Battle for Miramichi-Grand Lake focusing on jobs

After years of battling high unemployment levels and dour economic times, three candidates in the Miramichi-Grand Lake riding sayit is time to elect a MP with freshideas on bringing jobs to the region.

Conservatives incumbent TillyO'Neill-Gordon hasheld the riding since 2008 and that has left her open to criticism as the region has been frustrated by a stubbornly high unemployment rate.

NDP candidate PatrickColford, thepresident of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour, says he is feeling confident heading into the election on Monday.

"The word on the street and the word in the real polls being the coffee shops and the barber shopwe're in a good position here," he said.

Colford says the biggest issues voters have been raising are the economy, jobs and the future of theEmployment Insurance program.

"I keep hearing over and over again, it's not the workers here that are seasonal, it's the jobs," he said.

"It's very difficult for a lobster fishermen to go out in the middle of Februaryfishing lobster. It's very difficult for a farmer to be picking potatoes in the middle of winter I keep hearing the dismay and the displeasure that these people have had withthe changes to EI."

Colfordcame second to O'Neill-Gordon in 2011 with 23 per cent of the vote, just edging out the Liberal candidate who received 22 per cent of thevote.

Pat Finnigan, who is running for the Liberals, says as is the case in many rural ridings, people have been forced to commute to Alberta to work because of the lack of jobs in their hometowns.

"This is by far the biggest concern they would like to see jobs here where they could raise their family as they once could."

TillyO'Neill-Gordon did not return calls to CBC News requesting an interview.

Small and medium businessarekey

Finniganis a first-time political candidate, who owns a small farming business in Rogersvillewith 40 employees.

The Liberal candidate says he believes that small businesses are the way to create new jobs for the riding.

"My vision to sustain this area in the long-termis small and medium business, that's what we need and this government has absolutely done hardly anything except off-the-shelf programsso we want to try a different approach," Finnigan said.

Colford says the NDP is also committed to investing in smalland medium-sized business.

"Quite frankly, those are the job creators in our community," he said.

"I'd take 10 small mills that employ 140 people over one large scale mill."

When it comes to creating new jobs, the Liberal candidate said he hopes new jobs could be found by tapping into new foreign markets.

Finnigansaid hebelieves with afree trade agreementwith Europe and the new Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, there is an opportunity for the Miramichi-Grand Lake riding to find new markets for its rich natural resources.

"We have tremendous resources here whether it's fisheries, forests, agriculture or even mining," he said.

"I think we could offer tremendously to the new market and get our businesses back on their feet."

Payroll centre applauded, but not enough

Green candidate Matthew Clark, Colford andFinnigan all applaud the incumbent Tory MPfor her work to bring a federal payroll centre and 550 jobs to Miramichi.

However, all three candidates say they agree that those jobs haven'tbeen enough.

"The Conservatives have been there since 2008 and they've only brought in the payroll centre jobs," Clark said.

"They've spent $80 million to build a brand new building from scratch instead of taking other buildings that are just sitting unused in Miramichi that you could have probably spent less money retrofitting."

The Green candidate argues the money saved could have gone to support small businesses in the region.

"They're bringing some jobs, but they're losing more than they're bringing in so they should be applauded but I would say they haven't done enough to keep existing jobs."

Finnigan saysafter two terms in office, O'Neill-Gordon and the Conservatives should have more to show for the region than the payroll centre.

"About half of those jobs came from outside, they just displaced them from another community, but there's very little work for tradespeople looking to come back home," he said.

'People are not pleased'

The NDP's Colford saidmany people in the riding thinkO-Neill-Gordonhas done a good job in the past seven years, but that may not be enough.

"People are not pleased with Stephen Harper's Conservatives and they're going to make sure that Tilly[O-Neill-Gordon] feels the sting of that on election night," hesaid.

Finnigan says with an aging population in New Brunswick, Ottawa needs to workwith the provincial government to create a tailored approach to improve the economy.

"This prime minister, over the last 10 years, has refused to sit down withthe premiers and look at not a cookie-cutter approach," he said.

"The needs of New Brunswick are totally different from the needs of Alberta or Ontario."