By Andrew Macdonald
Frank McKenna, current deputy chair, wholesale for TD Bank Group, and a former three-term premier of New Brunswick, used an opportunity speaking during an online Zoom presentation earlier this week with the Ottawa-based Public Policy Forum to discuss a perennial favourite topic of his: the need for more immigration in the Atlantic region.
He was first elected Liberal premier in 1987, defeating the Richard Hatfield regime, winning all legislative seats that year and he ruled into the 1990s.
In a fireside chat with Laurel Broten, CEO of Nova Scotia Business Inc, the job generator for the NS government, the former Canadian ambassador to Washington, talked about immigration, and the economy post-COVID-19.
“From my vantage point in Halifax, what I see is a vibrant region, one which is being held up across the country as a COVID success story”, said Broten, referring to the low case loads in the Atlantic.
“We know from our neighbouring provinces it is extremely fragile”, she added.
McKenna asked if COVID is underscoring the resiliency of the region, and providing an opportunity to flourish, responded: “I think we are living in the best of times, in a funny sort of way for Atlantic Canada. I think the pandemic has driven value to the top. People know here we are, largely speaking, safe”.
Frank McKenna says immigration is the solution to an aging population in the Atlantic region. He is a three-term premier of New Brunswick, and now vice-chair at TD Bank Group.
He says the region’s population is respectful of Public Health directives, something not seen elsewhere in the world.
“We also know we can work remotely from here. And that is a good thing, and we have a high degree of connectivity, which we take for granted”, said McKenna, referring to the internet.
“When we take all those things together I see where we now are a major destination for people around the world, who are trying to buy real estate, and move here – sight unseen – and we need to build on that”.
He says there is an opportunity for the region to “sell our quality of life, which is new raising heights, and I think it’s a glorious opportunity for us”.
Housing sales across the Maritimes have been hot, whether Moncton or Halifax, and buyers are coming from Ontario, Calgary and British Columbia, and also the United States, realtors who I have spoken with tell me.
Broten says workers globally are working from home during the pandemic, and that has meant some folk “are choosing Atlantic Canada to work from home”.
Her agency has a current online advertising campaign targeting people outside the region, who are working from home, and her message is they can also work remotely in this region.
In her chat with McKenna, Broten asked him if it is a temporary blip or more permanent with folk choosing the region as their home base to work out of, whether it is New Brunswick, or elsewhere in the region, such as Nova Scotia.
“I think we can” attract new people for the long haul, said McKenna.
“We have to think globally, we can live locally and enjoy this quality of life, and yet we can work globally. Quite frankly we do not have enough citizens here, we need to be citizens of the world”, said McKenna.
“It’s all about the people. When all is said and done, it’s all about the people. And if we have people here who are ambitious, trained, educated and determined, we will be winners”, he added.
“This is going to be a different world”, he stressed. “We have to take advantage of the Crown jewels of Atlantic Canada, our universities and community colleges – they are just world-class – and we need to use them as a beacon to bring people in and to keep them here”.
He said he recently read an article that 10-million people are now jobless in the U.S., and five million are being replaced by robots, adding that is the new reality, and this region has to be innovative.
“We need immigrants – and I can’t say that strong enough. That should be priority 1, 2, and 3, and that is replenishing our population. It is aging and it has been diminishing up until laterally, and we need immigrants and we need to keep them”.
NS Premier Stephen McNeil, who is retiring this Tuesday, welcomed 7,500 new immigrants to his shores in 2019, and the premier says that means NS is marching to a one million population for the first time in its history.
McKenna said the Atlantic Immigration Pilot project just disclosed it has had a 90 per cent retention rate.
“And, we need to build on that and bring these skilled people to our communities and if we do all those things we will be big winners”, said McKenna.
Broten asked McKenna what he has to say to nay-sayers in the region “who want to keep things the same, who don’t want to see increases in population, who worry immigration will change the quality of life for existing citizens?
McKenna said he has two messages. “Number 1, we need more people. Period”.
He referenced a new study which found after former U.S. president Donald Trump shut down immigration, he said it would drive Americans into those jobs.
“The end result of that is in, the experiment is over, and the U.S. dried up its immigration, but employers could not get access to skilled workers. The workers who were unemployed did not go into those jobs. So we need immigration”, McKenna said.
McKenna said also “we must enrich the experiences of our own people, give them the tools, so they too can also participate in this economy”, he added. “We can’t leave people behind”
“It’s more than just warm bodies that we need. We do need those. It is more than our native New Brunswickers, or Nova Scotians and Atlantic Canadians getting work”, said McKenna
“But we need something else that only immigrants can provide, and that is an energy – almost a desperation – coming from places that have known extraordinary hardship and adversity, and coming here with all of their entrepreneurial skills, which makes us better people, and richer people”.
In the fireside chat with Broten, she said the NSBI campaign ‘Work from here’ has been successful, and is helping to increase new residents to NS.
