"Sustained culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity"

Those aren't my words. They are the words of the President of UNB at the Fullsail Summit that I just attended in Moncton over the past three days. I encourage all New Brunswickers to read the article in Saint John's paper today [full article (login required) here] and to pay attention to this issue over the coming year.

The Fullsail Summit had a strong sense of significance and hope for the future of our province and I think it will become clear to all of us how important, how urgent, and how exhausting some of the tasks committed to this week are and will be over the coming year. But we made commitments to each other and to our province this week and I believe in this process and look forward to measuring our progress in 2008.

With the provincial government moving ahead with its promised Self-Sufficiency Task Force, it is reasonable to conclude that we may see competing visions for our future that may put us all back, but I don't think this needs to be so. The new government to date has been preparing New Brunswickers for dramatic change if we are to survive this historical and monumental shift in our economy and society. They have spoken of creativity and innovation and these are all good things that most can agree on.

1. We must focus on entrepreneurship and indigenous growth in our creative industries,
2. We must recognize, with our laws and our business attitudes, that capital is the essential ingredient in wealth creation and access to it by our businesses is a necessity, as Neville Gilfoy so effectively articulated Tuesday morning.

These are the two philosophies that I identified as common ground at the conference this week. The opportunities at our doorstep, such as the mega Energy projects, must be leverage for our growth, not the definition of our economy.

Our historical reputation as a world class city and province was also my vision for our future this week and that is a hope that has not been experienced here for many generations. I think this was shared by others at Fullsail and I am proud to be part of it.