Carney's top priority should be getting economy going, N.B. analyst says

Prime Minister Mark Carney made promises during the election campaign about making life more affordable for Canadians, but his priority should be "getting the economy going again," says David Campbell, a former adviser to the New Brunswick government on economic matters.

"There are also other more structural, longer-term issues around the lack of investment in Canada, lack of natural resources development," Campbell said. "The number one priority is to get started on good policies to foster economic development."

The first step toward achieving that would be to negotiate a new deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to end the current tariff war, he said. And the government has to take New Brunswick interests into account, he said.

The U.S. is New Brunswick's largest export market in sectors such as forestry, fisheries and oil products, Campbell said. The federal government needs to understand this as it looks to negotiate a deal that reopens free trade markets for central Canada in the auto and aluminum and steel sectors. 

"We need to make sure that our interests are included in any negotiation or discussion with the U.S. around a new [trade] deal," said Campbell, who now has an economic development consulting business in Moncton.

As it tries to normalize trade relations with the U.S., the country also needs to focus on other global export markets, Campbell said, and bring down internal trade barriers in Canada — both opportunities Carney and his Liberal Party promoted on the campaign trail. 

"Historically, the big New England market was closer to us than central Canada and certainly closer than western Canada," Campbell said. "So when we did deals to foster more trade, it just made more sense to be exporting into New England.

"But now, because of the potentially longer-term nationalism and populism in the U.S. … we do need to look at more inter-provincial trade and other options."

Campbelll said the province should take advantage of its natural strengths as it looks to trade more goods and services across Canada and abroad.

"We've seen growth in the information technology services sector," he said. "We have a very strong insurance brokerage sector, so if people's cars break down in Alberta, they tend to be calling Moncton to [process] their claims.

"So there's some really interesting stuff on the services side where we have strengths because of our bilingual workforce."

On the goods side, maybe there are more markets in Canada and abroad for New Brunswick agriculture products, "even things like maple syrup," he said.

He also said the province needs to look at natural resource development projects because "it's something that Trump can't take away from us."

Carney may have his marching orders from voters on the economy, but he has to get things done as leader of a minority government.