DAVID CAMPBELL Business Column Sometimes the truth hurts DAVID CAMPBELL Telegraph-Journal Fri, 25 Oct 2013 2:05pm Trevor MacAusland thinks New Brunswickers are a bit too polite. MacAusland, head of the tech company accelerator Propel ICT, spoke to a group of 50 young leaders at the Emerging Leaders Summit earlier this week in Digby on the topic of authentic leadership. He spent some time talking about the importance of being honest with people – even if it meant hurting their feelings. In his view, you aren’t helping people by being too polite to tell them the truth. In my opinion, it is starting to feel like the early 1990s all over again. Back then the province was also adding to the public debt at an unsustainable rate and the economy was teetering on the brink. We pulled out of it then and many older New Brunswickers today shrug their shoulders and assume it is 1992 all over again – that history will repeat itself. But that was then and this is now. It’s time for a little true-telling. In 1992 there were thousands of young, professional and bilingual workers that provided the talent pool for the rise of the customer contact centre industry. Companies in that industry were setting up in the province and receiving thousands of qualified applicants when they posted job opportunities. In 2013 New Brunswick’s customer contact centres are finding it harder and harder to fill even a few positions. I recently talked with a call centre manager who struggled to fill 10 positions. In the mid-1990s, the federal government was in the early stages of an unprecedented period of increasing transfer payments to the provinces. In 2013, the federal government has stopped increasing its transfers to New Brunswick. According to data published by the federal Department of Finance Canada between the fiscal years 2009–2010 and 2013-2014, total transfer payments to New Brunswick remained exactly the same at $2.49 billion per year. Meanwhile, those hard luck provinces in western have received substantial increases in federal transfer payments. Over the same four-year period, transfer payments to Saskatchewan are up 15 per cent and to Alberta up 27 per cent. Some will point out that transfers per capita are still much lower in the West and they are correct. But it still doesn’t change the fact that the two wealthiest provinces right now are getting big ‘raises’ in federal transfers while New Brunswick is not. In the early 1990s, several other New Brunswick industries were on the cusp of a sustained growth spurt including forest products and minerals. In the mid-1990s, there was billions of dollars’ worth of large capital project spending in the pipeline that would support thousands of good paying jobs and significant new tax revenues through the first decade of the 21st century. In 2013, the capital projects outlook is not good. In summary, in the early 1990s the New Brunswick government pulled itself out of a major deficit situation through a combination of austerity, increasing federal transfer payments and significant private sector investment fuelled by a pool of young, surplus workers. In 2013, we have few industries with obvious growth potential, a tight labour market, a bleak outlook for federal transfer payment increases and few large capital projects on the books. The impolite revolution involves people speaking the truth about our current situation and rallying people in support of a new economic growth agenda. We need more entrepreneurs, more immigrants, more natural resources development and more urban growth. People tell me this kind of talk makes them ‘uncomfortable’. I should be more optimistic and talk about all the great things happening around the province. There are good things going on all over New Brunswick. But it is not enough. We do not have enough economic activity to stabilize our fiscal situation nor to support our community and social objectives. Even though sometimes the truth hurts, it is better to have this conversation now rather than later. David Campbell is an economic development consultant based in Moncton. He writes a daily blog, It’s the Economy Stupid, at davidwcampbell. His column appears every Wednesday and Saturday.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 12:54:48 +0000
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