Official Languages Committee on May 13th, 2014

[Jacques Dubé]

Yes.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

What should have changed is that minimum wage.

[Jacques Dubé]

I am not denying that. I simply wanted to say...

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Then they closed a Canada Post call centre in Fredericton. Those jobs paid $20 an hour. They wanted to get rid of that, so they opened a call centre in Bathurst, where people were paid $12 an hour. Is that really what northern New Brunswick deserves?

We have to tell it like it is. Most francophones live in northern New Brunswick. This minority has been beaten down and trodden on by all New Brunswick and federal governments. With respect, the south of the province got everything and we got welfare.

The golden triangle is Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton. Irving, a major corporation, has never invested in the north. If MAJESTA had set up shop in northern New Brunswick, people could have worked there. If they had been able to transfer the Brunswick mine to the south, they would have done it. If they could have put our fish into the Petitcodiac, which everyone calls the chocolate river, they would have. That is the only thing we have.

Since we lost that, no level of government has ever been there for us. North-eastern New Brunswick has lost people, including you, Mr. Dubé.

[Jacques Dubé]

The only thing I can say is that I believe you were there when a number of federal government investments were announced for the Acadian Peninsula. It is not quite true to say that the federal government has not invested in northern New Brunswick.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Can you name any?

[Jacques Dubé]

I agree with you that there has been much more economic activity in the south-eastern portion of the province than in the north.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

That is thanks to government initiatives.

[Jacques Dubé]

Yes.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

That is right: there was a key player.

Now that the mines and pulp and paper plants have shut down and people have left the region, it would be a good time to make sure that those who remain and who are less educated are not left with nothing when they are unemployed. This goes back to what Mr. Caron was saying.

Mr. Daniel asked what was happening there, why people were illiterate and were not working. Need I remind you that that is where the fish is, and fishing is impossible in the winter because the Baie des Chaleurs freezes over.

What do we do with these people? Do you not think that giving these people training in secondary and tertiary processing for the products that we have left would improve the situation in northern New Brunswick?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

Mr. Caron, you have the floor for a brief moment.

[Armand Caron]

I would like to add something. When I walk to the Shippagan wharf in the morning, the largest wharf in New Brunswick in terms of landings, it saddens me to think that everything is sent elsewhere for processing. A few years ago, there were seven seafood processing plants in Shippagan. Today, not a single one is left. There is no processing there.

That is one of the challenges facing the region. There are no more jobs in the region, so we should not be surprised to see young people leaving.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Williamson, you have the floor.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you, Chair.

It's like the seventh inning stretch in a ball game. Just as we're winding down, we get a burst of activity from Monsieur Godin.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

Mr. Caron, Mr. Dubé, and Mr. Colford, welcome to our committee.

Mr. Dubé, Mr. Colford talked about an invisible line that separates northern and southern New Brunswick. Where is Moncton in relation to that line?

[Jacques Dubé]

Well, I think it's clear.

Moncton is the economic driver of the province.

It's driven primarily by entrepreneurship. Generally speaking, I think if you look at Moncton you see that it's been a success story because of the entrepreneurial spirit of the community and a great supply of labour, both skilled and unskilled, over time. That's basically where we are.

We are, within New Brunswick, in a bit of an anomaly. Monsieur Godin spoke about the golden triangle, and it's true that Fredericton, Saint John, and Moncton are the drivers of the economy in New Brunswick at the moment, simply because the natural resource sectors have not been as successful as they have in the past. We haven't transitioned to secondary, primary, and tertiary transformation, say, in those industries the way we possibly could have, whether it's value-added wood or value-added fish or whatever.

I think Moncton has certainly been a star, a shining light of hope in New Brunswick as a result of the economy and what's happened there, primarily based on the labour force and its national geographic location in Atlantic Canada as a hub.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

I think Monsieur Godin's point about the triangle, as he describes it, is valid but those three cities don't make up southern New Brunswick. The unemployment challenges we have in Charlotte County are almost as severe as they are in the north with the labour shortages we're seeing and the exodus as well.

[Jacques Dubé]

Yes.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

That's what I think makes Moncton unique. It crosses that boundary. It's viewed as neither part of the north nor of the south; and in a sense, you've brought people together from both communities and built on that strength.

I'm not going to focus too much. You've gone through the strengths and the drive behind Moncton this morning, and they're well known. The city, I think, has managed to pull itself up by its bootstraps, working with government of course, but you have that initiative.

For the record, could you let us know, the...? I think you said that the unemployment rate currently is 7%.

[Jacques Dubé]

Yes.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

It's about the national average, give or take.

[Jacques Dubé]

Yes.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

But what's interesting is your employment rate is higher than the national average—

[Jacques Dubé]

Yes.