Are you betting on downtown?
If province chooses Metro Moncton as site for a casino, residents pick downtown as best bet but many are hedging
By Brent Mazerolle
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Saturday March 1st, 2008
Appeared on page A3
Even if you were a betting person, you still might not want to take this wager. If you were asked to gamble on what Metro Moncton location for a casino or gaming centre would be most popular with the populace, the odds on favourite is downtown Moncton, but it seems any other possibility is hardly a longshot.
Close to half the 601 Metro Moncton residents who responded to the 2008 CityThink Survey conducted by Omnifacts Bristol for the Times & Transcript chose downtown as the best place to chase Lady Luck, but nearly as many thought a gaming centre should go elsewhere in the area. And with the degree of uncertainty behind what location in the entire province the provincial government might ultimately choose, close to one-fifth of those polled just weren't sure.
A casino has long been talked about as one potential element to downtown development in Moncton, something that would be built on the former Beaver Lumber land the City of Moncton bought in 1999, or on one of the nearby properties in the downtown core between Main Street and Assomption Boulevard. The City of Moncton even commissioned a feasibility study in 2002 that found at the time a downtown casino would likely cost $33 million and generate $55 million per year in revenues, creating 400 jobs.
When the Province of New Brunswick finally released its long-awaited gaming policy in November, Finance Minister Victor Boudreau announced the construction of one gaming centre in the province would be part of that, likely coming in 2010. The province has said it envisions a medium-sized complex that will make $50 million in profit each year, to be split between government and the developer.
There has been considerable interest in gaming in different parts of the province, and in southeastern New Brunswick a number of ideas have been floated around. A downtown Moncton location seems to be the one on the public's mind, but the idea of destination gaming in a resort area like the Royal Oaks or Fox Creek golf courses or in a seaside location like Shediac has also come up. Another idea gaining currency sees a destination gaming centre on the east side of Mapleton Road, close to the extensive retail development in what is becoming the main gateway to Moncton.
Réal Robichaud, executive director of the Tourism Association of New Brunswick, says tourism operators don't expect a casino to make a splash on its own, but they do welcome its arrival.
"What we're looking at in terms of casinos is as an add-on of product of what we already have," he said, explaining it could encourage some of the province's 1.5 million visitors per year to stay an extra night. "It would add to the overall project, and maybe help us be more effective in attracting conventions, or attracting people for an extra day."
Casinos or gaming centres are, of course, often a divisive issue. While many see them as valuable tourism draws and economic generators, others worry about social problems often associated -- rightly or wrongly -- with the presence of casinos. It is interesting to note the strongest support for a casino in downtown Moncton came from residents of Dieppe. However, because the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus four per cent 19 times out of 20, the difference between the 49 per cent of Dieppe residents and the 47 per cent of Moncton residents pulling for downtown is statistically insignificant. The same goes for the 33 per cent of Dieppe citizens versus the 35 per cent of Moncton citizens who felt the casino should be outside the downtown.
While the remarkably consistent numbers from those two municipalities clearly showed a preference for a downtown Moncton casino, it was adding in the results from Riverview that closed the overall survey's gap between a location in downtown Moncton and one outside downtown.
Riverview split on the choice, with 43 per cent pointing to downtown Moncton, but 40 per cent saying it should go elsewhere.
Since it is the potential for economic impact, rather than a burning desire to play the slots that has motivated so many jurisdictions across the continent to pursue gaming, it seems worthwhile to ask what people outside Metro Moncton think of our community's casino musings.
While the CityThink survey used scientific polling methods, the Times & Transcript did some admittedly unscientific polling of its own last month at a gathering of more than 400 national convention planners in Ottawa. While most suggested a downtown casino would be a convention draw if it was part of a suite of entertainment options available to their delegates, a few said they prefer some physical distance between casinos and their conferences. Nancy Coll of the Canadian Pharmacists Association said she always worries delegates will not take part in conference activities if such a powerful distraction is too close by.
In the final analysis, prominent Metro Moncton businessman Denis Losier, the president and CEO of Assumption Life, may have said it best for everyone interested in our region's economic development when he spoke to reporters on a range of topics after Assumption Life's annual general meeting last week.
Though he said getting involved in the construction or operation of a casino was too far removed from Assumption's core financial services business to be something the company would ever pursue, Losier did nevertheless say it would definitely have an impact on the city and "hopefully there will be a decision taken soon and construction can start."
Quick facts
Here are the answers of Metro Moncton residents when they were asked the following question in the 2008 CityThink survey conducted by Omnifacts Bristol for the Times & Transcript: “There has been discussion about building a casino or gaming centre in New Brunswick. If it is built in the Moncton area, should it be built in downtown Moncton or somewhere else in the area?”
* Downtown Moncton: 46 per cent
* Somewhere else in the area: 36 per cent
* Don’t know: 18 per cent
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'No echo after the boom' in N.B. employment picture
Province facing labour shortage as boomers retire
By Aloma Jardine
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Wednesday March 5th, 2008
Appeared on page A3
Enterprise Greater Moncton CEO John Thompson sums it up succinctly.
