Arlene Dunn’s Cabinet Appointment Shows Immigration Key To N.B.’s Growth
Premier Blaine Higgs’ recent appointment of Arlene Dunn as the minister responsible for immigration is historic, the umbrella organization for the immigration and settlement sector in New Brunswick said.
Dunn is also responsible for Aboriginal affairs, economic development and small business, and Opportunities New Brunswick.
New Brunswick Multicultural Council (NBMC) President Moncef Lakouas says the appointment of an immigration minister signals that the focus has shifted to immigration as the priority for population growth, and that “it’s a good thing for the province.”
Prior to this, immigration was always a pillar under the population growth file, which also focuses on population retention and repatriation.
“We know from a statistics point of view, from the results point of view, that the number one thing that drives most of the results and helps boost population is immigration, so we’re going to do a lot of it,” he said. “We’re not hiding it.”
New Brunswick has the second oldest population in Canada, despite having attracted five times more immigrants in the last year than it did in 1996.
In the lead up to the provincial election, Premier Higgs told Huddle that growing the population is a focus for the province. That includes working with the federal government to change the temporary foreign worker program so they can stay permanently in New Brunswick.
NBMC has called on previous governments to appoint an immigration minister. Now, it wants to see Dunn work with constituents and experts in the province on key issues related to immigration.
That includes affordable and accessible housing, foreign credential recognition, stabilized investments in settlement services, more multicultural representation in government, and addressing systemic barriers faced by Black, racialized and immigrant communities in the province.
Housing is a priority for newcomer attraction and retention. Lakouas said both the private and public sectors should contribute to making it more available.
“You cannot bring immigrants to a place where they cannot find a house. Or if they find a house, it’s not accessible to them, that is taking 50-to-51-percent of their income. It’s not feasible,” he said.
“What we want is housing that is affordable for immigrants and New Brunswickers, and we want to ensure that housing is accessible.”
Lakouas says many newcomers arrive with their families, sometimes with more than four or five children. Yet, some building owners don’t allow or want children in their buildings.
“That is true discrimination,” he said, adding it only hurts retention efforts.
“We need also bigger housing units. So developers need to understand that we need to start thinking about having apartment buildings of more than two bedrooms,” he added. “We need to have that in mind when we construct buildings.”
NBMC also wants to see foreign credentials recognized, particularly as the province needs workers, including in public sectors like health and education.
“It makes no sense to bring the talent, and to pay enough resources to attract them, and try to retain them, and to not allow them to practice the things they’re passionate about when they’re technically qualified to do so, that’s a huge loss to our province,” Lakouas said.
Many immigrants are “extremely qualified” but aren’t able to find “decent jobs” in their field of choice, and after two years, 50 percent of them leave the province, he said.
His wife, a licensed nurse, cannot practice in Canada and has to return to school. Lakouas said instead of paying taxes to the province through her income, she is taking on a student loan.
“We need to make sure that the pool of talent that we do have is matched with the right opportunities, otherwise we just have a leak, and it’s just going to continue to leak and we’re just going to bring in more and they continue to go,” he said.
NBMC has also thrown its support behind Indigenous communities and leaders who have called for a public inquiry into systemic racism in the province.
Lakouas said racialized communities, newcomer or not, stand together because systemic barriers impact them all in one way or another.
“We know that still, until today, some people don’t have jobs because they have different names. People don’t have access to decent jobs or promotions because they’re Black, and we have to address it,” he said. “So we’re united. We stand in solidarity with the First Nations community to denounce any systemic racism whether that be in schools, in our education system, in our health system or our justice system.”
Premier Higgs has been in hot water for his push-back to the demand for a public inquiry. Prior to his re-election, he explained to Huddle that he wants to tackle recommendations that have been done in past studies and “get on with things we can do right now.” At the same time, he said he’s open to an inquiry if the goals are clear.
“I agree, there is indeed a racism issue here and systemic racism is alive and well across our country, and we need to address it,” he said in an interview on the Huddle “Home Office” podcast. “I’m not walking away from [the inquiry], I’m not ignoring it, I believe we just have to have a path forward.”