The province has decided to close six tourism and heritage sites across New Brunswick this year, including Sheriff Andrews House, as part of overall cuts to spending.
It comes amid a ballooning deficit expected to hit $1.39 billion. Finance Minister Rene Legacy announced $15.6 billion in new spending, mainly in health care, housing and education.
Oak Bay Provincial Park, near St. Stephen is also on an overall list of 10, but will remain open this year while transition discussions take place as well as Anchorage Provincial Park and Campground on Grand Manan.
“It’s more specifically any organization that is under 5,000 visitors and is provincially owned,” Legacy said in an interview with The Courier. “When we talked to Tourism and Culture, they mentioned the funds they do have are very spread out.”
Officials from the Town of Saint Andrews said it was not given advanced notice of the decision, saying the partnership has existed for years, and came as a surprise. Town staff said the closure will be brought to council for further discussion.
Legacy said the idea would be to show other more success sites further financial support.
“To be honest, I’ve talked to different heritage groups. They were very open to those discussions,” he said. “They actually had a couple of examples of organizations that formerly were owned by the province and had been converted either transferred to municipalities or local groups and they’re actually doing much better, in a healthier manner.”
Legacy said he understands that tourism-based economies like Saint Andrews and Grand Manan rely on their heritage attractions, but the visitation numbers must support the funding allocation.
“They [Tourism, Heritage and Culture] felt the pressure, not only operationally [as] a lot of these organizations need heavy dollars in capital,” he said. “When you see less than 1,500 people going to an organization … and we’re being asked to supply $15 [or] $19 million sometimes, it’s hard to justify the cost.”
Grand Manan Mayor Bonnie Morse said she was surprised that Anchorage Provincial Park and Campground was on the list. She said the park is now operated by the Boys and Girls Club.
“The village was very involved in sort of the initial part of that process because we wanted to ensure that the Anchorage stayed open for the community and for visitors to the island,” she said in an interview with The Courier.
The park, she explained, plays a significant role in the community both for visitors, but also islanders.
“Certainly when you look in the summer with the tourism industry, accommodation is a huge issue for people coming to the island and the campground is really used a lot in the summer,” she said. “Even some islanders will go there and spend like a week or a few weeks away from their home.”
It is unclear, at the moment, Morse said about how the Village of Grand Manan and the BGC will move forward. She said they have reached out to the organization, as well as the tourism minister.
“So to lose that accommodation for the tourism industry is a huge blow to them to have potentially, that many fewer visitors, here on the island,” Morse said.
She said nothing is currently on or off the table, but added the village and the BGC have one year to figure out the next steps.
Health, education spending
A large portion of the budget is being spent on health, a significant priority for the Holt government. The province is planning to spend $710 million.
The government signed a new physician service agreement that accounts for $170 million. Another $30 million is allotted for 12 more collaborative care clinics this year.
It expects to spend $50 million to continue the expansion and enhancement of the digital records systems in health care.
Premier Susan Holt and Legacy have said the investment the government is making now will create transformational change in how New Brunswickers receive health care.
“We felt it was the right time to, as a generational investor, to adjust and make this case to just solidify our health care so we can start moving forward on other aspects, including our economy,” Legacy said in an interview.
The government said it will also invest $19.8 million for educational assistants in both the Anglophone and Francophone sector.
Of that money, $1.4 million is to support recruitment and retention through “onboarding, mentorship and workplace improvements.”
But among the spending reductions is the consideration of school closures for those with fewer than 100 students.
According to a report by CBC New Brunswick, Fundy Shores, Deer Island, Back Bay, and Lawrence Station could see closures.
Legacy told The Courier that the district education councils (DECs) have come with some creative solutions amid the proposal for cuts.
“I find it interesting that we’re having these discussions now before there’s a pending closure, because typically these discussions happen at the 11th hour when there’s a little bit of panic that sets in,” he said.
He said they are not in a scenario where the government will automatically start closing schools at a certain level.
The Courier reached out to the District Education Council (DEC) for Anglophone South and is awaiting a response.
“Every school has a story to tell,” he said. “Some we can make a move on, but we’ll do it according to the policy, and we’ll do it with the conversation with our DECs and our municipalities.”
New Brunswick Teachers’ Association (NBTA) President Heidi Ryder said it was encouraged to see increased investment in education.
She said there is a process for the DECs to follow on how to select schools that may close. Policy 409 outlines when a DEC should perform a sustainability study on an educational facility.
Ryder said the focus must be on how to keep class sizes small, focused and well-resourced, no matter what decisions are ultimately made.
“We’re happy to see education as a priority, absolutely, and now we’ll be looking at the details to see if our priorities are in there within that education budget somewhere,” she said in an interview with The Courier.
She said the NBTA is looking to create flexibility in teachers’ time to address the complex needs of classrooms, but also tackle a plan for comprehensive retention and recruitment.
Housing and affordability
The province also is investing in housing, including $17 million for a new community housing retention and expansion project for low-to-moderate income New Brunswickers.
Another $10.2 million for wrap around housing supports, $4.4 million to index social assistance rates to inflation and $98.1 million to continue the residential electricity rebate.
As for the balanced budget promise, Legacy said given the circumstances available during the campaign, it felt it could do that.
“We did promise that we were going to try to keep a balanced budget. We also promised that we were going to make significant efforts to improve health care, improve our education system, and make things more affordable for New Brunswickers,” he said.
The full details of the budget are available online.
