QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Canadian Heritage—Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Federal Public Service Jobs
May 11, 2022
Minister, thank you for being here. I hear nothing but positive comments about the work you are doing as Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. It’s in that capacity that I want to ask you a question.
One of your duties regarding ACOA is to “. . . promote . . . long-term job creation and economic development in Atlantic Canada . . . .” To that end, will you be instructing ACOA officials to look at increasing regional employment opportunities by reversing the concentration of federal government jobs in the greater Ottawa area? Historically, only one third of federal jobs were based in the greater Ottawa area, but that has grown in recent years to almost one half.
Given the success many years ago of moving the national headquarters of Veterans Affairs Canada to Charlottetown, bringing some 1,600 employees and an annual payroll of over $120 million, can you, as minister, push for more federal departments to relocate their national headquarters to the other provinces of Atlantic Canada?
Thank you, senator. It is great to see you as well. Thank you for your great representation of Prince Edward Island.
ACOA is a fantastic department. I’ll say it again: The secret sauce is the boots on the ground in Atlantic Canada, because they know the pulse of what’s going on in the communities.
I absolutely agree with you, senator, that more jobs need to be diverted to local areas. When I was part of the Treasury Board a few years ago, every time we had Treasury Board submissions that would come forward for approvals, I would always ask where the jobs would be located. Do they always have to be in the big centres, or can they be in smaller areas as well? It’s important to me to ensure that not all jobs are in Ottawa or the big cities.
I use my being in the Moncton area as an example. In Shediac we have a pay centre with more than 500, if not 600, employees working there. The employees stay there for 20 to 30 years. They are good-paying jobs. They retire in our communities as well. We have a lot to learn from putting into place those types of centres in different parts of the country to provide economic opportunities, not just for the big centres but also for regional areas.
Thank you so much for your question. I will absolutely continue in that vein to make sure that jobs are dispersed across the country.
