Restaurants Canada welcomes New Brunswick’s new cabinet

Published September 29, 2020

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has unveiled his new 16-member cabinet. Below are members from the new cabinet with positions of particular interest to the province’s foodservice community:

  • Blaine Higgs — Premier, President of the Executive Council, Minister responsible for Intergovernmental Affairs
  • Ernie Steeves — Minister of Finance and Treasury Board
  • Arlene Dunn — Minister responsible for Economic Development and Small Business, Minister responsible for Opportunities New Brunswick, Minister responsible for Immigration, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs
  • Gary Crossman — Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Minister responsible for the Regional Development Corporation
  • Daniel Allain — Minister of Local Government and Local Governance Reform
  • Hugh J. A. (Ted) Flemming, Q.C. — Attorney General, Minister of Justice and Public Safety
  • Trevor Holder — Minister of Post-secondary Education, Training and Labour
  • Tammy Scott-Wallace — Minister of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, Minister responsible for Women’s Equality

Restaurants Canada will soon be setting up meetings with these ministers to discuss the measures recommended in our Menu for Recovery to help foodservice businesses pull through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Election paves way for stronger mandate to support COVID-19 recovery

Ending a streak of four consecutive single-term governments, New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservatives won re-election on Sept. 14 with a majority government for Premier Blaine Higgs.

After two years of leading the province’s first minority government since 1920, Premier Higgs now has a strong mandate to move forward with measures to get New Brunswick through the rest of the COVID-19 crisis.

New Brunswick’s hospitality sector remains hardest hit

A thriving foodservice and hospitality sector is critical to the vitality of communities across New Brunswick, contributing to jobs, investment, innovation, tourism and spaces for people to come together.

Not only was New Brunswick’s restaurant industry among the first and hardest hit by the impacts of COVID-19, the sector will also be among the slowest to recover.

According to a Restaurants Canada survey conducted during the summer:

  • The majority of New Brunswick’s restaurants are still not profitable: 47% of survey respondents said they are operating at a loss and 24% said they are just breaking even.
  • More than half of restaurants still operating at a loss expect to take at least a year to return to profitability:
    • 10% said 6 months or less.
    • 33% said 7 months to a year.
    • 43% said between a year and 18 months.
    • 14% said more than 18 months.

Restaurants Canada looks forward to working with New Brunswick’s new cabinet and all members of the newly elected legislature toward policy changes that will help foodservice businesses survive the ongoing crisis and continue contributing to their communities.

If you have any questions or would like more information, you can get in touch with Luc Erjavec, Restaurants Canada Vice President, Atlantic Canada, at lerjavec@restaurantscanada.org or 1-800-387-5649 ext. 5000.

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