New Brunswick chamber CEOs John Wishart, Krista Ross and David Duplisea. Image: Submitted
With Premier Blaine Higgs securing his Progressive Conservative majority government in the legislature, the province’s chambers of commerce say they’re looking forward to working with the government on helping businesses recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
“What we’re really looking for is post-[pandemic] economic recovery for the province. That’s paramount,” said David Duplisea, CEO of the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce. “We need to start moving back to business and helping the small businesses stay open and the larger businesses to remain at their employment levels if possible for economic recovery.”
With the new majority government, Duplisea says they’re hoping to see movement on a few key items they’ve been advocating for, such as the new school for the city’s South End and the town of Grand Bay-Westfield. But the first thing they hope to see is municipal reform, something Higgs’ platform was favourable of.
“That’s the first thing we really need them to start working on, the tax reform and the percentage of industrial taxes that come back to the municipalities,” says Duplisea. “We know Higgs has already promised that there will $8-9-million perhaps coming back, so we hope that continues and we will be pushing for the double tax elimination as well, and economic recovery is a major key.”
Krista Ross, CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, says they’re also looking forward to working with the government on economic recovery and the associated items in Higgs’ platform such as labour force and population growth, developing small modular reactors and keeping students in the province.
But they also want to see fast action on helping the province’s businesses become more competitive as they try to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Workforce development, leveraging technology and really just helping to smooth the road for businesses on that economic recovery,” said Ross.
“Many of our member has gone through, and continue to face, some of the most challenging situations in their businesses that they ever faced, so we need to ensure that this government has that lense when they’re making decisions and that they’re making decisions that don’t any way make it more difficult for the business community across the province.”
In the Greater Moncton area, there is now more government representation with Progressive Conservative MLAs, several of whom have previously served in the cabinet. This is something Moncton Chamber of Commerce CEO John Wishart says businesses and individuals should try to leverage to have government listen to their needs.
He also says the majority government may be a good thing for business.
“From a business perspective, majority governments do tend to provide a certain sense of stability,” said Wishart. “The key thing depends on whether this is a business-friendly government and all indications from the last two years is that it is business-friendly.”
Though the province’s economy struggling, Wishart products there may not be a lot of public spending from a Higgs majority.
“There probably won’t be any big public spending projects unless they can leverage some federal money that doesn’t drive the province deeper into debt. I think that’s going to be one of the major issues in the next few years,” he said.
“Because we’ve been in a severe economic crisis, normally the reaction would be some public spending to help us get out of that. Will this government be open to that or will it be, ‘no, we can’t afford it’ and we will just have to bide our time.”
During the campaign, the Moncton Chamber was pushing for a strong immigration plan and municipal reform. Though those are both still high on their radar, Wishart says they’d like to see the province to first address homelessness in Moncton, the labour shortage, and providing direct support to industries hit hardest by COVID-19.
“A balanced recovery from COVID providing assistance where it’s most needed,” he says. “Things like the retail and hospitality sector, support for our airports in New Brunswick I think is going to be crucial.”
Cherise Letson is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
