Maine-NB-NS Trade Corridor Talks
There is a very big challenge coming for New Brunswick.
That challenge will be for New Brunswick to go through what Moncton and surrounding communities went through 20 years ago and that is to understand what's next ....what the next NB economy looks like.
New Brunswick is going to have to re-invent itself.
There are, as my esteemed blogging colleague David Campbell will skillfully tell you, many things to be considered when trying to reposition an economy. I share his fear that we had an election in 2003 and another in 2004 Federally, and not once did any one talk about the future.
the real future, where we have a plan that creates jobs for the future by doing something, planning something right now, while we have a performing economy.
I fear that right now we are not doing what it is going to take to have an economic future of promise in New Brunswick. While I do not want to be negative or alarmist, I have learned some things from my 25 year front row seat on the renovation economy building of Moncton. Planning and executing are 25 year processes.
We need to start with a plan and get some of the basics right.
First, we have to come to the defence of NB Power as a Crown asset and drown any political kittens that come along with any more ideas on how to de-construct our only economic development chip that matters: NB Power. Warts, and debt laden and all it is still our strongest weapon against economic decline- if we but use it correctly as tool and not a club for risk aversion capital appreciation players.
We do not need any more worshipers at the throne of privatization.
Ask Nova Scotians what profit based businesses do with rural power lines that are not revenue producers. They let them fall down in the snow instead of replacing them in advance. They let people go without power because they are the only game and their masters are capital return on investment not an angry politician minister who can't get his phone to sop ringing.
But that's for another time.
As time goes on and I find my voice in this complicated maze of choices and consequences for New Brunswick, I will get in full rant mode, but for now, I want to invite you to come to an important lunch.
It is a place to start thinking in new ways.
Come to the lunch and meet Jack Cashman who is coming here to break bread with the community leadership of Moncton and talk about an extended economic development corridor community.
Cashman is the Economic Development Commissioner for the State of Maine and if there is a State in the Union of the United States that has some of the same problems that we do, they are one of them.
Although Maine, in terms of economic scale, has almost as many companies and employment base as the Maritimes combined, but as sobering as that is; they are still facing the same problems.
Problems such as declining .....or potentially declining local community economy........spread over a State in the same way that New Brunswick is .....in a lock step dance with a potentially declining economic destiny.
I try not to be alarmist or negative, but bright young men and women like David Campbell can see the design in the tea leaves and that design says that our abundant natural resources are a played out currency.
A natural resource extraction and harvesting based currency that has at best 25 more years of prominence and another 35 years of watching a once powerful engine succumb to global ailments and loss of significant concentrations for economical exploitation. Exploitation that pays a union payroll and buys new 4x4s and houses.
There is death rattle in New Brunswick and I am stunned that no one but a few of us hear it.
So, consider the meeting on December 06 as a positive first step in starting the dialogue. There are those who believe that if we were to create an economic corridor from Halifax, to Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, we could potentially compete to be the serious location for mega corps looking for a new place to source their employee base.
Its a theory and it has currency right now and is worth looking at as a possible method of creating locate a plant here buzz.
I hope so, but I have misgivings that bulking up the geography is the answer.
Part of what Local Web is meant to be is a sounding board and a place where ideas get put forward that will start ...not jump start ...but gently nudge us as a Province as to what we have to do next.
If, it is any comfort to my Conservative Party friends who want to defend their idea horsepower in the Premier's Race, I have not yet noticed the political leadership in either Liberals, or in the New Democratic Party that will be needed to chart a new economic course.
The Premier's recent description of his government's priorities and policy concerns for rural New Brunswick sends shivers down my spine, sort of like watching a car on glare ice speeding to an intersection where the ability to act is being reduced by every foot of vanishing distance. Mayhem to ensue.
So we have to start with small steps.
If you have a child of any age, if you own a business, if you have any concern that they are announcing the shut down of industry sectors and not the launch of exciting developments with 50 year trajectories to create new employment, then you should come and join the discussion.
The Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Commission/Enterprise Greater Moncton are hosting this luncheon and the tickets are cheap to cover a meal at the Bo with concerned citizens.
It is hard right now to get anyone to listen, because it is early days yet and the local Greater Moncton economy looks to be okay and in fact the Premier has figures to prove that the employment has never been better. Subtract the Greater Moncton regional retail juggernaut from those numbers, and the employment gauge begins to look more like a quake monitor, and not a growth monitor.
Here's the scoop: Jack Cashman, Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development for the State of Maine coming for lunch.
It's a valuable start.
Date: Monday, December 6, 2004 Registration at 11:45 a.m.
Lunch at 12:15 p.m. Delta Beauséjour Ballroom A
Cost: $28.75 for Chamber members (HST included)
$34.50 for future members (HST included)
$21.25 for students (HST included)
Jack Cashman will be speaking about the need for Maine and New Brunswick to foster economic ties.
Cashman has been involved in public service since graduating from the University of Maine in 1973. He has served 10 years in the Main State House of Representative, chairing the Joint Standing Legislative Committee on Taxation. He has also worked as a member and president of the Old Town City Council.
This meeting is important and I hope to see you there. We will stay on top of this issue in Local Web.
