Looking Back and Going Forward
Over the past year I have been saying the word “Action” quite a bit – whether in meetings, commentaries, and beyond, “Action” has driven our agenda at the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce. I wanted to take this time during the summer, when one hopefully gets the chance to reflect and recharge, to talk about the meaning of Action both now and in the months to come.
The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce’s organizational vision is “Stronger Community Through Business Prosperity” and in my first year as CEO I think a lot about the inverse of that vision as well, Business Prosperity Through Stronger Community. There is a reason that our member’s #1 issue is to improve health care and that housing, education and childcare are right up there at the top of member’s issues as well. The things that were once siloed as ‘social’ issues, are now clearly business enablers. We will not be able to continue our current population growth trajectory without making the right investments in our province and our communities that will stimulate the corresponding economic growth required to adequality meet the scope of the challenges we face today and the needs of the future. As I look to these challenges, I often think of how Michael J. Fox once put it, “I like to encourage people to realize that any action is a good action if it’s proactive and there is positive intent behind it.”
At our Annual General Meeting at the end of June, we had the opportunity to reflect on the past year. In a time of change and renewal, the glaring consensus from our work, especially concerning advocacy is the recognition that our province is at a tipping point, in which the state of our recent growth and all the gains that entails, is fragile and cannot continue without the necessary action and alignment of supports.
At the start of 2024 we presented that smart investments were necessary to provide much needed stability, growth, and sustainability within New Brunswick. Based on a glaring urgency to compel action in numerous issue areas affecting our province, we concluded that the consequences of any form of inaction was tantamount to the wrong action.
Corresponding Evidence
On June 20th the New Brunswick Business Council released a report by David Campbell of Jupia Consultants entitled Growing the export economy: Key to New Brunswick’s future prosperity. The report calls attention to the significant decline of New Brunswick’s economic growth in recent years. Contributing to this decline is an identifiable lack of productivity and competitiveness, a low rate of private sector investment and weak exports leading to a growing trade imbalance. The Campbell report presents three initiatives that can be immediately implemented by the provincial government: to create an investment tax credit for companies that invests in automation and digitization, accelerate a path for employers to recruit specialized workers from outside the country, and match the housing incentives of other Maritime provinces to stimulate housing development.
The chambers of commerce of Fredericton, Greater Moncton and the Saint John Region welcomed this report and it was also supported by the leading economic development agencies: Ignite in the Capital Region, Envision Saint John, Economic Development: Southeast Regional Service Commission, as well as the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Association.
To have a viable economy and support social progress, New Brunswick needs a prosperous business sector. Our united position encourages the provincial government and business leaders to embrace a clear growth agenda. Our chamber has continually encouraged decisive action and alignment of government policy to address pressing issues hindering economic growth within the province and we have presented the immediate actions required to regain a competitive balance with our neighbouring provinces.
Housing and Development
The NBBC report stands as another urgent call for action to protect future growth in our province by identifying strategic investments to regain competitiveness with our fellow provinces. As recently as May 7th of this year, the chambers of Fredericton, Greater Moncton and the Saint John Region jointly addressed the Premier of New Brunswick, regarding the pressing issue of housing development. The letter underscored the severe shortage of available housing units in New Brunswick and emphasized the urgent need for increased development. The chambers urged the provincial government to eliminate the provincial portion of the HST on new building construction for purpose-built multi-unit dwellings, aligning with actions taken by other provinces and most importantly, completing reforms to the property tax system, generally referred to as removing the “double tax”. These actions are desperately needed as New Brunswick appears to be a less desirable location for rental housing business. The NBBC Campbell report serves to emphasize our position, as it offers that in the first four months of 2024, Nova Scotia has seen nearly twice as many new housing starts adjusted for population size compared to New Brunswick.
In completing actions to reform our property tax system, removing the provincial portion would result in the rental housing rate being the same as the owner occupied rate in NB, and ultimately presenting the same playing field for developers as our Atlantic Canadian neighboring provinces. Recently, an article entitled “Housing policy subsidizes wealthiest, at expense of the poorest: economist” presented Dr. Herb Emery’s assessment of why housing has become unaffordable in our province. New Brunswick has suffered from charging much higher property tax rates on apartment buildings, as Emery states that construction “remains too flat for apartments”.
This is the exact intent of our call for action, to help enhance and promote the livability of our communities by investing in New Brunswick.
Health Care
We have repeatedly stressed that the New Brunswick must modernize to provide truly world-class health care. To do this, we must utilize all available resources, by responding to the needs of professionals working within the system daily, maximize existing and potential partnerships, and seeking new solutions to long-standing problems. In March, the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Greater Fredericton Area Physicians Staff Organization, hosted our first Physicians Roundtable. Our focus on recruitment of physicians and healthcare professionals must continue, but also be married to a commitment to the innovation and proliferation of interdisciplinary primary care centres. Our intent must be to strengthen the system we have now, while always working to improve to meet the demands of our modern society.
Proactive reforms and timely targeted action affecting this change within the Fredericton Region will require the necessary resources provided by the provincial and federal governments and the effective implementation of evidence-based policies through true communication with healthcare professionals. Another immediate action required is the support and engagement of our local community, referring to the municipal government, the business community, service groups and the efforts of private citizens. By aligning individual community actions, we can create a cohesive and clear message that we recognize the crisis facing the healthcare system in Fredericton and we are all committed to improving it now and for the future.
In highlighting efforts to create this cohesive message, I was thrilled that at our AGM, outgoing President of the Board of Directions of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce Michael Melvin awarded Dr. Jillian Goodyear as the recipient of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce President’s Award. The President’s Award celebrates activity of a business, organization or individual for extraordinary service and contributions that have assisted the Chamber overall, but in particular – during that president’s year. Dr. Goodyear has committed her time and talents beyond demanding professional responsibilities to work with the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce for the improvement of the medical resources available to fellow physicians in service of their patients and our community.
As we continually seek to build a message of action concerning our local healthcare system, immediate actions like attraction and retention of physicians, has been cited by the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation to have a major potential impact, not only on the delivery of care to Fredericton residents, but to the province as a whole. For instance, concerning primary care, a single family practice boosts provincial GDP by $285K. In 2023, 242 vacant physician positions were identified, and if those positions were to be addressed, the spin-off would result in a boost to provincial GDP of over $83 million. We need to identify more tools, more groups and individuals, and more opportunities for action to step forward in our local Fredericton community, to be part of a proactive message of action.
A Forward Direction
The “Action” that we speak of refers to smart strategic investments with long-term gains, creation of synergies of existing resources and identification of strengths for application across multiple issue areas. In Fredericton, we have what we refer to as the knowledge economy, which means knowledge is our resource and strength. We must work to recognize and engage with partners such as our post-secondary institutions, Research NB, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and the numerous companies in Fredericton that offer innovative solutions and supports to social issues and challenges. Moving forward we can engage these partners and resources from the start and proactively seek to solve problems and better our conditions for both business and livability in the Fredericton Region and beyond. From my experience, the biggest innovation is the understanding that to strengthen our community, the most pressing needs and the potential solutions are often connected and require alignment and the action to start.
Morgan Peters is CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, a nationally accredited business organization with more than 1,000 members, that is an actively engaged in policy development and advocacy that affects the competitiveness of our members and the local business environment. The Chamber’s vision is ‘Stronger Community Through Business Prosperity’.
