New Brunswick is the only constitutionally bilingual province (French and English) in Canada.

35% of our high-school graduates are bilingual.

Switzerland has four national languages: German (65%), French (20%), Italian (7.5%) and in remote mountain valleys, the Romansch language. 68% of the German-speaking Swiss speak English. Half the French and thirty percent of the Italians speak English.

To be fair, Switzerland did not originate in conquest or in the breakdown of multinational empires. It grew out of hill tribes banding together for mutual defense. Neutrality has since kept the Country from ripping itself apart during wars involving France, Germany and Italy.
Switzerland is split relatively evenly between Catholics and Protestants but there is little correlation between language and religion (except among Italian-speaking Swiss).

The Swiss state gives no formal recognition to ethnicity as a basis of political incorporation, citizenship, legal rights, and allocation of resources or assignment to school systems. The three main ethnic groups are fairly equal in wealth, so none of the language groups feels they are subsidizing the others. Most of the richest cantons are German-speaking, but so are the two poorest, which are “hillbilly cantons” in the Alps.

Earlier this week, New Brunswick’s Education Minister, Kelly Lamrock announced a comprehensive review of “French Second Language” programming and services within New Brunswick’s Anglophone school system.

It was a response to the fact that only 35% of New Brunswick’s students are graduating from high school with bilingual competency despite Government’s goal of 70%. Lamrock’s announcement is admirable but his review may be directed more to the symptom rather than the cause of the problem.

60% of New Brunswick’s working age population lacks the literacy and numeracy competencies necessary for coping in the modern economy so said a report issued by Statistics Canada and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in May 2005.

80% of our working-age population (16-65) who can boast high school graduation have less-than-required literacy skills. Is it any wonder that only 35% of them are bilingual?

66% of our population whose mother tongue is French scored below the poverty line in literacy while 50% of those whose mother tongue is English failed the test of literacy in the IALSS 2003 study.

Almost 40% of our youth measured in the study had prose literacy scores below level three, meaning they lack the proficiency level needed in today’s global economy.

The Frank McKenna years identified bilingualism as an economic advantage for New Brunswick. It was used aggressively and successfully to recruit thousands of customer-service jobs to the Province and continues to be a point of differentiation in new business recruitment but with numbers like the above, we’ll soon be running out of bilingual workers.

The assumption of Lamrock’s review, as I understand it is that the problem of under-achievement lies in the teaching program. It may, but I suspect it is also inherent in the community and in the environment in which second languages are taught and practiced. Total immersion both in classroom and community is clearly the best way to become bilingual. French language studies limited to the classroom are neutered by outside (of classroom) daily living experiences in another language.

Kids who can do two languages tend to be higher achievers than their unilingual mates. There is resistance in the education system to streaming programs that separate elite students from the rest of us. Kids who do poorly in French immersion often have learning disabilities that go undetected until it’s too late. Some of the kids in immersion are in the program because their parents force them.

Others lose interest when they find attraction in the opposite sex or non-academic interests.

Children of unilingual parents don’t have bilingual role models and often have difficulty getting help in their second language because their parents are relegated to the sidelines. I’m told by a teacher friend that immersion drop-out rates increase dramatically after grade 10 when kids are faced with tougher learning challenges in science and math.

There is another factor. Kids who do not enroll in French immersion programs only receive about an hour a day of French language instruction. That would be close to a waste of time in terms of making them bilingual.

Lamrock’s study group may want to look at the experience of a First Nations group in Truro, Nova Scotia. They had language and comprehension problems with band members who were participants in the public school system. Young band members had a 75% drop-out rate. Band elders came to understand that students had comprehension problems related to language.

They addressed the problem by hiring special education folks and putting them in the classroom with band students. That one move jumped their high school graduation rate to 95%.

Such action may not be feasible on a province-wide scale but it illustrates the point that language comprehension is not the same for all people and all communities of people. It also suggests that curriculum may not be as important to comprehension as the learning environment and the one-on-one assistance that is made available to students. I’m reminded of a recent circumstance where a local entrepreneur was anxious to launch a digital learning program for high school drop outs.

The program assumed a degree of computer literacy. The encountered problem was that computer literacy is related to real time literacy.

If one can’t read and understand instructions, it’s difficult if not impossible to access an on-line learning program.

The flip side of that argument is the real time experience of kids (small children) who learn to use computers without training or literacy.

Computer and Internet technology impress language on young minds. One day, it may be possible for people to use computers to make themselves both literate and bilingual.

Mr. Lamrock should take note.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at mailto:bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com

The hypocrisy of American justice boggles the mind.

