Miramichi (August 29, 2020) – A Liberal government will strive to grow the population in New Brunswick with a strategy that would aggressively promote New Brunswick as a safe and affordable place to work and live.
“New Brunswick is facing an aging population and many of our young are leaving the province. This trend must be quickly reversed to ensure our province’s prosperity,” says Kevin Vickers. “A Liberal government would work with Ottawa to gain further autonomy over our immigration numbers and increase our population by 10,000 a year for a total of 100,000 more New Brunswickers by 2030.”
As immigration is under federal jurisdiction, the province has a quota of immigrants it is allowed to accept every year. Once elected, Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers is confident he can work with Ottawa to increase immigration numbers and strengthen the New Brunswick economy.
“Our province’s economic growth is closely tied to the growth of our population,” says Vickers. “Increasing the amount of people working and living in our province will also increase the amount of people visiting our local businesses and increase tax revenue that supports our education and health systems.”
The Liberal Leader wants to send a clear message to former New Brunswickers: “Now is the time to come home.”
“It’s time to bring our families back to New Brunswick. One thing that the current Covid-19 pandemic has taught us is that more and more people are willing to work from home,” says Vickers. “It is now possible to work for a company based anywhere in the world and live right here in New Brunswick where we have an exceptional quality of life and is more affordable than other provinces.”
In order to reach New Brunswickers who have left the province as well as immigrants looking to come to Canada, Kevin Vickers suggests a job-market based approach. A Liberal government will work with industry to establish what is attractive in the various sectors and, together, would develop a strategy to promote New Brunswick as a land of opportunity.
“One example is farmland; it is much more competitively priced to farmers from other regions of Canada and beyond, this would be a selling point for people in the agriculture sector,” says Vickers. “We need to ensure that people who want to settle in our province has the opportunity to work as soon as they arrive.”
A Liberal government will renew the Atlantic Immigration Pilot program in order to attract more skilled foreign workers and international graduates.
“We have to show the world what we have to offer,” says Vickers. “We have skillful workers and a quality of life that is second to none. We need to focus on the positives of New Brunswick and promote our province on the national and global scale.”
Being Canada’s only bilingual province is also a strong asset. The population of the world’s Francophonie is more than 250 million. This a large pool of potential candidates who would be willing to move to New Brunswick, where language is not a barrier.
“Blaine Higgs is focused on cuts. We are focused on growth,” said Vickers. “Population growth is essential and it’s only by working collaboratively with industry and our Federal counterparts that we will achieve our goals.”
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