Jobs to New Waterford are coming from Kentville, New Glasgow and Amherst
 
Premier didn’t appear to know the jobs were coming from other rural areas

HALIFAX, NS – The Maintenance Enforcement jobs being relocated to New Waterford amount to “rearranging the deck chairs on our sinking rural economy” said PC Economic and Rural Development critic Eddie Orrell. More than two-thirds of the jobs going to New Waterford are coming from other areas outside of Halifax.
 
Today in Question Period, when asked why he was moving jobs from some rural areas to other rural areas, the Premier did not seem to be aware that was the case.

“Jobs are coming out of their head office, which is in Dartmouth, and they are going to New Waterford,” he said.
 
The Maintenance Enforcement jobs being moved to New Waterford are coming from Kentville, Amherst, New Glasgow and Sydney and the Dartmouth office. The head office on Terminal Road in Halifax will apparently remain intact.
 
The NDP touted the job relocations as moving “jobs from the city into the rural areas”, according to Justice Minister Ross Landry.
 
“This whole thing is a charade,” said Orrell. “It is a cruel joke to all areas outside of Halifax that have lost jobs because of the mismanagement of this NDP government.”
 
The Kentville office of Maintenance Enforcement is at the heart of an area that has lost 5,500 jobs in the past three years.
 
“We would love to see new jobs in Cape Breton and it’s wonderful that New Waterford is gaining jobs, but this is not what the NDP made it out to be,” continued Orrell. “The NDP moved jobs to Shelburne, Digby, Truro and New Waterford while taking them from Kentville, Amherst, New Glasgow and Sydney."
 
Orrell said that rural Nova Scotia is in recession and all the NDP can offer is moving jobs from one part of rural Nova Scotia to another.
 
Nova Scotia’s economy grew by only 0.3% last year. The Halifax area's economy grew by 3 percent, according to the Conference Board of Canada. This suggests the areas outside of Halifax had negative GDP growth, or a recession.
 
 -30-
 
Background:
 
Location and number of current Maintenance Enforcement jobs:

Halifax - 8
Sydney - 11
Dartmouth - 11
Kentville - 8
Amherst - 6
New Glasgow - 3
 
TOTAL - 47
 
QUOTES:
 
"At the same time we made a promise that we're going to move jobs from the city into the rural areas to balance out the economy of Nova Scotia and to make sure we're trying to be as fair and just as we can. "
 
- Justice Minister Ross Landry
 
"Jobs anywhere in rural Nova Scotia are important."

- Justice Minister Ross Landry
 
"Like all Nova Scotians, government wants strong and vibrant communities right across this province -- in rural and urban centres."

- Deputy Premier Frank Corbett.