MONCTON – Canada is dragging its feet on a number of resource projects and it’s hurting our credibility internationally, says former Quebec Premier Jean Charest.
Charest shared that message with a roomful of political and business elites at a lunchtime speaking series in Moncton Monday.
“The perception of Canada today in international financial markets is that Canada is a country that can’t get its resource projects done,” he said, using Keystone and Energy East pipelines and moratoriums on hydraulic fracturing projects in several provinces as examples.
“We also see a lot of projects that are stuck, are not moving ahead, because we’re not encouraging the right discussion and debate,” he told reporters afterward. “Fracking in New Brunswick is an example, as it is, by the way, in Quebec.”.
“Just saying no and just saying yes, isn’t in and of itself a position,” he said.”There has to be a place where there is an open discussion and again one based on science and based on fact.”
The stop was part of a speaking series organized by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce that has Charest speaking in six cities across the country.
Carol O’Reilly hoped the talk would inspire those who attended to push for initiatives like hydraulic fracturing to move forward.
The CEO of the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce told Global News she saw fracking as a critical part in moving New Brunswick forward.
“We see it as being key in the success of our province and we see that as bringing our province to a level that we can’t even imagine,” Carol O’Reilly said.
Charest also touched on opportunities for increases in exports of wood in New Brunswick, saying that the province should do more to capitalize on the booming housing market in the U.S. that is building about one million new homes a year.
He also said agri-food was another area that could be very successful for New Brunswick, with Canadian lobster being in demand in much of the world. He said the changes that will soon be coming into effect because of the Canada-EU fair trade agreement could potentially improve profits.
Greater Moncton International Airport CEO Bernard LeBlanc told Global News that the airport has been investing over the last number of years to try to take advantage of that.
“Taking advantage of that, the airport has invested quite a bit in the infrastructure. We have longer runways, we have ground handling capabilities, those kinds of things,” he said.
Earlier this year they began offering so-called lobster flights to Europe.
“What they were able to do is bring fresh seafood from Atlantic Canada to Liege in Belgium,” LeBlanc said. “And from there connect to other European ports.”
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