Editing New Brunswick (section)

==Economy==
[[File:Cruise 003.JPG|thumb|Uptown Saint John is a commercial hub and seaport for the province.]]
[[File:Stacks of timber awaiting transport to the mills in New Brunswick, Canada.jpg|thumb|Stacks of [[timber]] in [[Fredericton]] awaiting transport to a mill]]
As of October 2017, seasonally adjusted employment is 73,400 for the goods-producing sector and 280,900 for the services-producing sector. Those in the goods-producing industries are mostly employed in manufacturing or construction, while those in services work in social assistance, trades, and health care.<ref>{{cite web |title=Employment by major industry group, seasonally adjusted, by province (monthly) (New Brunswick) |url=https://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/labr67e-eng.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116080501/https://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/labr67e-eng.htm |archive-date=16 November 2017 |access-date=16 November 2017 |website=Statistics Canada}}</ref> A large portion of the economy is controlled by the [[Irving Group of Companies]], which consists of the holdings of the family of [[K. C. Irving]]. The companies have significant holdings in agriculture, [[forestry]], [[food processing]], [[freight transport]] (including railways and trucking), media, [[Oil refinery|oil]], and [[shipbuilding]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/06/06/news/what-have-irvings-done-new-brunswick |title=What have the Irvings done to New Brunswick? |last=Livesey |first=Bruce |date=6 June 2016 |website=National Observer |language=en |access-date=30 June 2019 |archive-date=30 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630163020/https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/06/06/news/what-have-irvings-done-new-brunswick |url-status=live}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

The influence of the Irving family on New Brunswick is such that the province is sometimes described as being subject to a form of economic [[feudalism]]. In 2016, the 200 or so companies it controls gave it about $10 billion in capital.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |date=15 April 2019 |title="It is New Brunswick that enriches the Irvings, not the Irvings that enrich New Brunswick:" An interview with Alain Deneault – NB Media Co-op |url=https://nbmediacoop.org/2019/04/15/it-is-new-brunswick-that-enriches-the-irvings-not-the-irvings-that-enrich-new-brunswick-an-interview-with-alain-deneault/ |access-date=22 August 2022 |publisher=Nbmediacoop.org |archive-date=19 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819204913/https://nbmediacoop.org/2019/04/15/it-is-new-brunswick-that-enriches-the-irvings-not-the-irvings-that-enrich-new-brunswick-an-interview-with-alain-deneault/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web |date=April 2019 |title=The Irvings, Canada's robber barons, by Alain Deneault (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, April 2019) |url=https://mondediplo.com/2019/04/13canada |access-date=22 August 2022 |publisher=Mondediplo.com |archive-date=2 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002063653/https://mondediplo.com/2019/04/13canada |url-status=live }}</ref> The group's activities are supported by the authorities through numerous tax exemptions and the payment of subsidies, notably through the Renewable Energy Purchase Program for Large Industry. The province has also progressively handed over the management of the public sector forestry assets to the Irving Group, regularly lowering standards. In 2014, the latter reduced the size of buffer zones between forests and human settlements, allowed more [[Clearcutting|clear-cutting]], increased the planned production volume and reduced the proportion of protected areas from 31% to 22%.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Through [[Acadia Broadcasting]] the family owns several local radio stations. The family owned all the province's English-language newspapers through [[Brunswick News]] until its sale to [[Postmedia Network|Postmedia]] in 2022.<ref name="IbrahimCBC">{{cite news |last1=Ibrahim |first1=Hadeel |date=18 February 2022 |title=Telegraph-Journal, other Irving-owned N.B. newspapers to be sold to Postmedia |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/brunswick-news-sold-postmedia-1.6356427 |access-date=18 February 2022 |agency=CBC News |archive-date=18 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218121841/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/brunswick-news-sold-postmedia-1.6356427 |url-status=live }}</ref> For academic [[Alain Deneault]], "the conflicts of interest that arise from this situation seem caricatural: the group's media essentially echo the positions of the Irving family in all the fields of social and industrial life in which it is involved." The information transmitted by the group and disseminated by the press is sometimes questioned (notably in the fall of 2018, during an explosion at the Saint John refinery), but few public officials, professors and members of parliament carry denunciations, as the family's financial contributions to universities and political parties provide it with leverage.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

