Population growth key to development and prosperity

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Throughout our province, change is all around us. From home construction to new businesses opening, from families expanding and newcomers settling in the province, growth is evident in many communities across New Brunswick. Our province is home to an increasing diversity of people and cultures, and I think this is something we can all be proud of.

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Hon. Greg Byrne

In fact, the population of New Brunswick increased by 2,600 last year alone - ending the longest period of population decline in our province since the Great Depression. This growth is not occurring in isolation, but is taking place thanks to New Brunswick's stellar economic growth and due to the efforts of New Brunswick's Population Growth Secretariat.

The Population Growth Secretariat is responsible for immigration, repatriation, settlement services and retention activities throughout the province as well as helping coordinate population growth activities across government and the private sector. The Secretariat has been working in a number of key areas to encourage population growth and support the province's goal of 6,000 new New Brunswickers by the end of next year and by 25,000 by 2015. By reaching these population goals, we will better position ourselves to achieve our goal of self-sufficiency by 2026. It is for this reason that we have continued investing in population growth activities and why we increased the budget for the Population Growth Secretariat by 63 per cent this year.

As a result of our efforts, we saw a significant turnaround in people coming to New Brunswick from other provinces over the past year. Many of these people found jobs through the www.nbjobs.ca website and we are committed to increasing the profile of this web resource in the coming year. In addition, we have increased the number of immigrants to New Brunswick by 58 per cent in the last fiscal year through the Secretariat's Provincial Nominee Program.

While these increases are encouraging, we must do more than simply attracting new people. That is why we have developed a comprehensive population growth strategy, entitled "Be our Future," based on three pillars: attracting more immigrants and people from other provinces; encouraging current New Brunswickers, especially our young people and new immigrants, to remain in the province; and family-friendly policies as incentives for people to settle and remain in New Brunswick to grow their families.

Since we announced the strategy, more than a dozen actions have already been taken to put the plan into place. These include adding more resources to the Provincial Nominee Program; investing in a new entrepreneurial mentoring program, creating new orientation material for newcomers, as well as investing in language training, multicultural organizations, and settlement agencies serving rural areas. The Population Growth Secretariat has also petitioned the federal government for more support for francophone immigration and to give New Brunswick an expanded role in temporary foreign worker selection.

Like many jurisdictions across North America, New Brunswick faces demographic challenges. These challenges include our aging population, out-migration, skilled worker shortages and low fertility rates.

To meet the demographic challenges and projected need for skilled workers in our province, significant recruitment efforts and partnerships between government, communities and the private sector will be required.

The challenges ahead and the population decline in past years have not gone unnoticed by New Brunswickers. In fact, research tells us that many New Brunswickers believe a declining population has a direct impact on our quality of life.

To prevent population decline, and continue on our path of growth, we must increase our efforts to convince more and more individuals to be themselves, belong and be better here in New Brunswick. I encourage those readers who have seen one or more of their loved ones move away, to speak to them about the changing face of New Brunswick. Why not take a few seconds to direct them to: www.nbjobs.ca? They may realize that New Brunswick really is the place to be.