Immigration fuels Atlantic Canadian 'economic renaissance,' authors argue
If the region could maintain a 'modest level of population growth through immigration,' its future would be 'fairly bright,' Campbell said.
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The authors point again to P.E.I. The province was able to leverage a greater share of the federal immigration allotment to develop its biosciences and aerospace sectors.
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Mills points to the island's BioAlliance, a private sector-led not-for-profit organization dedicated to building the bioscience industry in P.E.I. that just celebrated its 20th anniversary. 'Over that period of time they've grown it to … 60 companies and the last time I looked their annual revenues were exceeding $600 million — mostly export dollars, which are really valuable.'
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As many as 3,000 people are employed in the cluster, Mills said, equating it to auto manufacturing in Ontario.
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The authors make a series of other recommendations to maintain East Coast economic momentum, including 'becoming a green energy superpower' by setting up offshore wind power platforms off places like Sable Island, and developing small modular nuclear reactors. Nova Scotia's Progressive Conservative government has introduced legislation allowing the province's power utility to own a nuclear plant.
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Campbell and Mills also push for measures easing natural resource development, which could help Atlantic Canada move away from its dependence on equalization payments.
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'If you really want to eliminate or significantly reduce transfer payments you've got to develop your natural resources, including natural gas, and if you have it, oil,' Campbell said. 'Because the reality is, if you look at the provinces in Canada that are the strongest, they are the provinces that have oil and gas.'
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A Fraser Institute survey last year of senior mining executives found that, in terms of government policy, Nova Scotia was 'the least-attractive province, ranking 36th out of 86 jurisdictions, with only the Northwest Territories and Nunavut performing worse in Canada.'
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'Miners are skittish because every time somebody wants to do a mine, the pitchforks come out,' Campbell said. 'People are really, really nervous about mining, oil and gas, and aquaculture — anything that might have any kind of an impact on the environment. And we've got to find a way to get people beyond that and accept the fact that you've got to develop your natural resources. You have to have high environmental standards, but if they can do it in Saskatchewan, if they can do it in B.C., if they can do it in Alberta, we have to be able to do it down here.'
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The authors also argue the region needs to 'become more tax competitive' by lowering personal income tax rates and ensuring corporate taxes are competitive.
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A recent Fraser Institute study indicates that 'Nova Scotia (at 21 per cent) and Newfoundland & Labrador (at 21.8 per cent) have the highest top marginal provincial personal income tax rates in Canada. New Brunswick (at 19.5 per cent) and Prince Edward Island (at 19 per cent) are also higher than most other provinces.'
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'This should be an opportunity to bring our taxes in line with other provinces in the country,' Mills said. 'But the biggest problem that we still have is governments continue to spend way over what they bring in. That is a systemic problem. Until we get that under control, it's going to be very difficult to get our taxes under control.'
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