In March 2004, television personality Martha Stewart was convicted on four counts of obstruction of justice. She served five months in prison and six months under house arrest.

In May 2006, former Enron executives Kenneth L Lay and Jeffrey K Skilling were convicted on 10 counts of fraud and obstruction of justice in a case where billions of dollars in corporate debts were kept off the Enron books leading to collapse of the company and the loss of billions for shareholders. Kenneth Lay died before he was sentenced but Skilling is serving a 24 year sentence.

In June 2003, White House officials revealed the name of Valerie Plame Wilson to the media as an undercover "operative" who worked in a CIA division on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. That revelation came after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson had challenged the U.S. President in a New York Times editorial on his claim that Saddam Hussein was buying uranium from Niger. The 1982 U.S. “Intelligence Identities Protection Act” makes it a crime to knowingly disclose the name of a covert agent.

I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney was convicted on four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice related to the case. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and fined $250,000. President Bush commuted his sentence meaning he will not have to go to jail. The others were never charged.

When her name became public, Wilson lost her job. She and her husband sued Libby, White House political adviser Karl Rove, former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and Vice President Chaney for damages. This week, a U.S. federal judge dismissed the case on “jurisdictional grounds”.

In March 2003, the President of the United States authorized an illegal invasion of Iraq after lying about the reasons for invasion. Those lies are responsible for 3,660 U.S. troop deaths and another 35,638 wounded the death or injury of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis and the expenditure of nearly a trillion dollars in U.S. taxpayers' money. He has yet to be charged or sentenced.

This week, a black man in Georgia was scheduled to be executed for killing a police officer in 1989, even though most of the key witnesses at his trial have recanted their testimony and in some cases admitted they had lied under pressure from police. On Tuesday, a Georgia Clemency Board ordered a 90-day stay of execution for Troy Davis.

All of this is backdrop to the conviction of Conrad Black on three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. In the United States, mail fraud refers to any scheme which attempts to obtain money or valuables in an unlawful way and uses the U.S. postal system in that attempt. It’s a criminal offence.

Obstruction of justice refers to the crime of offering interference to the work of police investigators, regulatory agencies or prosecutors. Obstruction charges are laid when it is discovered that a person questioned in an investigation has lied to the investigating officers or when a person alters or destroys physical evidence, even if they were under no compulsion to produce such evidence.

The issue of fraud centers on the payment of non-competition monies (non-competes) to Black and senior executives of Hollinger Inc, a publicly traded company in which he was the majority shareholder. The payment of non-competes is a fairly common business practice that protects buyers of a business from competition that might subsequently be created by the sellers of the business after completion of a sale.

Prosecutors alleged that Black and the other defendants paid themselves performance bonuses but described the bonuses as non-compete payments so they would be tax free in Canada. Black was found not guilty of tax fraud. He was also cleared of racketeering.

It was also alleged that non-compete payments were paid to Black upon sale of various newspaper properties by Hollinger. He was cleared of fraud charges relating to the sale of CNHI (a group of community newspapers in the U.S.) and CanWest (the National Post in Canada) but convicted on the basis of three other property sales.

In the case of a publicly traded company, non-compete payments would have to be approved by the Board of Directors acting on behalf of shareholders. In trial, the directors could not recall having provided such approvals in which case payments should have gone to the shareholders, not the executives of Hollinger.

The obstruction of justice charge resulted from the fact that Black was captured on security video-cameras in May 2005 removing 13 boxes of documents from his office in Toronto. The government alleged that Black knew that he was under investigation by a grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission and removed documents that prosecutors and investigators had demanded be turned over to them.

A charge relating to alleged money laundering was dropped during the trial. The jury also found that his use of company money to hold a surprise birthday party for his wife, his use of a corporate jet for a private holiday and his purchase of a New York apartment from Hollinger at below market rates were not improper. Not guilty!

For improperly using the U.S. postal service and hauling away some documents, Black may go to jail for up to thirty years. He may lose all or most of his personal wealth and he may be booted from the Order in Canada.

I’m not defending the man nor am I suggesting that he should go unpunished if guilty but thirty years in prison for mail fraud and obstruction seem like severe punishment when compared to the crimes of those who remain free.

Martha Stewart where are you when I need you.


W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at mailto:bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com

According to Jack Mintz, co-author of a C.D. Howe Institute report on tax reforms, New Brunswick is the lowest taxed province in Canada for people wanting to do business.


In making the announcement, he also pans the idea of industry-specific tax-breaks on property.


