N.B.'s economic plan does have benchmarks, Jobs Board member says

The Gallant government's Economic Growth Plan does have benchmarks to measure its success, they just haven't been released, says a member of the Jobs Board secretariat.

Susan Holt, the chief of business relationships for the secretariat, was responding Wednesday to criticisms of the plan being short on specifics.

"We think the plan is actually really specific, it's more specific than government has everbeen about which opportunities for growth we're going to develop," she told CBC News.

"But I can appreciate that the measures were not published in the printed document," released on Tuesday.

Asked why the measures have not been made public, Holt replied:"I think partly because we were trying to get a vision and a message across and point people to where we want to go and highlight the pillars that we're developing and the 12 opportunities for growth."

• Gallant government unveils economic plan

The government is also "fleshing out" targets and measures for each of those12 opportunities,which will be released as they are finalized and the right community and private sector partners are in place,said Holt.

"So we're looking at a really specific level at measuring," she said, citing the blueberry development as an example. "What's the return on our efforts to grow the blueberry sector? How many jobs are we going to see growing blueberries? How much capital investment can we attract there? And what's the total impact of that on the economy?"

"We have the same plan for marijuana and for cybersecurity and for home-based work and for new farmers. So each of those plans have targets for jobs and capital investment attracted."

Holt said its clear people are "really eager" for those specificplans. "A number of them," such as cybersecurity are ready now, while the marijuana plan is "well underway."

The government "heard pretty clearly" from the private sector that growing the workforce is their primary concern and the biggest barrier to growth. That's why "people" is the leading pillar of the plan, she said.

But the government isn't looking at the unemployment rate, which continues to hover around 10 per cent; it's focusing onemployment, said Holt.

"The most interesting number for us in government is how many people are working in New Brunswickbecause it's that employed workforce thatdrives our business community, that drives our revenuesthat support educationand health, sothat's the number we look at internally."

Premier Brian Gallant says an important aspect of thenew economic planis to "create the right environment" for the private sector to "drive the economy."

Gallant offered details of the 24-page report that outlined his government'seconomic plan to stimulate the economy on Wednesday onInformation Morning Fredericton.

Gallant said the plan was based on feedback from the private sector and an area that was discussed was reducing "red tape."

Gallant said the plan will see specifics in the results from "incremental GDP and job growth" as well as "incremental tax revenues" that can be reinvested in the province.

He added that educational and training programs are crucial to the economic success of the province.

New Brunswick's unemployment rate edged down to 9.7 per cent in July from 10.3 per cent in June. The jobless rate has been stuck stubbornly high for months.

The province has also been burdened with the highest youth jobless rate in Canadaat some parts of 2016.

In terms of the Energy Eastpipeline,Gallant noted that project is "not a certainty" but could contribute thousands of jobs for up to a decade as well as permanent jobs afterwards.

Interim Progressive Conservative Leader BruceFitchsaid this week the plan lacks specifics, such as a target or a way to measure success.

The economic plan is outlined infive pillars: people, innovation, capital, infrastructure and agility.

These pillars involve initiatives such asdeveloping new economic opportunities, more collaboration with the public and private sectors and strengthening the provincial workforce.