By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
New Brunswick has launched a strategy with the goal of growing tourist spending from $2.7 billion to $3.7 billion annually within five years.
The Holt Liberal government came up with the glossy document after conducting a survey with 8,600 New Brunswickers and consulting with tourism businesses, Indigenous organizations, and accommodation and campground owners.
“The industry is extremely important,” Isabelle Thériault, the tourism minister, told reporters at the legislature last week after the plan was released. “It contributes a lot of money. It creates a lot of jobs. That’s why we want to grow the sector, so that tourism spending can reach $3.7 billion by 2031.”
Her department doesn’t necessarily plan on spending any more money in upcoming years, as the Liberal government is struggling to pay for promised improvements in health and education while trying to balance its overall budget.
Premier Susan Holt has already admitted it will have to go into the red until the end of its mandate, with a $669-million deficit expected by March 31 alone.
Thériault said her department simply has to spend the money it has wisely in the right areas to boost an industry that already supports 30,000 jobs.
This includes building on the province’s “Quebec advantage,” given how many people speak French in New Brunswick, expanding the Ontario market, where four out of every 10 Canadians live, and appealing to the U.S. northeast, a neighbouring region that’s home to close to 60 million people, according to the plan.
It also calls for a four-season strategy that extends the industry’s traditional “shoulder season,” spring and fall, to year-round.
Mary Wilson, the tourism critic for the biggest opposition party, the Progressive Conservatives, said there was plenty of good in the plan. Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but see the Liberal government’s shortcomings.
“Their past proceeds them in their first budget. They reduced the tourism budget by almost $1 million,” she said, referring to the $900,000 cut to the department, whose estimated spending last year of $20.6 million dropped to a spending plan of $19.7 million this year.
“The minister stated in the legislature that her government will build a tourism sector that is strong, resilient and innovative, one that generates prosperity and opportunity for all, and how every region is valued, but does all for all include the historic MacDonald Farm provincial heritage place in Miramichi that closed this summer due to lack of funding from support of this government?”
She also pointed to Ministers Island, near Saint Andrews, where organizers of the non-profit organization that run the historic site, once the summer home of the business titan William Van Horne, complained they were running out of money and in danger of shutting down the big tourism draw.
“Can you imagine if Ministers Island in Saint Andrews closed?” Wilson said.
(The minister, for her part, told Brunswick News her government would keep listening to the organizers of both sites to try to come up with solutions to keep their properties open. She also blamed the previous Tory administration for never increasing their budgets.)
Wilson said government had to get out of the way by helping tourism businesses keep expenses down, including taxes.
“We’re not competing well in taxes in Atlantic Canada,” said the MLA for Oromocto-Sunbury, pointing out that the small business corporate tax rate in New Brunswick is 2.5 per cent, whereas in neighbouring Prince Edward Island it is one per cent and in Nova Scotia 1.5 per cent.
Newfoundland and Labrador recently announced it would reduce its rate to one per cent.
Megan Mitton of the small Green opposition party said she wants to see the government champion public transportation, making sure there are better connections between the regions, and improve electric vehicle charging stations. New Brunswick is behind more populated places on both counts, and tourists expect to find them when they visit, she said.
Mitton also said roads had to be properly maintained and repaired in tourism corridors.
“We need to ensure roads like Route 955 can be driven on safely, let alone smoothly,” she said, re- ferring to the highway that takes people to Murray Beach Provincial Park in southeastern New Brunswick near her riding of Tantramar.
“We definitely need to ensure that our transportation infrastructure is going to be welcoming to people. I have had people contact me from other provinces because they often travel through my riding and complain about Route 16 and so we need to see some improvements there. Certainly, you can’t do all of this without any spending.”.
Route 16 connects New Brunswick with the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island.
If 2025’s tourism season is any indication, the goal could well be surpassed. The province estimates that tourism spending grew from $2.5 billion in 2024 to $2.7 billion this year, a leap of $200 million, or eight per cent. Many people say the long, warm summer, with little rain, helped immensely.
If spending continued to grow at that pace over five years, it would be a 40 per cent increase, reaching $3.78 billion, a full $80 million more than targeted.
Asked why the strategy came up with a rounded, exact figure of a $1-billion increase in business revenues, the minister said tourism operators and other partners agreed it was a realistic goal.
“We said that target, and everybody seemed to be okay with it,” she said. “So, everybody thought it was achievable.”