On July 4th, NB Power amended its April rate application which requests an average 9.6% increase. The amendment if approved would increase rates for large industrial users (paper mills) to 10.7% even though the increased rate would only recover 91% of the cost to supply large industrials.


It’s estimated that approval of the amendment would translate into a $30 million subsidy for the industrial sector, contrasting with Government directives that require the Utility to recover its full costs.

To bridge the gap, NB Power would up-charge smaller industrial and commercial businesses. The smaller industrials would pay something in the order of 125% of the cost for their power, producing an estimated $40 million surplus that would underwrite the large industrials’ rate break.

The large industrials would appear to get a double benefit – lower property taxes and lower than cost electricity. Mitz says the property tax break is wrong-headed, that Government shouldn’t be making judgments about business winners and losers.


I would suggest there should be no difference in power rates by class of customer except for volume benchmarks and further that rates should reward conservation or off-peak use and penalize excessive consumption.

Property tax relief combined with an electricity subsidy is presumably intended to make the forest industry more competitive. In fact, over time, it could make it less competitive if it delays investment in off-electricity/off-oil energy alternatives.

• 
  New Brunswick’s Forest Products Association says that fourteen New Brunswick communities depend entirely on forestry operations to survive.


• Forty others rely heavily on local mills to maintain their economic viability.


• The industry provides some 24,000 direct and indirect jobs, generates nearly a billion dollars a year in wages and salaries and $264 million a year in tax revenue for the Province. It’s also a huge consumer of electricity.

Canada is the world's largest exporter of forest products.


80% of our exports go to the United States. We have traditionally enjoyed advantages in the international marketplace including: abundant forest resources; access to low-cost energy, a low cost dollar and proximity to major markets.


In recent years, the cost of electricity and the value of the Canadian dollar have risen significantly. In order to maintain its international competitiveness, the forest industry has to make major investments to modernize its mills and increase production of value-added products and it has to invest in alternatives to electricity.

The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) says more than half of the Canadian forest products industry's energy is now sourced from renewable biomass (pulping by-products and wood waste such as bark), and some mills operate entirely self-sufficiently. To the best of my knowledge, that would not be the case in New Brunswick.


Purchased fossil fuels and electricity supply 19% and 20% respectively, of the Canadian forest sector's energy needs. In New Brunswick, I believe that number is substantially higher, likely in the 70% range. As mills move away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy sources for primary and secondary processing, they become more cost competitive.


Energy self-sufficiency frees the industry from the uncertainty of soaring energy prices and is one of the most pro-competitive strategies it can pursue. That being the case, one has to wonder why NB Power would be discouraging such action in New Brunswick by continuing to subsidize the industry’s electricity costs.

Biomass energy utilization has enabled FPAC’s pulp and paper sector to reduce the use of fossil fuels by 45% since 1990, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 44% in the same period—seven times Canada’s Kyoto targets.


There is enormous potential for the industry to go even further. FPAC believes that, with the right kind of (tax) policy incentives, Canada’s forest products industry could become a net source of green power, while further improving its productivity and cost competitiveness.

Over the past decade, Canada’s industry has invested over $8 billion in facility upgrades and innovative processes in a continued effort to improve its environmental performance.


By switching from fossil fuels to biomass, a clean, green carbon-neutral energy source derived from industry by-products such as bark, sawdust and wood shavings, the industry has reduced its fossil-fuel dependence to the point where 60% of the pulp and paper sector’s energy needs are self-generated from renewable sources and there is technology on the horizon that could increase that to 100%.


The sector is now the largest industrial source of cogeneration (combined heat and power capacity) in Canada, which is largely powered by carbon-neutral renewable biomass. According to FPAC, that cogeneration combined with the sector’s small hydro generation already produces enough renewable energy to replace three nuclear reactors.

From a clean air and general environmental perspective, the results have been tangible for FPAC members: since 1990, these include a 74% reduction in particulate matter per tonne of output; a 64% reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions; a 40% reduction in landfill waste; and a 44% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.


These environmental improvements have taken place during a period when production volumes in the industry have increased by 20%.

The industry has the potential to be a net exporter of renewable energy with the potential of servicing the power needs of the communities in which it is present.


The forest industry is extremely important to New Brunswick. The industry represents 11.4% of the Province’s GDP as compared to 3% across Canada and represents 40% of New Brunswick’s current export values.


The industry might need help to wean itself off electricity but not subsidy to lower its cost of operation.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.

Last week’s column triggered a number of responses on matters of energy and self-sufficiency.


There were two themes

(i) why are we shipping natural gas to the United States instead of using it to lower energy costs in the province; and,

(ii) how does the export of natural gas make us more self-sufficient.


