State of the Province…
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama delivered his first “State of the Union” message.

It was a clear statement on the state of the country, the state of the economy and a clear declaration of his intent moving forward. In Ottawa, we have a government more interested in crime punishment than the economy or where Canada is headed.

In late January, Premier Shawn Graham delivered his annual “state of the province” address. He acknowledged the economic crisis and charted a path forward in terms of investment and stimulus. He reminded us as well that New Brunswick continues to build its foundation for self-sufficiency in spite of our economic challenges.

A column published this week by Constantine Passaris, Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of New Brunswick argues convincingly that New Brunswick needs to stay the course with respect to its self-sufficiency agenda. He reminds us that a province with historically high unemployment levels and personal income levels well below the national average is foolish to rely on the vagaries of Equalization payments from Ottawa for its well-being.

He also reminds us that the Graham government is the first New Brunswick government to embrace the reality that you cannot build a prosperous future by relying on federal transfer payments.

Mr. Obama talks about turning a crisis into opportunity, about creating new jobs in a greener environment, about enrolling millions of Americans in healthcare programs and investing in education to make the country more competitive.

The federal government in Canada has promised to help stimulate the Canadian economy and may even jumpstart the process by sidestepping traditional approval procedures to speed up the distribution of stimulus dollars. That could be a slippery slope.

Some of the stimulus money will find its way to New Brunswick so let’s dream a little bit! Assume we could access enough money to convert economic crisis into opportunity. One of the building blocks for self-sufficiency is energy.

What if we added high-speed transportation to the mix?

Imagine a New Brunswick with a high-speed rail system that would make it possible for people in Campbellton to commute daily to work in Moncton or make it possible for people in Edmundston to work in Saint John.

Imagine a high speed rail system that would make it convenient for everyone in the province to use one airport, an airport that would provide frequent service between New Brunswick and its major markets. Imagine a high speed rail system that would make it viable for people in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton to work in any one of these cities without having to uproot their families.

Imagine high speed rail freight lines that would travel in a straight line from Moncton to Edmundston and from Moncton (via Saint John) to St. Stephen, lines that could carry the trucks and containers that move our products to and from central Canada and the United States.

Imagine the jobs that would be created during construction but more important, imagine how much more efficient our economy would become, how much easier it would be to attract new workers to the province, how much safer our highways would become and how much cleaner our air would be if all those trucks and cars were taken off the road.

A high speed rail network would facilitate the establishment of business and industrial clusters, medical clusters, education, research and innovation clusters. The benefits of clusters are found in economies of scale, technology transfers and the availability of human capital.

As organizations physically congregate in a region, spillovers of knowledge, people and technology occur. These spillovers lead to increased productivity and reduced costs. Savings are generated by the availability of specialized inputs such as information and technology or business services.

As workers are drawn to a region with multiple employment opportunities, firms benefit by having access to a large and appropriate group of potential employees. The existence of a labor pool, if tied to technical or vocational training facilities, can raise worker skill levels and reduce the transaction costs associated with employee searches.

Clustering is the principle behind the Saint John energy hub. There is no reason it could not be applied to the province as a whole. We have the technology. We have the communications infrastructure; all we need is a 21st century transportation system. Will we acquire it anytime soon? Not likely but it’s fun to dream about it.

Sadly, the imperative of most governments is damage control, not ideals or dreams or ennobling challenges but tactics of survival.

We have a premier with a vision. It’s not perfect and there have been more than a couple of stumbles but he should be encouraged to continue on the road to self-sufficiency.

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