The first day of the NEB hearings into the Energy East pipeline saw support for the proposed project from two intervenors: the New Brunswick division of the Canadian Manufactors and Exporters and the provincial Metal Working Association.
Both groups were represented by Joel Richardson, who is the vice-president for the New Brunswick and PEI divisions of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters and SPARK. He says the pipeline will create new direct and indirect jobs for unemployed people in New Brunswick.
The latest numbers show that the unemployment rate in the province is 9.7-percent.
“We must manufacture our future and become a have province again in New Brunswick,” Richardson said, who notes that year-to-date export sales are down 20.4-percent this year in New Brunswick.
He also calls the pipeline critical in turning around the metalworking industry.