I have no answer to the first question except to suggest that it has to do with recovering exploration costs from the sale of production. In respect to the second theme, one might argue the answer as an oxymoron.


Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring outside help or interaction for survival. The term is usually applied to circumstances in which nothing is consumed outside of what is produced by the self-sufficient entity. New Brunswick’s Task Force on Self-Sufficiency has a different take and defines self-sufficiency as the point at which the Province no longer requires Equalization payments from the Federal Government.

The classic definition of self-sufficiency would suggest that the export of energy is a form of market dependence rather than self-sufficiency because it relies on buyers to purchase the exported product.


If New Brunswick could truly become self-sufficient, it would have to rely on its own energy sources (hydro, wind, wave, tidal, solar, natural gas and Stoneycreek oil), its own food sources, its own transportation and technology, its own trades and its own people. Unless we’re faced with basic survival, that’s not happening soon.


As I see it, we have three roads to self-sufficiency as defined by the Task Force: (i) improve the efficiency and productivity of our traditional industries (ii) grow our IT and technology industries and (iii) commit fully to the notion that we become a major exporter of energy.


Population and wage growth will follow development.


Self-sufficiency requires new revenue to replace equalization-payments. Our tiny manufacturing base isn’t going to bridge the gap. Our fishery is in crisis according to the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council. Our forestry industry has a plethora of challenges including a declining housing market in the United States, a stronger Canadian dollar and the high (according to producers) cost of electricity.


We have a strong agricultural industry but its output is near capacity and dedicated mainly to single item cash crops for commercial export. In the absence of a wealth-creating technology innovation, it’s going to take a combination of energy imports and exports to create a tax and royalty regime that could replace equalization.


As an energy exporter, we would be dependent on other countries for fuel and we would be dependent on the United States for markets. Our role would be largely that of processor and trans-shipper rather than exploiter and exporter of natural resources. We would be the Taiwan of the energy world. Our low cost advantage would be location relative to New England and an energy development strategy that would go where the Americans fear to tread.
Liquefied natural gas from the middle-east would be processed in Saint John and piped to the United States.


Oil would be refined as gasoline and other products for shipment to the United States. Uranium would be imported from Ontario and used to fuel nuclear plants that would generate electricity for transmission to the United States. Electricity would be imported from Newfoundland for trans-shipment to the United States.


The only indigenous energy we would export would be natural gas and maybe some hydro, wind or wave-generated electricity. We would be totally dependent on far-away countries for oil and liquefied natural gas and totally dependent on the United States as a market for our exports. We could become a storage dump for nuclear waste. Do we have a choice? Not if we want to be self-sufficient.


I was inclined to think that financing might be an issue but it shouldn’t be if we have secure sources of fuel, secure markets and long-term contract pricing. The bigger issue may be ownership. The Provincial Government, NB Power, not even the Irvings have the financial capability to finance all of the above. It will likely be financed by some combination of American and European interests and who knows, the Saudis may even want a piece of the action.


While debt financing might be less expensive, logic would suggest that equity financing will be necessary and that a significant transfer of equity could cede control to the equity partners. They could be as varied as EXXON-Mobil, the French power giant Areva or the Atomic Energy Company of Canada. Maybe the Ontario Teachers Fund would flip part of its BCE equity to purchase a piece of NB Power’s nuclear unit.


On the environmental side, there could be issues with underwater cable transmission even over-land transmission. Greenhouse gases will present a challenge for the refinery and potentially for the producer(s) of electricity. These could be mitigated by development of cleaner technology.


In today’s world, we can’t ignore security – security of transportation, security of person, security of facilities and fuels. Realization of New Brunswick’s energy export dream and links to the United States will create new targets for the terrorist movement. We have to guard against them with great tenacity.


If the pieces fit together, we could create thousands of jobs, attract new taxpayers and fashion a long-term tax and royalty stream for the Province. The project needs a formalized business plan and a lead partner to pull it together. So far, it’s been largely talk with exception of the Irving’s LNG plant and the export of natural gas from Sussex.


We need to know the costs of development and who and what will be at risk. We also need to know precisely what’s in it for New Brunswickers - lower taxes, higher incomes or something more.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.

Ed Barrett, new Chairman of the New Brunswick Business Council and Chairman of the Barrett Corporation in Woodstock says that if New Brunswick is to reach its goal of self-sufficiency, it needs to find a way to foster the growth of head offices (homebred entrepreneurs) here in the province.


