As part of the New Brunswick Business Council’s goal of fostering public discourse about the best ways to responsibly and sustainably grow the New Brunswick economy, we joined the chambers of commerce of Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John as well as the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick and the Canadian Manufactures & Exporters to provide recommendations to federal political parties and candidates about the steps needed to ensure our economy and our communities prosper.
New Brunswick and the rest of Atlantic Canada face a unique set of challenges and opportunities as we seek to encourage job creation and growth. We wanted to take advantage of the election to be sure that New Brunswick’s message was heard loud and clear by those who seek to govern.
Our priorities fall under three areas:
- Recovery and self-sufficiency: we encourage the federal government to invest strategically in initiatives that encourage labour force growth, needed infrastructure and access to capital.
- Immigration: we know that growing our population is fundamental to growing our economy. We are asking the federal government to take greater steps to increase the number of immigrants moving to New Brunswick while also speeding up processing time.
- Competitiveness and fairness: The federal government can do more to eliminate trade barriers, make federal policies more regionally inclusive, and support New Brunswick companies as they move through the transition to a green economy.
Our goal is to both shape the dialogue and ultimately shape public policy to help New Brunswick grow. You can find out more about the cooperative initiative on our website.