As originally published in the Telegraph-Journal (Wednesday this week). The term ‘mad men’ was given to the people involved in the advertising and public relations business back in the 1950s and 1960s because most of the firms were located on…
Continue ReadingFredericton’s Marriott Call Centre: The $150 million mistake?
Invariably, when a call centre closes or cuts its staff I get an email or two decrying the McKenna call centre effort with the usual “big companies come here exploit our people, take our tax dollars (incentives) and then leave”.…
Continue ReadingNB youth need options to stay home
I’m going to start publishing my TJ columns here a few days after they run in the physical paper. Here is the one from Saturday: A few weeks ago three young men from a small town in New…
Continue ReadingNote to Ibby: Which province – Ontario or New Brunswick has benefitted more from the ‘Canadian model’?
John Ibbitson isn’t tiptoeing through the tulips in his column last Sunday. He equates Quebec and the Maritimes (he has dropped Newfoundland from his critique in recent years) to the Mediterranean – “The euro zone could become, in effect, a…
Continue ReadingRow row row your (economic development) boat vigorously down the stream
Someone asked me if there was a subtext to my TJ column this week calling for all of our economic development organizations to get in the boat and start rowing in the same direction. I listed off a few and…
Continue ReadingWhat were they thinking? A global economy?
As I have said before, we all have to deal with our own ideological contradictions. One of the most challenging positions is the one that is dead set against free trade. There is no doubt that free trade has formed…
Continue ReadingUnfortunately, I am not a raving lunatic
There are a few people who are determined to throw me in the camp of the hard right zealots. For example, I got a couple of emails this morning suggesting “what is wrong with the social safety net”? Do…
Continue ReadingA kind of vindication of my view on Equalization?
I have always thought that Equalization was holding back the economic development potential of New Brunswick. I believe the same thing about EI. It’s easier for the feds to cut a cheque than it is to work with the province…
Continue ReadingClarifying have and have not city calculations
Just a few quick points in response to several emails I received on my latest G&M post. First, here is the full table of all CMA and CA areas for the reliance on government transfer income and average income tax…
Continue ReadingShale gas as a source of university revenue
I talked with someone recently that visited the UT and saw this one pad natural gas well site and was told it generated significant revenue for the university. This is from a recent article on the project: “Since wells…
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