Industries in P.E.I. see positives in new federal budget, but workforce worries persist

Prince Edward Island’s business community is cautiously optimistic about investments in the new federal budget, though there are concerns about finding enough people to sustain the workforce.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget includes big-ticket items to combat a dismal economic outlook — unemployment is up, business uncertainty has spiked and productivity is weak across the country. 

Bianca McGregor, CEO of the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce, said it remains to be seen whether the federal government can pull off what it’s trying to achieve in what she called a “bold” budget. 

“We’re really optimistic and excited to see the defence spending and how our aerospace cluster can take advantage of that and work within the region to sort of leverage more work here on P.E.I.,” McGregor said. 

“There’s lots of positives for [agriculture] and food production, lots of infrastructure investment for things like export diversification.” 

The 406-page budget calls for $141 billion in new spending over the next five years, which will partially be offset by some $51.2 billion in cuts or a total of $60 billion in cuts and “savings.”

When it comes to that defence spending that could benefit P.E.I.’s aerospace industry, it includes an $81-billion funding package for the Canadian Armed Forces — including a Buy Canadian procurement plan.  

But the budget also includes a plan to slash immigration after years of what the federal Liberals describe as unsustainable growth. Temporary foreign workers and students will see the steepest cuts with admissions falling by about half, with the intent being to help more homegrown workers get jobs. 

Joe Byrne, president of the Cooper Institute in P.E.I., hoped to see more help for people living on the Island under work permits. 

He said the province and the country desperately need workers to fill jobs, but Ottawa is putting more restrictions on the people it needs to do that work. 

“I think we’re going to find a lot of sectors that are going to struggle just to stay open,” he said. 

“The federal government consistently looks at workers as just a cog in the economic wheel, and if we would make it so that workers would have liveable wages, sustainable and decent employment, there would be all kinds of workers.... 

“We make it consistently hard for people who have made a commitment to this country to be able to continue that commitment.”

The immigration reductions have come largely in response to a rapid population growth that’s placed pressure on everything from health care to housing.