To attend contact Natacha at GMCC. Return registration to:Natacha Roy, GMCC, Fax: 857-9209
E-mail: natacha@gmcc.nb.ca"
That challenge will be for New Brunswick to go through what Moncton and surrounding communities went through 20 years ago and that is to understand what's next ....what the next NB economy looks like.
New Brunswick is going to have to re-invent itself.
There are, as my esteemed blogging colleague David Campbell will skillfully tell you, many things to be considered when trying to reposition an economy. I share his fear that we had an election in 2003 and another in 2004 Federally, and not once did any one talk about the future.
the real future, where we have a plan that creates jobs for the future by doing something, planning something right now, while we have a performing economy.
I fear that right now we are not doing what it is going to take to have an economic future of promise in New Brunswick. While I do not want to be negative or alarmist, I have learned some things from my 25 year front row seat on the renovation economy building of Moncton. Planning and executing are 25 year processes.
We need to start with a plan and get some of the basics right.
First, we have to come to the defence of NB Power as a Crown asset and drown any political kittens that come along with any more ideas on how to de-construct our only economic development chip that matters: NB Power. Warts, and debt laden and all it is still our strongest weapon against economic decline- if we but use it correctly as tool and not a club for risk aversion capital appreciation players.
We do not need any more worshipers at the throne of privatization.
Ask Nova Scotians what profit based businesses do with rural power lines that are not revenue producers. They let them fall down in the snow instead of replacing them in advance. They let people go without power because they are the only game and their masters are capital return on investment not an angry politician minister who can't get his phone to sop ringing.
But that's for another time.
As time goes on and I find my voice in this complicated maze of choices and consequences for New Brunswick, I will get in full rant mode, but for now, I want to invite you to come to an important lunch.
It is a place to start thinking in new ways.
Come to the lunch and meet Jack Cashman who is coming here to break bread with the community leadership of Moncton and talk about an extended economic development corridor community.
Cashman is the Economic Development Commissioner for the State of Maine and if there is a State in the Union of the United States that has some of the same problems that we do, they are one of them.
Although Maine, in terms of economic scale, has almost as many companies and employment base as the Maritimes combined, but as sobering as that is; they are still facing the same problems.
Problems such as declining .....or potentially declining local community economy........spread over a State in the same way that New Brunswick is .....in a lock step dance with a potentially declining economic destiny.
I try not to be alarmist or negative, but bright young men and women like David Campbell can see the design in the tea leaves and that design says that our abundant natural resources are a played out currency.
A natural resource extraction and harvesting based currency that has at best 25 more years of prominence and another 35 years of watching a once powerful engine succumb to global ailments and loss of significant concentrations for economical exploitation. Exploitation that pays a union payroll and buys new 4x4s and houses.
There is death rattle in New Brunswick and I am stunned that no one but a few of us hear it.
So, consider the meeting on December 06 as a positive first step in starting the dialogue. There are those who believe that if we were to create an economic corridor from Halifax, to Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, we could potentially compete to be the serious location for mega corps looking for a new place to source their employee base.
Its a theory and it has currency right now and is worth looking at as a possible method of creating locate a plant here buzz.
I hope so, but I have misgivings that bulking up the geography is the answer.
Part of what Local Web is meant to be is a sounding board and a place where ideas get put forward that will start ...not jump start ...but gently nudge us as a Province as to what we have to do next.
If, it is any comfort to my Conservative Party friends who want to defend their idea horsepower in the Premier's Race, I have not yet noticed the political leadership in either Liberals, or in the New Democratic Party that will be needed to chart a new economic course.
The Premier's recent description of his government's priorities and policy concerns for rural New Brunswick sends shivers down my spine, sort of like watching a car on glare ice speeding to an intersection where the ability to act is being reduced by every foot of vanishing distance. Mayhem to ensue.
So we have to start with small steps.
If you have a child of any age, if you own a business, if you have any concern that they are announcing the shut down of industry sectors and not the launch of exciting developments with 50 year trajectories to create new employment, then you should come and join the discussion.
The Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Commission/Enterprise Greater Moncton are hosting this luncheon and the tickets are cheap to cover a meal at the Bo with concerned citizens.
It is hard right now to get anyone to listen, because it is early days yet and the local Greater Moncton economy looks to be okay and in fact the Premier has figures to prove that the employment has never been better. Subtract the Greater Moncton regional retail juggernaut from those numbers, and the employment gauge begins to look more like a quake monitor, and not a growth monitor.
Here's the scoop: Jack Cashman, Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development for the State of Maine coming for lunch.
It's a valuable start.
Date: Monday, December 6, 2004 Registration at 11:45 a.m.
Lunch at 12:15 p.m. Delta Beauséjour Ballroom A
Cost: $28.75 for Chamber members (HST included)
$34.50 for future members (HST included)
$21.25 for students (HST included)
Jack Cashman will be speaking about the need for Maine and New Brunswick to foster economic ties.
Cashman has been involved in public service since graduating from the University of Maine in 1973. He has served 10 years in the Main State House of Representative, chairing the Joint Standing Legislative Committee on Taxation. He has also worked as a member and president of the Old Town City Council.
This meeting is important and I hope to see you there. We will stay on top of this issue in Local Web.
To attend contact Natacha at GMCC. Return registration to:Natacha Roy, GMCC, Fax: 857-9209
E-mail: natacha@gmcc.nb.ca"
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