Province struggles with 'will-not' attitude on jobs

New Brunswick is giving up its status as a "have-not" province and is becoming a "will-not" province, according to the province's largest manufacturers group.

Joel Richardson, the vice-president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters in New Brunswick, told a business luncheon on Monday the province's reputation is slipping as it fails to move forward on various job creation opportunities.

Richardson specifically pointed to Premier Brian Gallant's decision to put a moratorium on the development of the shale gas industry until more studies can be done on its safety.

"We believe that there is a tremendous opportunity to move our province to becoming a have province and not a will-not province," he said.

New Brunswick's jobless rate fell to 8.8 per cent in September, after remaining above 10 per cent for several months. The number of people employed in the province was 351,400, according to Statistics Canada.

By comparison, in October 2009, when the recession began to hit, Statistics Canada figures showthere were 369,400 people employed in the province and the jobless rate stood at 8.5 per cent.

The Gallant Liberals won the 2014 election campaign with a promise to put a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial mining technique.

The manufacturing industry official said the natural resource industry could generate new jobs in the province. But he said that is not the only option.

Richardson pointed to the proposed Sisson mine near Stanley, the potential refurbishment of NB Power's Mactaquac dam, as well as other opportunities in the manufacturing sector.

"Many projects hit the table but no one is hitting the green light to say let's get going, let's get people back to work," he said.

The recent election of Justin Trudeau's Liberals could signal a new shift in job creation strategies, according to the industry official.

Richardson said he believes many New Brunswick businesses are unaware of the opportunities that they have to ship their products around the world.

He said it's time that businesses start using the benefits of the trade agreements that Canada has with other countries.

"One of the challenges we have in New Brunswick is we need to develop more of an export mindset," he said.

"We are a relatively small community in New Brunswick everything that we do here, everything that we make every day, we should be selling more of that around the world."