A 5% increase in buying local from businesses and consumers in New Brunswick could see billions of dollars and thousands of jobs added to the economy.
Université de Moncton economist Pierre-Marcel Desjardins undertook this research on the behalf of philanthropists Jon and Leslie Manship, who wanted to discover simple, private sector ways to grow the economy.
Desjardins says a 5% shift would add $2 billion in sales to the provincial economy every year.
“We estimate that every year, with this kind of measure, and simply about a 5% increase, 9,000 jobs FTE, full time equivalent,” says Desjardins.
He says the impact of modest growth of five percent over five years is astonishing.
“We estimate that $150 million of federal government money, every year in revenues, and the provincial government, over $110 [million],” says Desjardins. “When you look at the discretionary portion of the provincial government budget, that is a significant amount.”
Desjardins says an advantage to this plan is that it can be implemented immediately, and requires no government financial support.
(Photo credit: Denis Duquette)
