QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Canadian Heritage—Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Federal Public Service Jobs
May 11, 2022
Minister, I have a follow-up question. In your first answer, you spoke about various agencies located in Atlantic Canada. However, the only national headquarters of any department is Veterans Affairs, and that’s located in Charlottetown.
I would suggest for your consideration that a first step for decentralization of federal government national departments would be to move the national headquarters of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which is currently located on the fifteenth floor of a high-rise office tower on Kent Street in downtown Ottawa — where they cannot see a fisher or the impact of their policies as far as their eyes can see — to Sydney, Cape Breton, home of the Canadian Coast Guard College.
Will you request a study of this opportunity to provide secure, well-paying federal government jobs to all Atlantic provinces so they can enjoy the same benefit that Prince Edward Island currently enjoys with the national headquarters of Veterans Affairs Canada in Charlottetown? That is, over 1,200 permanent jobs are now located in P.E.I., and there are summer student jobs and contract employees who provide professional services to veterans and their families. The pandemic has shown that remote work can be done from anywhere. Why not move more of these national headquarters, jobs and payroll to Atlantic Canada?
Thank you so much for that important question. Again, as I have indicated, there is a lot of benefit to the decentralization of jobs. I am a strong proponent of that as well.
You are absolutely correct. If the pandemic has taught us one thing, namely, it is that we can work from any part of the country; we can work remotely. With respect to ACOA, for example, many of our staff are still working from home but are still extremely — if not even more — efficient with their time. Therefore, when it comes to the decentralization of different departments, I don’t think all jobs need to be in the National Capital Region or in capital areas across the country. I think we can look at ways to disperse jobs across the country in order to provide opportunities for different provinces and territories along the way.
