ATLANTIC CANADA SPOTLIGHT, page 6
Lord Among Most
Visible Canadian Leaders
Visible Canadian Leaders
In an exclusive February 2004 interview with Site Selection, Bernard Lord, Premier of New Brunswick, shared his perspectives on corporate investment and business climate issues in his home province and in his nation as a whole. One of the most highly visible leaders in the country, he was recently touted for national office, but declined in order to fulfill what he sees as his mandate in his home province. Part of that mission was revealed when he was asked what the greatest misconception was about New Brunswick or the Atlantic Provinces in general.
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"I don't know if I'd say it's misconceptions," he said, "it's just sometimes it's no conception at all."
Seeking to change that scenario, he has overseen programs to lower corporate taxes from the highest in Canada to the second lowest -- and that 3-percent rate is slated to go lower still, to 1 percent, in 2007. That's also the year that the current small-business threshold (already high, at CA$400,000) will go to CA$500,000, or US$363,134.
"With a lot of other provinces, the threshold for small business is CA$200,000 of profit, so it makes a big difference," Lord says. "In fact, if my calculations are right, the best place to earn a million dollars profit in Canada and be able to reinvest that in your business is in New Brunswick because of the tax rate that we've put in."
Lord has also helped bring about the province's Innovation Foundation, as well as a new R&D tax credit program that will expand the scope of such credits while simultaneously leveraging more private R&D funds.
"It's a CA$20 million fund that we started last year, and I've given them the mandate that they have to leverage at least CA$100 million," he says. "If they succeed in doing that and if they show us the results, then I'll be happy to invest some more."
The continued success of the province in customer contact centers was given further evidence in May 2004, when Illinois-based Virtual-Agent announced its ninth New Brunswick-based center in Chipman. The new will employ between 30 and 60 people within one year. E-procurement company SG5 Innovation is expanding by 28 jobs in Moncton. The only incentive was a CA$150,000 loan guarantee toward training and other capital expenditures. The firm also has operations in Saint John and in Wyomissing, Pa.
Saint John saw its own innovative investment in April 2004, when San Jose, Calif.-based IT outsourcer CenterBeam Inc. decided to locate its North American solution Center there. The facility will employ up to 290 people within three years.
"Opening the North American Solution Center across the continent from our headquarters in San Jose means we will deliver a level of business continuity services typically found only in the world's largest corporations," said CenterBeam President and CEO Kevin Francis.
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The province's outlook on job training has exactly reversed itself. In the past, 90 percent of programs used to be oriented toward short-term solutions to help people get "work weeks" to count toward unemployment insurance. But now, says Lord, 90 percent of programs are focused on long-term work force training.
Late 2003 saw the province embark on a partnership with a private phone company and the Canadian government to bring high-speed broadband to all educational institutions and industrial parks, and some 90 percent of households.
But even though the province is trying to build a knowledge-based backup economy, its natural resource economy is still going strong. Irving is working on environmental approvals for a CA$500-million energy terminal, and Lord says the potential for LNG terminal development could help turn the city of Saint John into an energy hub for the entire Northeast part of North America.
Meanwhile, another Irving branch -- Irving Personal Care Ltd. -- is investing US$42.7 million in a new diaper plant on 30 acres (12 hectares) in Dieppe's Caledonia Industrial Park. The Moncton-area plant will employ 105 people as it gets up and running during the summer of 2004. Irving has operated a tissue plant in the same area for 13 years, going from a work force of 28 to nearly 200 in that time.
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In response to concerns from business leaders, the province saw in August 2003 the debut of its first direct-to-U.S. flight, Delta from Fredericton to Boston, which has had immediate return. Lord says an executive from GTECH, which recently acquired a New Brunswick lottery terminal manufacturer, told him how pleased he was to have the flight available, and David Innes, present and CEO of the Greater Fredericton Airport Authority, tells him it has exceeded initial expectations. Innes and his Fredericton-area colleagues hope the same holds true for the Authority's new aerospace, defense and business park.
Lord says financial solvency -- long a selling point for his province and for Canada as a whole -- is on the agenda of the Atlantic provinces as a whole. Hard work toward that goal is being accomplished in PEI and Nova Scotia, he says. And harmonization of transportation and insurance regulations has demonstrated Atlantic Canadian progress. But he still wants to see more harmony, which he thinks ought to be especially achievable when the entire region's population is only 2.3 million people -- or approximately half of Greater Toronto's.
Seeing those challenges through is one reason Lord turned down the tempting prospect of a promising national candidacy over the winter. He wants to see things through, and he wants to preserve some semblance of family life.
That said, he and his fellow Atlantic Canadians know traditions anymore are as variable as the tide.
"The world has changed," he says. "It's not a question of whether it is changing. It has changed. And it will change again."
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