NorthBridge Consultants’ Canadian Business Blog is dedicated to bringing businesses news and information to help companies identify and access the most appropriate government funding programs.

We offer opinions and insider information that can provide a pulse on government initiatives, the health of the Canadian economy, and firsthand thoughts from Canadian business owners.

September Survey of Manufacturing

Yesterday, StatsCan released their Monthly Survey of Manufacturing for the month of September, and results are positive! For the third month in a row, sales increased – this time, they rose 2.6% to $49.2 billion. Highlights are as follows: Manufacturing… Read more »

October’s Job Numbers

In October, the unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to a total of 7.3%, when employment declined by 54,000 full-time jobs. The manufacturing and construction industries saw the largest decline; employment fell in Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and PEI,… Read more »

Today, Stats Can released news on Canada’s GDP for August – for the third month in a row, our GDP has grown, this time rising 0.3%. This rising percentage was due to the energy sector, without which real GDP would… Read more »

10 Quick Tips: Holding Performance Reviews

Keep the review positive. While there may be some negative points to discuss, keeping the overall tone of the review positive will relieve a lot of possible tension after the review for the employee. Stick to a schedule. Whether it’s… Read more »

News In the Canadian Food Industry

There have been a couple of large items that have been happening in Canada’s food industry that I wanted to touch upon today. First of all, the federal government has decided to end the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board.… Read more »

The Jenkins Report

A year ago, Tom Jenkins (chairman and chief strategy officer at Open Text Corp) was asked to lead a committee that was going to investigate how Canada can see better results from the money being spent on innovation in Canada.… Read more »

What’s wrong with RIM?

An aging smartphone line, an inability to break out of the corporate niche, and the lack of any new product innovation are widely perceived to be eroding RIM’s business and stagnating growth.  To achieve growth, many believed that RIM needed to… Read more »