The United States is the province's largest export market, accounting for 92% of foreign trade valued in 2014 at almost $13&nbsp;billion, with refined petroleum making up 63% of that, followed by seafood products, pulp, paper and sawmill products and non-metallic minerals (chiefly potash). The value of exports, mostly to the United States, was $1.6&nbsp;billion in 2016. About half of that came from lobster. Other products include salmon, crab, and herring.<ref>{{cite web |title=New Brunswick agrifood and seafood export highlights 2016 |url=http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/10/pdf/Publications/Aqu/ExportHighlightsforNewBrunswickAgrifoodandSeafood2016.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808164127/http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/10/pdf/Publications/Aqu/ExportHighlightsforNewBrunswickAgrifoodandSeafood2016.pdf |archive-date=8 August 2017 |access-date=17 November 2017 |publisher=Government of New Brunswick}}</ref> In 2015, spending on non-resident [[tourism in New Brunswick]] was $441&nbsp;million, which provided $87&nbsp;million in tax revenue.<ref>{{cite web |date=26 August 2016 |title=Tourism contributes to economy |url=http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/thc/news/news_release.2016.08.0790.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116082824/http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/thc/news/news_release.2016.08.0790.html |archive-date=16 November 2017 |access-date=16 November 2017 |publisher=Government of New Brunswick}}</ref>

Biologists, academics and [[Eilish Cleary]], the province's former head of public health, have reported being subjected to intense pressure (including dismissal in Cleary's case) while analyzing the impact of the company's pesticides and its opaque forest management. Since the 1970s, every premier in the province has been elected with the support of Irving. [[Blaine Higgs]], premier since November 2018, is a former executive of the group. According to journalist [[Michel Cormier (journalist)|Michel Cormier]]: "We might be able to win an election without Irving's tacit support, but we could hardly aspire to power if he decided to openly oppose it."<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

===Primary sector===
A large number of residents from New Brunswick are employed in the [[primary sector of industry]]. More than 13,000 New Brunswickers work in agriculture, shipping products worth over $1&nbsp;billion, half of which is from crops, and half of that from potatoes, mostly in the Saint John River valley. [[McCain Foods]] is one of the world's largest manufacturers of frozen potato products. Other products include apples, [[cranberries]], and [[maple syrup]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Crops |date=May 2013 |url=http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/10/agriculture/content/crops.html |publisher=Government of New Brunswick |access-date=17 November 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117122134/http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/10/agriculture/content/crops.html |archive-date=17 November 2017}}</ref> New Brunswick was in 2015 the biggest producer of wild [[blueberries]] in Canada.<ref>[http://www.acadienouvelle.com/actualites/2016/04/20/production-de-bleuets-sauvages-prend-de-lexpansion-nouveau-brunswick/?pgnc=1 acadienouvelle.com: "La production de bleuets sauvages prend de l’expansion au Nouveau Brunswick"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221064347/http://www.acadienouvelle.com/actualites/2016/04/20/production-de-bleuets-sauvages-prend-de-lexpansion-nouveau-brunswick/?pgnc=1 |date=21 December 2016 }}, 21 April 2016</ref> The value of the livestock sector is about a quarter of a billion dollars, nearly half of which is dairy. Other sectors include poultry, fur, and goats, sheep, and pigs.
[[File:PulpAndPaperMill.jpg|thumb|A New Brunswick [[pulp mill]] owned by [[J. D. Irving]]]]
About 85 to 90% of New Brunswick is forested. Historically important, it accounted for more than 80% of exports in the mid-1800s. By the end of the 1800s the industry, and shipbuilding, were declining due to external economic factors. The 1920s saw the development of a pulp and paper industry. In the mid-1960s, forestry practices changed from the controlled harvests of a commodity to the cultivation of the forests.<ref name="cenb">{{cite web |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/new-brunswick/ |title=New Brunswick |first=Ernest R. |last=Forbes |access-date=29 June 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622063828/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/new-brunswick/ |archive-date=22 June 2016}}</ref> The industry employs nearly 12,000, generating revenues around $437&nbsp;million.<ref name="hc"/>

Mining was historically unimportant in the province, but has grown since the 1950s.<ref>Cranstone, D. A., & Canada. (2002). ''A history of mining and mineral exploration in Canada and outlook for the future''. https://www.mineralsed.ca/site/assets/files/3452/ahistoryofmining_mineralexplorationincanada-nrcan.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805011305/https://www.mineralsed.ca/site/assets/files/3452/ahistoryofmining_mineralexplorationincanada-nrcan.pdf |date=5 August 2020 }}</ref> The province's GDP from the Mining and Quarrying industry in 2015 was $299.5&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Statistics Canada |title=Table: 36-10-0402-01 Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories (x 1,000,000) |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3610040201&pickMembers[0]=2.1&pickMembers[1]=3.26 |access-date=11 September 2019 |date=11 September 2019 |archive-date=22 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522163016/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3610040201&pickMembers%5B0%5D=2.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=3.26 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[List of mines in New Brunswick|Mines in New Brunswick]] produce lead, zinc, copper, and potash.

Forest management in the province is particularly opaque. Donald Bowser, an international expert on political corruption, says he is "shocked to discover that there is less transparency in New Brunswick than in [[Kurdistan]], [[Guatemala]] or [[Sierra Leone]], despite the huge public funds committed to natural resource development."<ref name=":2" />