Opportunities NB places staff in regional service commissions

The Gallant government's high-profile job-creation agency is refusing to talk about a new plan that will see it place its hand-chosen employees in each of the province's 12 regional service commissions.

Opportunities New Brunswick will hire and pay the salaries of 12 "community economic development executives" to work with the commissions, which were created to deliver shared local government services and include representatives of municipalities and local service commissions.

Even though at least one of the commissions has already voted at a public meeting to approve the plan, the agency won't discuss it.

"While it would be premature to comment as the consultations are ongoing, ONB would be happy to provide more information on this once the consultations are complete," a spokesperson for Opportunities New Brunswick said in an email statement.

Miramichi group favours partnership

Those consultations appear to already be complete in at least one region of the province: the Greater Miramichi Regional Service Commission recently voted in favour of a memorandum of understanding with Opportunities New Brunswick on the issue.

The province and ONB have been great partners for us and have listened when we communicated our priorities, so there was no reason not to try this.Adam Lordon, Miramichi mayor

Miramichi Mayor Adam Lordonand the majority of commission members voted in favour of it, while two members voted against it.

"While some of the other representatives may have been hesitant, I was speaking from our experience," Lordon said.

"The province and ONB have been great partners for us and have listened when we communicated our priorities, so there was no reason not to try this."

A draft of the memorandumsaid the two organizations will "jointly determine the general fields and specific subjects of collaboration" to create jobs in each region.

'Hijacking' of companies a concern

But PC MLA Jeff Carr said he's worried the plan will lead to a top-down approach dictated from Fredericton, either by Opportunities New Brunswick CEO Stephen Lund or Premier Brian Gallant.

He said a company being recruited to one area of the province by a regional service commission could end up being persuaded by the job agency's head office to go somewhere else.

"If they do come up with some ideas, these ideas would go centrally, in Stephen Lund's office or the premier's office, and perhaps the companies could be hijacked and moved to more urban areas, or more politically friendly areas," he said.

The draft memorandum said the new hirings will allow for "region-specific" economic development.

The statement from Opportunities New Brunswick said the approach will follow the Liberal government's economic growth plan released last year.

• Gallant government unveils economic plan
• New Brunswick jobless rate dips in May with 700 new jobs

That document proposed focusing job-creation efforts on areas where the government seespotential growth, such as smart grid technology, blueberry cultivation and processing, legalized cannabis and cybersecurity.

"We do not want to return to a centralized economic development model directed and funded by government," the report said, calling for "strong local leadership" and "developing specific attributes and opportunities in each region of the province."

More power over job-competition

Lordon said the Miramichi commissioner's staff was assured by Opportunities New Brunswick "that this person will help us on identifying and pursuing the opportunities that we consider a priority, rather than a top-down approach of ONB dictating what industries or opportunities we're going to pursue."

The greater role for Opportunities New Brunswick, created by the Gallant Liberals in 2015, comes at the same time the province is giving municipalities more power to compete with each other for jobs by letting them offer their own job-creation grants.

Lordon said the agency will cover the cost of the salaries and will choose who gets the jobs.

"It will be at their discretion to hire the person and to pay for the position, but then that person will work in partnership with the regional service commission."

But Carr said that raises more questions about who will be calling the shots. As an agency employee, the person may feel more of an obligation to head office than to the local mayors and other regional representatives on the commission board.

He pointed out that earlier this year, Lund, the agency CEO, refused to tell a committee of MLAs whether companies that received subsidies from the agency were meeting their job-creation targets.

• Opportunities NB boss won't say if companies hitting job-creation targets
• Municipalities 'get freedom to be creative' in attracting jobs, development

"The trust issue is there now," Carr said.

"Can we trust Stephen Lund and ONB to respect the RSCs and their decision-making, and not override his economic development officers and bring those projects to other areas?"