She asked this question of McKenna: “When you think of the future of Atlantic Canada, in this moment of time, where we will come outside of a global pandemic, there is a lot of language about ‘build back better’, what does that mean to you – and what is your message to Atlantic Canada to make sure this is still a vibrant part of our country?”
McKenna responds: “We have to build on our inherent strengths, not create new ones. For example, the human resources. We have had quality people and we have high-quality universities, but it is not universal. We have to produce really strong people”.
“Our people have that ability. When I look across the region in the digital world, we have extraordinary accomplishments of our technology community in the eco-system. It is amazing. We have to build on people and provide more skills to people”.
He adds that the region should not take its quality of life for granted.
“We have to build our connectivity, keep building out rural internet so that everybody gets to share, not just people in cities”, he adds.
“(We need) to protect our beaches, we have trails that contribute to the quality of life, make sure we continue to have affordable housing for everybody – those are all building blocks of what will, I think, be the new Atlantic economy”.
The Meaning of Joe Biden as U.S. President
With Joe Biden as the new American president, Broten asked McKenna, a former ambassador in Washington what his business relationship will be with Canada?
McKenna said: “We have a saying in Washington that is almost always true, ‘If you want a friend, get a dog’. In Washington, it is all about interests, and to the extent our interests coincide with the U.S. administration, I think we’re going to do good business together”.
Then he says: “But they will not always coincide even with a friendly president. I think the Democratic party is inherently friendly towards Canada. We share a lot of values. Biden has a long history with Canada. I think there will be some sympatico at the prime minister-president level – all of that is good”.
“But, it is still all about the interests. We need to establish where our interests are common. And that means we have to figure out how to deal with ‘Buy America’. Why is that important we be a part of that? Well, because of our supply chain and immigration, and we need to ensure to (encourage people) to “Buy Canadian’ too, so Americans are included in that”.
He adds energy is important to America. “We have a big per centage of US energy shut down this week with those horrible storms, so Canadian oil, Canadian gas – all of these are flowing. They need energy security and we can provide it. We’re integrated, we are connected, we have so many pipelines crossing the border on both sides”.
McKenna says the two countries share climate change files, now with Biden more sympathetic to that issue. “We are extraordinary sympatico”.
“We’re further head because of Trump over the last four years. But the new Biden administration will see us as a friend”, on that file,
“We are friends in terms of multilateralism. We all agree we need to be part of a bigger world and share and care, and that includes the Paris Accord, WTO, Iran and the Transpacific Partnership & Comprehensive Agreements”, he says.
“In so many ways we are aligned up nice with the US”.
He says Canada needs the American market. “Look, 40% of our GPD go there. Our kitchen cabinets go out of Shediac and a lot of them go down the US coast. A lot of our Atlantic companies ship right into new England – this is a really important market for us”.
In a Q and A with Zoom viewers, one questioner asked McKenna to name the top three growth areas for the Atlantic.
“I think food, the world is now aware of just how perilous food security is. It so happens we are filled with arable land across our region, whether it is blueberries, apples, or wine production, which is an essential food of course or whether it is potatoes or other commodities, fish etc, I think we can do a much better job in consolidating our strength in food security”, McKenna says.
“Immigration, obviously, we have to grow our population”, he identified as a priority growth area.
“And we also have to make sure the rural areas are included. It can’t be just Halifax & Moncton and Saint John’s. We have to find our rural areas”, he adds.
“And the pandemic gives us some guidance on that. First of all rural areas inherently are safer, more secure. Secondly, with connectivity, people can work from those rural areas, and participate in the global economy”.
Forecasting into the future
Broten asked McKenna to forecast into the next 12 months where the region will be at another time.
“There are a lot of pieces to it and I admire the leadership of our region who have brought us through this terrible affliction relatively safely”, referring to the pandemic, McKenna says.
“I would come back to people again. I want to see our universities and community colleges supported. I think right now the United States and other parts of the world are turning off some of the best minds around, Indian engineers, Iranian chemists, etc. We need to embrace those people. We need to bring them here. So we need to have our universities well funded and well supported”, McKenna points out.
“In terms of immigration. Not only do we need to get them here. (NSBI is doing a great job, New Brunswick has been successful, the whole region, but we need them here. We need to make sure they have jobs”.
“We have to work hard at that and we can’t take it for granted. We need to ensure immigrants get deep roots here, and communities here where people feel comfortable with their food, their religion, language and all the things important to them”.
“I think if we do that it will create an energy and a buzz”, he adds.
“We have affordable housing and security. We have food security and we really really have nice people who take care of their neighbours, and who believe in our collective interests are everyone’s interests. Those are powerful things that the rest of the world has not always experienced”.
“I think we have to work on this population piece, above everything else, to make sure we grow it, secure it, so that everybody’s experience coming here so they will be joyful about and our experiences with them will be joyful, as well”, adds McKenna.
