N.B. shuffle focuses on elusive population growth: ‘We just can’t find people’
FREDERICTON — It’s not a sale on corn or blueberries advertised on the grocery store road sign in St. Stephen, N.B. Instead, spelled out in bright, bold letters, is the notice “hiring in all departments.”
“In the old days, you know, boy, people would be lining up for those jobs. It used to be very difficult to find jobs around there,” Francis McGuire, president of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, said Tuesday. “Now they can’t fill the jobs.”
The sign highlights the acute labour shortages facing businesses in New Brunswick, the only province in Canada to record a drop in population over a five-year period, according to the 2016 census.
The troubling population decrease has prompted New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant to create a new cabinet portfolio focusing on population growth, part of a major cabinet shuffle unveiled Tuesday in the leadup to next year’s provincial election.