The mayors of New Brunswick’s three biggest municipalities delivered a message of unity to the Economic Club of Canada this past weekend.
Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold says her overriding message was that Moncton is open for business.
“Moncton has incredible momentum going on right now, we’re the largest city in the province, our building permits last year were $344.7 million, that’s 11.7% more than Halifax,” says Arnold.
She adds in Toronto, she spent much time touting the benefits of life here.
“You tell them that you ride your bike to work, or that the average price of a house is $170,000, or that you can leave your home and get to the airport in 40 minutes, well they break into hysterics, they can’t quite believe it,” says Arnold.
Arnold says a major problem she ran into was an utter lack of knowledge about Moncton, and New Brunswick.
“Most of the people there had no clue where Atlantic Canada even was, so I literally had to take a map and say okay, we’re in Toronto right now, and look, there’s Montreal, see them there? And then Moncton is way over here, so that’s where Moncton is, on the Atlantic Ocean, it puts a lot of things in perspective,” says Arnold.
She says overall the reaction from the gathered business community leaders was positive.
