Monthly Archives: June 2011

My father-in-law went to a reception yesterday with Minister Ed Fast, Canada’s Minister of International Trade.  Apparently there is a big trade mission from Canada going on right now here in Brazil.  Brazil is a growing market there is no … Continue reading →

In my favourite movie, Casablanca, Rick tells Ilsa that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this world (or something similar).  In the less famous Hot Shots, Charlie Sheen says “but this is … Continue reading →

I promise I am not going to turn this blog into cheer leading for shale gas development.  However, it is a potentially important industry and the question that those for and against need to answer is “why not New Brunswick”. … Continue reading →

It’s kind of funny.  Minister Leonard makes an impassioned defence of NB Power in this opinion piece today positioning the company as a paragon of fiscal management.    He never mentions the stranded debt.  Never mentions the industrial power rate … Continue reading →

The family and I are here for our now bi-annual pilgrmage to see my in-laws in Brazil.   I was here two years ago but in that short time the country had a significant growth spurt and significant foreign investment flowed … Continue reading →

I have made six different public presentations related to economic development in the past two weeks.  I am starting to feel a little bit like a travelling salesman.  I have my pitch lines down and I inject a little rah, … Continue reading →

One of the interesting discussion threads yesterday at the Social Policy Research Network forum (at least in the groups I was in) was this issue of size.    Dr. Haan made the case that he can’t see much correlation between … Continue reading →

I got to see Dr. Michael Haan’s demographics presentation last night for the first time.  Haan is the Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Population and Social Policy at UNB. His stuff is sobering and clearly shows the impact of out-migration … Continue reading →

One of my first and most profound memories as a young government employee in the early 1990s was one where we were trying to determine the ‘available’ workforce in the province.  Essentially, we wanted to determine how many people would … Continue reading →

Jack Mintz is spoiling for a fight with the CFIB. Providing low taxes and other support for small business has been public policy across Canada for years. Mintz is now suggesting that low small business taxes may be bad for … Continue reading →