New Brunswick’s Finance Minister Blaine Higgs sits down with The Aquinian to talk about university funding, student retention – and why you should stay in New Brunswick.
AQ: New Brunswick has a long way to go before it has battled its debt and deficit. What advice do you have for students who are finishing school now? What kind of New Brunswick are they graduating into?
Higgs: Across the country, we’ve seen economic challenges, so our situation isn’t unique. We have had some major changes in our employment base and our industries over the last several years. But I think that coming into it and with the attitude of, “What can I become in New Brunswick? What can I contribute to New Brunswick?” versus, “What can New Brunswick do for me?” is something that I would like to think people would put more focus on. We’re still focused on looking for employment opportunities for businesses to invest and therefore students can be employed. But it’s a difficult time and we have to have people thinking about, “What can I do to do my part here?”
AQ: How important is an educated New Brunswick to rebuilding the province’s economy?
Higgs: Very important. We don’t undervalue the importance of education in any way because we need to have these bright young minds in the system. And that’s why it’s disappointing when they leave. It’s a real loss. Any classroom I visit, you’re looking across the room and saying, where’s the next McCain or where’s the next Irving?
AQ: What do you think is the single biggest mistake past governments have made in relation to the economy?
Higgs: Overspending. We have got an insatiable appetite for spending. Much of that can be related to elections. The public has a continual thirst for more and more demands, more services from government. We have manage expectations in every sector. Fixing this problem is a whole lot about the public [expecting] less from government and government needs to be more accountable for what we do.
AQ: One of our political columnists in The Aquinian compared New Brunswick’s financial situation to Greece’s recently [‘Lower your expectations,’ Issue 6]. His message was that we need to lower our expectations. Do you think that’s important?
Higgs: Very important. We have a culture that believes that government solves all problems. It’s a general statement, but thinking that we can’t help, it’s the government’s responsibility to fix it, I think that’s what has to change. And when we start rolling out the budget for this year and changes that are being made within that budget, we’re looking for support because it has to come from every sector. It can’t be, “Yeah, you need to fix it, but not if it affects me.”
AQ: The debt is projected to grow by more than $65 million this year and more cuts are on the horizon for the next budget. Even with the end of the tuition freeze, in the last budget, post-secondary education seemed to escape relatively unscathed. Will students be lucky this time around during the next round of cuts?
Higgs: I think the institutions themselves need to look at their operating expenses. No facility or no operation should think they’re immune. When you benchmark activities across the country in any sector, be it the industrial sector, be it the education sector, we need to find new ways to deliver services in a more cost-effective manner. And universities and community colleges are not immune to that. They need to be part of that. It’s not hands-off anyone, it’s a case where people need to look within and say, “I’ve got to do this differently, because changes are coming.”
AQ: Where do students with a liberal arts education fit into New Brunswick’s economy?
Higgs: Has that changed dramatically in the last three or four years [or] is that a question that may have been ongoing for some time? I think that education is what you make of it when you graduate. I don’t feel it is any different today in that sector than it would have been several years ago. All forms of education are affected in today’s economy. Some more specialized than others can fare better because of that specialization. But I don’t think it is necessarily dramatically different in today’s economy other than the ability for any sector to fit in is reduced.
AQ: It does seem like we’re shifting a little bit to a knowledge-based economy.
Higgs: Well, that’s kind of a global situation. It’s nothing that New Brunswick is doing independently. I think that we’ve seen that across Canada [and] internationally.
AQ: Your government is negotiating a new funding agreement with the province’s universities. How could the province’s financial state affect these negotiations?
Higgs: It drives our behaviour in negotiations, without a doubt. We only have so big of a pot. Every sector has to be part of the solution. As we move forward with those negotiations, they have to be reflective of the current situation and the outcomes have to relate to our ability to provide a level of commitment we did in the past.
AQ: We’re experiencing a decline in the number of youth we have in the province. Specifically, how is your government helping universities recruit beyond the province’s borders?
Higgs: That might be a better question for Mr. [Jody] Carr in relation to the education system, because I know there’s a lot of exchange programs going on with Chinese students. We actually participated in that as a family for three years. I think it’s very active. We actually have some of our programs being shared internationally, which is an active program that I know is going on with China. So I think there’s a fair amount of interest internationally. We’ve got an export that we can develop. Can we educate teachers here and can we help opportunities for them that they’re a product of New Brunswick and…help them find opportunities to use that education for their field? The same thing applies for opportunities for international students to come here and take advantage of the many facilities that we have. I think that responsibility in many ways is on the institution, itself to go out and to grow its base. Because we have to look at ways to utilize the infrastructure, the capabilities we have. That may not all come internally.
AQ: Even if we’re able to recruit a given number of students from outside of the province, whether they be from other places in Canada or whether they be from other countries, I think the most challenging thing is keeping them here. What specifically is your government doing to help?
Higgs: That’s where the whole Invest NB concept comes into play, is trying to attract major players in the world and try to [get them] to invest in this province. And that’s why it’s important for us to be competitive. It’s important for the bureaucracy to be streamlined in the sense that we can expedite the investment opportunities through the system. The need to do something in a timely fashion has a direct impact on that project being finished. I think government has typically been too slow at responding to opportunities. That’s what this focus has been. We’re out beating the bushes looking for investors and to work them into the system and promote our operation and get them through the bureaucracy in a quick and timely fashion, to create employment here.
AQ: Say I’m a student preparing to graduate and I’m looking at my options and deciding whether I should stay in New Brunswick. In a couple of sentences, why should students stay here?
Higgs: Because it’s the best province in Canada to live in. We have a lifestyle second to none. Yes, you can go to Alberta or Ontario. I enjoy my visits to Toronto to visit my family. But I’m quite happy to come back home because I’m from New Brunswick and I enjoy the lifestyle here. I think that we have more to offer in this province than we give ourselves credit for. We haven’t experienced some of the challenges that exist around this world. When I travelled a lot in my business life, I saw first-hand different cultures, different parts of the world that may be even more appreciative of what we have here. I don’t think we should undervalue that. I think that is a risk that people feel like, well, I can get this anywhere. I don’t think you can.
