There is nothing more incendiary than discussions of government subsidies to industry so I feel compelled to point out (again) that NB is not a big doler out of subsidy monies compared to the rest of Canada. The following chart…
Continue ReadingMeasuring success in economic development
I write a lot. Three to four columns a week. At least that many blogs and in my day job I am always writing. As a result people have a lot of opportunity to read my stuff and read into…
Continue ReadingGetting beyond age bias
I received an interesting comment that I thought I would share with you regarding my recent column in the TJ on aging. I talk about leveraging the deep knowledge and skills built up over a lifetime by older New…
Continue ReadingHow to Frack Responsibly: Joe Nocera
You should read Joe Nocera’s column in the NYT today about fracking. He begins it with “Fracking isn’t going away” and then goes on to describe the economic benefits of the fuel. He says “Fracking’s enemies can stamp their feet…
Continue ReadingAvoiding red herrings in economic development
Let me say right up front that Michael Tutton’s Canadian Press article on BNB’s bad loans was an important contribution. I have said that governments should be ultra-transparent about economic development spending. Instead of waiting for intrepid journalists to find…
Continue ReadingHaan’s new data on the Census
Dr. Michael Haan has been cranking out new data on the Census. He sent me the following charts. The first two are from the 2006 Census (the 2011 data on this will not be out for months).…
Continue ReadingBlink: The power of snap judgements
Someone tweeted today that New Brunswick was named world’s best place for mining and – in a split second – I groaned. That’s the world we live in. If the province was named the best place for IT or finance…
Continue ReadingThe Higgs doctrine
This MRI controversy in Saint John is a small but instructive example of what is coming. I guess people have short memories so I will point out again that McKenna kept program expenditure growth at an average of 1 percent…
Continue ReadingImmigration distribution in Canada is rapidly changing
It is pretty impressive the change in the destination of immigrants in the past few years. From 1991 to 2006, Ontario attracted 54.5 percent of all immigrants into Canada (using Census data). In the most recent year that is down…
Continue ReadingWhat happened in the 1950?
I have been thinking and reading about this for many months and I just think something happened in New Brunswick after WW2 and early into the 1950s that was very interesting. Peter Lindfield reminded me of this in his TJ…
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