The TJ is running a story today about the economic self-sufficiency taskforce. Francis McGuire and Gilles Lepage, the former president and chief executive officer of Mouvement des caisses populaires acadiennes have accepted the task of developing a game plan to increase the province’s population, employment, productivity, incomes and economic growth in the next 19 years.
There will be three discussion papers released by the task force, with the first expected Thursday.
The initial document will examine macro-economic issues, what has fundamentally changed in the last 15 years and what he calls the “seven fundamental realities that you have to understand.” The second paper will be more complex and will delve into industry specific recommendations. The final report will deal with issues, such as taxation, federal-provincial relations and cross-sectoral policy.
I used to work for Francis – he’s a good guy to put at the top of this thing.
However, I still have his words ringing in my ears from the early 1990s. He said in a meeting, when he was Deputy Minister, that “we [New Brunswick] can’t compete with Nova Scotia on incentives”.
I hope he thinks we can compete now.