"There is no echo after the boom," he says.
Statistics Canada's latest release of data from the 2006 census reveals that 12.2 per cent of Metro Moncton's workforce is between 55 and 64 years old, which means over the next decade almost all of them will retire.
The problem is there are not enough young workers entering the workforce to replace them, meaning development specialists like Thompson are facing huge challenges ahead.
"Last week we ran the post-secondary education forum and what we did was identify areas where we see challenges within the workforce," he says. "There are challenges everywhere, within retail, manufacturing, construction, contact centres."
Thompson says it is essential the region look at retention, repatriation, and immigration in order to face the challenges of the labour shortage.
"What we're trying to do is mitigate the impact," he says, adding that businesses also need to come up with succession plans to make sure their younger workers have the skills to take over when the older workers retire.
He says that is something that larger companies are working on themselves and that Enterprise Greater Moncton is aiming to help small and medium-sized businesses with.
Among the group nearing retirement in Metro Moncton, 27.2 per cent work in sales and service and 22.4 per cent work in business, finance and administration.
Across Canada 1.9 people aged 20-34 entered the labour force for each person over 55. Metro Moncton is a little better at 2.4, but five years ago the national rate was 2.7 and 25 years ago it was 3.7.
A low birth rate is not helping matters any, nor is the fact that the death rate is about to surpass the birth rate in the province.
"Those are really significant things," says Marc Melanson, regional advisor for Statistics Canada. "We're not naturally increasing ourselves or replacing ourselves."
Melanson says policy makers and governments are looking at ways to avoid future labour shortages.
"One of the dangers for Moncton, for example, is that for every two people retiring one person is entering the labour force, so you either (find ways to) start increasing the labour market or (businesses) start leaving.
"We're seeing it a lot now in service industries. Either people don't care and will quit because they know they can get another job or they have demands like not working weekends."
Thompson says two of the industries in the region that are really hurting for people now are IT and retail.
"All you have to do is walk through the mall and see all the jobs available," he says, adding that puts pressure on shops to increase their salaries and benefits, which puts pressure on their profitability.
But Thompson says the labour shortage shouldn't be looked at as entirely negative. He says it also offers businesses the opportunity to invest to increase productivity "" to find ways to do more with less workers.
One of the things that might help the region a bit is that the median age in Metro Moncton is a little lower than in the rest of the country.
For the first time ever, Canada's median age surpassed the 40-year-mark. In 2006, half of the Canadian labour force was older than 41.2 years old, up from a median age of 39.5 in 2006.
In New Brunswick the median age was about the same, 41.5, but in Metro Moncton it was only 39.6, the lowest of the main centres in New Brunswick, though still higher than it was in 2001, when the median age was 38.3.
Saint John's median age is 41.4, while Fredericton's is 40.
Melanson says the median age gets higher in the smaller cities and more rural areas: 42.6 in Bathurst and Campbellton, 42.4 in Edmundston.
Breaking down Metro Moncton, it should be no surprise that Dieppe wins the youth prize, with a median age of 37.7 years old.
"That is significant, when half your labour force is under 37.7," Melanson says.
The city of Moncton had a median age of 38.4, while Riverview was at 40.6.
Thompson says being the largest metro area in New Brunswick is also a plus in Metro Moncton's favour as its excellent recreational facilities, great restaurants, two hospitals, wide selection of retail outlets, and cultural venues continue to attract people to the region by offering a better quality of life.
The unemployment rate across the province dropped from 12.5 per cent in 2001 to 10 per cent in 2006, but Metro Moncton was well ahead of the curve with a 6.2 per cent unemployment rate, even better than the national average of 6.6 per cent.
Melanson says construction, retail trade, and health care were three of the industries that saw the biggest gains in the province.
"The other big one was mining, oil, and gas," he says. "It is a small industry, but it grew by 8.4 per cent, by about 1,300 jobs. That was offset by losses in manufacturing, which dropped by about 1.7 per cent. Sawmills dropped about 700 jobs, pulp and paper, 1,400 jobs gone."
n With files from The Canadian Press.
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Second UPS store opens in Moncton
Alan Cochrane
COCHRANE REPORT
Published Saturday March 1st, 2008
Appeared on page D2
The UPS Store now has a second location in Moncton.
Owned by Carolyn Clarke, the store recently opened at 1180 Mountain Road. It offers complete business support services such as full document finishing, digital colour and black-and-white printing, packing and shipping services, mailbox rentals with 24 hour access, commercial printing, mail and fax services.
The new store is owned and operated by Carolyn Clarke, a Newfoundland native who worked for 20 years as a self-employed home painter in Alberta and decided to return to the Maritimes. Clarke says she wanted to be her own boss and use her business skills to help people. So she jumped at the chance to own a UPS store franchise in Atlantic Canada.
There are more than 5,800 outlets in the UPS Store chain, including over 320 in Canada.
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I left a reponse on the blog too, I pointed out the words Tower, Downtown, Casino, Convention center, Hotel, Condos, Retail, Art and Cultural center in the same sentence.
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