Daulton McGuinty was on CBC’s The House today and asking for a fair deal from the feds on green energy support. He argued that if the feds were getting in on the NL-NS Muskrat Falls project, they should be helping…
Continue ReadingLearning from the Show Me State
Missouri has a new economic development strategy. I am particularly interested when states such as Missouri go through this type of exercise because they have a tough time differentiating themselves in the pack of U.S. states (sound familiar?). While…
Continue ReadingElection realities
I see that New Brunswickers are bothered by being ignored in the federal election campaign. If you look at the riding by riding numbers it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. There are only three ridings where…
Continue ReadingBetrayed by Confederation?
Someone asked me to comment on the front page story over the weekend about the New Brunswick government assertion that it was strong armed into Confederation back in 1867 and its economic interests have been subject to the focus on…
Continue ReadingGet your It’s the economy, stupid teeshirts
A long time reader/commenter on this blog sent me this teeshirt. I have been writing this blog for over eight years and closing in on 3,000 posts and have never thought about merchandising. But this looks good to me…
Continue ReadingImmigration: Inching ahead
I wonder how immigration to New Brunswick was received in previous times of above average inflows? Maybe some historian could provide insight. We had a small wave of European immigration in the 1970s. I believe there was another after…
Continue ReadingWhy is Newfoundland different?
Someone asked me why I exclude Newfoundland and Labrador from this piece on the demographic crisis. The answer is…. oil. It is true that the demographic crisis in NL is just as bad if not worse than the Maritime Provinces…
Continue ReadingMy last word on the movies
Okay folks. I don’t particularly like to be positioned as someone who is ‘against’ the movie biz in New Brunswick. There were two reasons why I said the industry was not particularly strong from an economic development perspective. First, it is highly subsidized…
Continue ReadingWelcome to New Brunswick, Salesforce.com
One thing is certain. The film and TV production industry may be small but it has amazing heft for its size. The entire film and TV production industry in New Brunswick represents 0.048 percent of the GDP but I have…
Continue ReadingThere’s no business like show business?
I’m not going to make many friends with my column today agreeing with the province’s decision to scrap the film labour tax credit. To me this is another in a long line of industries where New Brunswick has made…
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