President's Message
Autumn is Almost Here!
Summer arrived after what can only be called a rather challenging spring. But July and August have given us some much needed warm weather and sunny days. The season, although not a record breaker by any means, has brought to us guests from throughout our region and the world. NB continues to offer unique experiences for all the people who come here, either on their yearly trip home or for that break away or for a new adventure in a part of the world they have never experienced before. At TIANB, we are continuing to deliver training programs, create new ones and keep our programs current to the market. A case in point is the work we are doing with the Food Safe program. This program will give your employees a five year certification to meet the new upcoming requirements from the Provincial Government. If you haven't checked into the program, please visit our website and contact TIANB staff for more details.
TIANB has also been working on the minimum wage issue over the past several months. The latest news from the Minister of Post Secondary Education, Training and Labour was to put on hold the latest round of minimum wage increases until further study and consultation was done. We have maintained since the beginning that we need to go slow, evaluate often and assess whether the increases are beneficial to our industry and those who struggle with poverty or whether this quick increase to a businesses cost is detrimental. What we have learned is that for the most part, it is not as beneficial as the pundits would claim. Over the past several months we have heard from our members who have said they are hiring less and we have seen the Statistics Canada Employment numbers for NB get worse and worse. We believe a cost/benefit assessment is due.
I want to wish you all continued success for the rest of the summer and into the autumn. The growth of our industry means that we now have tourism experiences for all seasons and we wish you success in all seasons!
Respectfully
Joanne Bérubé-Gagné
President
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