Boeing gambles Atl. Canadians can't do basic math
I got a sponsored advertisement from Boeing telling me that the company is committed to Atlantic Canada. If the Canadian government spends tens of billions of dollars to buy its Super Hornet Block III it will mean $442 million and 2,000 jobs for Atlantic Canada (over 40 years). Hey! Get on board, you ungrateful herringchokers!
The problem is the company is saying the benefits to Canada will be $61 billion and 250,000 jobs. So that means that Atlantic Canada, with a little less than 7% of the population will get 0.7% of the economic benefits.
The good news for Boeing is that a lot of us can’t do basic math. There were a string of comments under the story from Atlantic Canadians welcoming all the good fortune
I’ve been involved in developing economic impacts for very large projects like this and my advice to the client has always been to avoid making people feel like they have been tricked.
In this case I would have advised to either a) stick to the benefits to Canada - $61B - and don’t shine a light on the crumbs in Atlantic Canada or b), better yet, actually look for ways that Atlantic Canada could get it’s share of the $61 billion, or for those a little math-challenged, about $4 billion (rounded) - nearly 10x more than proposed.