Chamber won't pick a party, but it will support policies - August 17, 2010

Summer or not, I suspect few New Brunswickers have escaped the fact that an election is on the horizon.

Here at the chamber, we view the coming election period as a great opportunity to exchange ideas and debate the issues that are affecting our province.

In the last two months, members of the chamber's board and staff have met with the local candidate teams from the Progressive Conservative party, the Green party, the New Democratic Party and the Liberal party to share with them important issues for the business community.

During each of these meetings it's been clear to me that we all share the same goal: to see New Brunswick prosper. The fun comes in our personal definitions of prosperity and our varying views on how to achieve it.

The chamber feels strongly that a thriving economy delivers community prosperity. When Fredericton's businesses are successful, they provide incomes and benefits to the city's residents and tax dollars to the province's health care, education and infrastructure coffers. Additionally, when business thrives, contributions to our charitable organizations increase.

Numerous non-profit members such as the United Way, the Cancer Society and Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival rely on the generosity of corporate members such as Bell Aliant, Enbridge and Swift Radius. Their sponsorships and donations help provide these valuable services to Fredericton, improving our collective quality of life.

In order to have a thriving economy, we need strong policies that support the business community. That's why the chamber has been sharing our views with each party, in the hopes that they will agree and support our work. It's worth mentioning that the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce is a non-partisan organization. We represent more than 850 businesses, with owners and staff of all political stripes. We will not endorse a specific candidate or party in the election. However, we will support strong policies and will fight against those that will have a negative impact on our members.

In these discussions, we presented three specific issues the business community would like tackled, along with two general areas that we expect all parties to address in their platforms, and two additional areas that we feel merit attention after Sept. 27.

First, the chamber board reiterated the effectiveness of collaborative-care clinics in attracting health professionals to our city and the need for available health services to support the recruitment efforts of our growing businesses.

We articulated the impact of the rising minimum wage on two groups in our membership - local restaurateurs and young workers, and described the benefit tip and training wages have had in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. We encouraged the next government to give due consideration to the Minimum Wage Board's findings on these instruments.

We also emphasized the critical role the Fredericton airport plays in the business community, facilitating contact with the customers that keep us growing.

The airport has two initiatives that need immediate support, as well as longer-term work with the federal government to help improve the competitiveness of our air industry in the face of stiff American and international pressures.

Two areas that we are urging all parties to speak to in their platforms are deficit reduction and economic development. The chamber will evaluate each party on its ability to provide a clear plan, with reasonable revenue targets, responsible program funding and aggressive payment targets as we work to reduce our high levels of debt.

Hand in hand, any party wanting to govern should present its road map for accelerating our economic success. Our next leadership team needs to produce a clear, focused plan that identifies the strategic target sectors aligned to our province's strengths and unique attributes, and then aggressively pursues investment attraction, research and development support, and job creation within those sectors.

Finally, on behalf of our members, the chamber highlighted the importance of immigration to our businesses and our province. It is our view that Fredericton's future growth and prosperity will rely heavily on our ability to attract and welcome newcomers to our businesses and neighbourhoods.

We would like to see continued efforts to make the process of immigration to New Brunswick smooth and efficient for employers and immigrants alike, and programs such as our Business Immigrant Mentorship Program continue to be a priority.

As you can see, these issues do not sit solely in the world of business, but instead have broad implications for our entire community. Fredericton businesses and chamber members contribute significantly to our city and strong economic, and social policies will help ensure that our businesses continue to succeed so that we can all share in future prosperity.