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Worker worries
Jim McNiven hopes the economic downturn doesn’t distract policy-makers from tackling Nova Scotia’s impending labour shortage.
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Reader wants tax cuts, not new roads
NOVA SCOTIANS are concerned about how their government intends to spend taxpayers’ money to help stave off a recession or otherwise. I know this to be a fact because I wrote about infrastructure spending in Saturday’s paper and was surprised by the amount of reader response to that column. In the last line, I suggested anyone with good ideas send me their proposals about how to invest the infrastructure money.
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Pay attention when renewing mortgage
FOR MOST of us, a mortgage is the largest single financial responsibility we will ever take on. While the mortgage market outlook is more positive in Canada than in the U.S., a recent survey suggests Canadians should pay closer attention when it comes time to renew a mortgage. It indicated that homeowners renewing in the past year obtained, on average, fewer than two quotes (1.85) before signing on the dotted line.
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To halt recession, we need to spend more, build right
A RECESSION is pushing government to inject more cash into the economy. But how it achieves that goal is more complicated than it sounds. For one thing, the government is making noises about using more tax dollars to finance infrastructure projects.
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Impressive in a crisis
TORONTO — Michael McCain’s response to the listeriosis outbreak that killed 20 Canadians this summer showed both genuine compassion and cutthroat business sense, and helped Maple Leaf Foods Inc. emerge relatively unscathed from one of the worst food-borne illness outbreaks in Canadian history.
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We may get lost in U.S. shuffle
WITH EACH NEW American president, Canada has to try harder to get attention. This may be especially true after Barack Obama is sworn into office on Jan. 26 because Obama will be so preoccupied with restoring the U.S. economy and creating jobs.
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Long live the citizen, not the consumer, in 2009
MANY in business and media talk of a wanting a crystal ball for 2009. I believe that those who can focus on the meaning of their existence rather than worrying about existing will thrive. And major futurists are echoing this philosophy. Famed futurists like Faith Popcorn, who has a 30-year track record of predicting culture shifts driven by consumer behaviour, is forecasting a gloomy 2009.
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Beware Phishing scam artists get personal on Facebook
WE’VE ALL SEEN some version or other of the "Nigerian scam," typically involving a deposed aristocrat looking to transfer a vast sum of wealth. He needs your help — all you have to do is send along a few thousand dollars to facilitate the process and in gratitude the former king will bestow a great fortune upon you. It may seem hard to believe that anyone would fall for it, but over the decades hundreds of millions of dollars have been swindled from people who were mesmerized by the prospect of easy money. Things got so bad that in 1991 the Nigerian government actually issued a statement disavowing any association with the scam. This particular scam predates email and was originally perpetuated with good old pen and paper.
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High interest rating
THEY’RE NOT all rich. They’re not necessarily powerful, in the traditional sense. Their names won’t be familiar to everyone, but they definitely made 2008 interesting. From development veteran Ben McCrea’s no-nonsense stance on his Waterside property to Jim Wooder’s push for a new container business in Sydney, here are the stories of seven Nova Scotians who pushed forward with their dreams in 2008 and are making a difference in the province.
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Good news about energy prospects refreshing to hear
IT WAS the early Christmas gift Triangle Petroleum was hoping for, and it’s good news for Nova Scotia too. Triangle, of Calgary, sent out a release Tuesday indicating that the Nova Scotia government has given approval in principle to Triangle’s subsidiary, Elmworth Energy Corp., for an onshore shale gas production lease for a geological formation known as the Windsor Block, near Kennetcook.
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