the secret bank account named ‘Breton’ was because the project was slated for Cape Breton. Anyway I…
Continue ReadingBig box economic development
You know I am not a big fan of retail as an economic development driver. I think it is a necessary sector but you can’t replace a pulp mill with a retail store. That is why this quote caught my…
Continue ReadingNo ‘Metro Fredericton’ for a while yet
I remember posting on this a while back. I said that becoming a CMA is based on a technical formula and has nothing to do with lobbying or ‘proposals’. At the time, I remember being criticized about this but it…
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