Touted Jobs Board not bearing fruit as leadership vacancies linger

One of Premier Brian Gallant's most highly-touted job initiatives has not yielded direct, tangible results and is now without two of the three high-profile recruits who were brought in to run it.

The Jobs Board, which Gallant called "a fresh opportunity" for economic development when he created the nine-member committee of cabinet ministers, still exists but is no longer chaired by the premier.

And the politician who runs it now, Treasury Board President Roger Melanson, said it's too early to see concrete outcomes.

"The results are not always right away," he said.

"Some can be, and some can be farther."

Even so, Melanson said the board is doing what it was supposed to do: working across departmental silos to help create jobs "to bring everybody to the same table, and identify and eliminate some of the barriers," he said.

But the central role played by the board's "secretariat" three senior staffers hired from the private sector is a question mark.

One of them left government in May 2016. A second is on maternity leave. And the third will soon be devoting part of his time to another senior government position. The two who are not in their jobs have not been replaced.

"We're looking at that situation right now," Melanson said.

"It just happened recently."

The unfilled departures are more evidence the Jobs Board was just a stunt, according to Opposition Progressive Conservative MLA Bruce Fitch.

"It was just an exercise in perception or appearance," he said.

"When the results weren't there, it seems to have just disbanded, and the individuals who were hired with lots of fanfare and hype are working in different areas now."

A plan, then 16 summits

Gallant said when he created the board, it would work with Opportunities New Brunswick "to better co-ordinate" job-creation efforts.

In September 2016, the province released an economic growth plan the Jobs Board had worked on.

Since then, the board has been involved with the organizing of 16 "opportunities summits" to discuss the plan with business and community leaders from various economic sectors.

I don't think it had the success they intended.- Opposition MLA Bruce Fitch

Fitch said there's "nothing new or innovative" to organizing conferences and said the Jobs Board appears to have done work ordinary civil servants could easily have done instead.

"A lot of this work was being done anyway, so it was just a rebranding or rehash of some of the events that had taken place in the past," he said.

"People would have had the perception that this was going to create jobs."

Opportunities New Brunswick, the Crown corporation that offers payroll rebates to companies that create jobs, did not respond to a request for an interview about how the Jobs Board has contributed to its efforts.

Star recruits

In early 2015, Gallant announced he had recruited three "private sector leaders" to staff the Jobs Board Secretariat. Its annual budget has been about $1 million.

At the time, Gallant said the trio would "work to set the conditions for growth so that we can help our province's businesses and entrepreneurs create jobs which will, in turn, help improve our finances."

But just three years later, each of them is either gone or facing a reduction in the time they devote to the board.

Jacques Pinet, the CEO and a former insurance company executive, will begin dividing his time May 1 between the Jobs Board and the position of deputy minister at the Regional Development Corporation.

David Campbell, a high-profile economic development consultant, signed on as "chief economist" but left that job last year to take over a new energy corporation created by NB Power and the province.

And Susan Holt, the board's "chief of business relationships," is on maternity leave from her position. At the same time, she is campaigning to become the Liberal candidate for Fredericton South in this fall's election.

Melanson suggested those holes might soon be filled. The government is looking at "how we can address that," he said. "But the work continues."

He said the board is monitoring "very closely" how the economic plan is put in effect.

New chair

There's also been a change in political responsibility.

In the 2014 Liberal election platform, the party promised a jobs board "chaired by the premier." Gallant chaired the committee of ministers when the board was set up, but Melanson took over in 2016.

Fitch calls that a "downgrade" of the board's importance within government, which he attributes to a Liberal realization that it wasn't producing clear results.

"I don't think it had the success they intended," he said. "Or it was just an exercise in PR and didn't end up accomplishing what was supposed to happen."

Melanson said Gallant chaired the board while it was developing the plan ahead of the September 2016 release. "Now we want to execute that, and he's given me that responsibility."

Plan with pillars

The report said economic growth would be fuelled by five "pillars" people, innovation, capital, infrastructure, and "agility."

The report also touted several "opportunities" for growth in the province, including NB Power's adoption of smart grid technology, blueberries, legal cannabis, cybersecurity, and the Energy East pipeline.

Some of those proposed opportunities have already lost their lustre.

The pipeline was cancelled last year, and two separate experts have recommended NB Power not install the smart metres needed for its smart grid initiative.

And while the report said New Brunswick would become "the largest producer of blueberries in the world," a consultant's report warned that a growing global supply of blueberries could drive prices down.

Melanson acknowledged the blueberry market is "a bit unclear right now, but it is moving forward."

But in other areas, he added, "some of that is moving forward. Cybersecurity is moving forward. Cannabis is moving forward."