Telegraph Journal reporter Tamsin McMahon makes the case for NB immigration after attending ECC's'Breakfast with the Premier' featuring Premier David Alward. The following is an extract from her article published Tuesday in the Telegraph Journal.

New Brunswick should take control of immigration from the federal government if it hopes to attract the right workers in the future, Premier David Alward told a crowd of Toronto professionals Monday as part of a two-day Ontario visit with business and political leaders in hopes of encouraging new investment in the province.

Citing a move by former premier Frank McKenna to take over responsibility for labour market development from the federal government in 1996, Alward told the breakfast meeting of mainly expatriate New Brunswickers that the province needs to take similar steps to manage immigration.

"The next step is to take over more responsibility for our immigration files - and how we work to build New Brunswick - from the federal government," he told the crowd of about 50 people. "Right now, for Atlantic Canada, many of the immigration files don't work because they're designed for provinces with increasing population, where in reality we've got a decreasing or stable population base. So we're not eligible for many things."

But, he added, the province needs to work to become more open if it hopes to attract - and keep - skilled immigrants.

"You can recruit a computer engineer to New Brunswick, or a doctor, but if you're not an open society, an open community, they're not going to want to stay," he said. "That's the other part that we have to do a better job in the future as well."

The breakfast meeting, hosted by East Coast Connected, a Toronto-area group that promotes Atlantic Canada in Ontario, kicked off Alward's Ontario visit alongside Economic Development Minister Paul Robichaud and Robert MacLeod, a former Conservative leadership rival and head of the newly minted Invest New Brunswick.

The visit included a lunch-time meeting with TD Bank officials courtesy of McKenna, now deputy chairman of the TD Bank Financial Group, along with meetings with other Toronto-based companies the premier hopes to encourage to do business with New Brunswick.

"That part of it is private, but certainly they're in sectors that we're focusing on," Alward said. "Certainly the ICT sector is an important sector, for example, but it's broader than that that we'll be talking to over the next day."

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