Following from my previous blog, I guess that Al Hogan at the Times & Transcript has a different view on the labour market from Statistics Canada. Al’s headline reads N.B. job picture stable while Statistics Canada, the folks who prepare…
Continue ReadingThe monthly Prosperity Plan update
Every month, we get our truest update on the status of the Prosperity Plan (although there were no employment growth targets in the plan per se). Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey for June 2005 provides us with the following insight…
Continue ReadingSpeck versus plank
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye, with never a thought for the great plank in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, “let me take the speck out of your…
Continue ReadingBegin the journey
You have heard the old Chinese saying “A long journey starts with the first step”. This past weekend, I took this literally. My brother and I took our daughters (8 and 9) to climb Mount Katahdin in Maine. Given the…
Continue ReadingWhat did I tell you – ‘Shawnisms’
First Lisa Hrabluk in the Telegraph-Journal and now just a couple of days later Kathy Kaufield writes an entire article in the paper on the ‘village idiot’ – Shawn Graham. Now, remember from my previous blog on this that I…
Continue ReadingImmigration – not a panacea
I fully applaud John Thompson of Enterprise Greater Moncton efforts to attract more immigrants to our community. For too long there has been almost no action on this. In fact, I periodically have heard senior community leaders resist immigration as…
Continue ReadingThose haunting targets
One of the most contentious parts of the Prosperity Plan was the innovation target. The PP said that by 2012, New Brunswick would be in the top four provinces for research and development. At the time of printing the PP,…
Continue ReadingThe threat of the theoretical
Shadow-box, verb1 to fight an imaginary enemy by hitting the air with your hands2 to pretend to argue about or deal with a problem, often to avoid dealing with the most important problem I haven’t been around a long time…
Continue ReadingThe village idiot is an economic developer
Lisa Hrabluk in her weekend column in the TJ serves up probably a very accurate picture of the political landscape in New Brunswick right now. The current Premier, in her words is perceived to be an ‘oafish bully’ that is…
Continue ReadingVive le Québec
I came across an interesting article this week in the Economist magazine. According to the magazine’s Intelligence Unit, Quebec has been the most aggressive province in providing ten-year tax holidays to attract investments in manufacturing, processing and financial services. The…
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