Francis McGuire, Co-Chair of the Self-Sufficiency Task Force says we should concentrate on attracting pieces of major corporations to the province to bypass the pain and incubation of business start-ups.

The Barrett approach is to build business giants from within the province.


The McGuire approach is to create instant jobs in partnership with proven outside business enterprises.


Historically, New Brunswick’s most reliable businesses have been those created from within although many of our major employers have been non-resident. Stars of the within group include: McCain Foods, Irving, Ganong, Moosehead Breweries, Barbours and the Barrett group.


There are dozens of non-resident businesses who serve the province well but when a business is headquartered here, profits are more likely to be reinvested here, new jobs are created and old jobs are upgraded.

There’s an extraordinary story developing near Sussex, NB this week that may prove the dichotomy between Barrett and McGuire. On Thursday, Corridor Resources Inc. of Halifax began shipping natural gas to the United States from Sussex, New Brunswick through the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline.


The initial flow of 35 million cubic feet (mcf) a day is expected to grow to 45 mcf/day by November and is the first ever export of natural gas from an onshore site in Atlantic Canada.


It’s extraordinary because it’s a story of entrepreneurship at its best.

To our chagrin, the producer is not a resident of New Brunswick. To the best of my knowledge, there is no New Brunswick capital invested in this project and the only benefits that will accrue to the Province will be royalties and taxes generated by a few jobs and the purchase of local supplies.


One has to wonder where NB Power and others with an interest in the energy field have been hiding for the last ten years. Instead of shipping this gas directly to the United States, wouldn’t it make more sense to use the gas to produce electricity here in New Brunswick to power our forest industry or heat our homes?


Corridor was established by its three founding shareholders, Norm Miller, Paul Hopkins and Charles MacDonald in March 1995, initially as a numbered Alberta company. In August, the name was changed to Corridor Resources Inc. in recognition of the natural gas pipeline "corridor" (Maritimes & Northeast) that would be constructed through Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and on to New England.


Corridor’s first gas exploration licenses were issued for the New Brunswick Sackville Basin, located near Moncton and within the pipeline corridor. The Basin was a logical place because it had a history of oil and gas production dating back to 1911. The scale was different then. Drilling and production technology was primitive. Annual production from 1911 to 1946 was equivalent to about 18 days of Corridor’s projected daily export from Sussex.

Corridor’s business strategy is to identify potential oil and gas fields within the Atlantic region, mainly onshore but also offshore and then to take an aggressive land ownership position.


Prospect lands are identified by accessing a large historic database of geological and drilling information, evaluating the data with new exploration technologies and preparing prospect plays to attract investment partners. The first of such agreements was concluded by Corridor with Shell Canada on November 28th, 1997.

In August 2000, Corridor Resources joined forces (a 50% interest) with the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (PCS) to drill an exploration well (named McCully #1) northeast of Sussex. In late September, Corridor revealed that it had encountered natural gas in this first
exploratory well.


The well flowed gas at a rate of 750,000 cubic feet per day. In April 2001, Corridor posted results from a second McCully well with a flow rate of 2.2 million cubic feet per day. When analysis of its gas discovery was completed, Corridor declared it a potentially major find, possibly in excess of 300 billion cubic feet (bcf).

In September of 2002, Corridor entered into agreements with the Potash Corporation for the production, transportation, processing and marketing of natural gas from the McCully #1 and #2 wells for use at the potash plant also located near Sussex. Production began in April 2003 and has been flowing an average 2 million cubic feet of gas a day for the last four years.

Twenty one wells have now been drilled in the McCully field and all show natural gas. An independent assessment of Corridor’s gas field at December 31, 2006 by Calgary’s RPS Energy Group reported reserves (proven, probable and possible) of 281.6 billion cubic feet. Corridor estimates today that the field contains in excess of one trillion cubic feet of gas. That compares to estimates of 3 trillion cubic feet for the offshore Sable Island project.

As natural gas from New Brunswick begins to pump into the United States, Corridor will pay royalties to the Province, an estimated six to eight million dollars a year. Norm Miller and his partners in Corridor are to be congratulated.


However, in offering congrats, one has to wonder where New Brunswick‘s entrepreneurs are in this project. The cornerstone of New Brunswick’s self-sufficiency strategy is the export of energy.


The bulk of that energy will be generated from the burning and processing of imported fuels like liquefied natural gas and crude oil.


Surely there is a business case that would support greater at-home utilization of New Brunswick’s natural gas resources for such generation and in preference to imported fuels.


Corridor [ business profile ] has the potential to be one of Ed Barrett’s new giants.


Let’s encourage its development.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.