A Big Step Forward

The Enterprise Network has brought together municipal, provincial and federal organizations in New Brunswick whose raison d'être is to grow companies and regions, to look at how to be more effective.

"There's only so much money to go around," said Richard LeBlanc, the executive director of the Enterprise Network and the man leading the charge.

"What we want to be able to do is look at, what are the services in the community, where are the overlaps," LeBlanc said Thursday.

After months of dialogue, his board of directors recently passed a discussion document so LeBlanc can forge ahead.

"The timing is right, right now. There is a change of leadership at Business New Brunswick. There is a renewed focus," he said.

Several years ago LeBlanc brought a copy of a Charlotte County newspaper to a meeting with a few assistant deputy ministers of government departments to highlight a problem of redundancy in New Brunswick.

The paper had six different advertisements sponsored by six separate economic development agencies offering business owners and prospective entrepreneurs services to start and grow their enterprises.

"It was very blatant something was wrong," LeBlanc said.

In April and May a working group with officials from several agencies circulated a questionnaire to various stakeholders in regional economic development, informing a discussion document.

The resulting paper on community economic development spells out co-operation among the Enterprise agencies, Business New Brunswick, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, the Community Business Development Corporations and the Regional Development Corporation.

Now, in an effort to empower communities and businesspeople to tell the economic developers what services they need, LeBlanc is launching into two case studies - one in the more rural Miramichi and the other in urban Moncton - to look at how to eliminate overlap.

"The big thing is it has to be driven by the community, not by the hallways of Fredericton," he said.

"I've got commitment at the senior level of departments to look at it together rather than in silos," LeBlanc said, ensuring that while services might be more aligned, the process is not about cutting out entire agencies.

"It's not about eliminating players."

Louis-Philippe Gauthier, the president of the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick, inc., said his group often hears complaints from business owners that it's unclear which agency to tap for which service.

"It's very, very frustrating for businesses. That's a given," he said, offering praise that dialogue around creating a clear path to match business owners with resources has begun.

"Reducing duplication between federal, provincial and municipal agencies when it comes to economic development is a big step forward," he said, calling for a "one-stop shop" business owners can access.

"Will it follow through all the way to the political level, is the question I would ask."

REBECCA PENTY
Telegraph-Journal