With files from Bruce Wark.
Maxime Bourgeois, the 34-year-old Liberal candidate in Memramcook-Tantramar, was once recruited to join the PC party, but decided he was more in line with the New Brunswick Liberals instead.
Bourgeois is a lawyer based in Memramcook. Five years ago, he founded a company in Memramcook that organizes cultural events and forums for Francophone groups such as Canadian Parents for French and French for the Future. He’s also the first president of the local Chamber of Commerce which he helped launch.
He says that rural communities need better and more services, not less, referring to the proposal this past winter to cut services at Sackville Memorial Hospital and other rural hospitals.
“I’m a big advocate for rural New Brunswick and I think we can’t cut essential services. We need to provide better services and I think the hospital here… The argument that, you know, it only takes 30 minutes to drive to Moncton. Yeah, but drive to Moncton in a winter storm from Port Elgin and it takes more than 30 minutes. So it’s nonsense. And my argument is that to support rural New Brunswick, we need more services, not less.”
Bourgeois says his choices to locate in the village where he grew up reflect his commitment to rural New Brunswick.
“If I am elected MLA, I will definitely be a big advocate for the hospital and other essential services. Just the fact that I started my own law firm in Memramcook shows that I care about providing services to rural New Brunswick. I could have established my firm in Dieppe if I wanted. And I would probably be a lot a lot wealthier today if I would have done so.”
Bourgeois says the PC government failed to consult local people when it proposed cuts to rural hospitals and when it moved ahead with its plan to sell the historic Memramcook Institute.
“If ever we were to sell that building, the population needs to be consulted. It needs to be approved, there needs to be a certain social approval of the plan.”
Bourgeois, who serves on a local committee that is working to preserve the building, says he is open to proposals, but that community consultation on the fate of the building is a must.
“If, for example, there’s a company or someone that wants to buy the building and can do something that reflects the historical value of the building, that wants to put a project in place that could truly benefit Memramcook and the rest of the region, why not? But it would need to consult the population. We can’t go around the population’s back, and have background deals with friends or other investors.”
In 2014, a previous Conservative government sought unsuccessfully to sell the Memramcook Institute, which includes several buildings, after the corporation that ran the institute declared bankruptcy.
Then, in 2017, the Liberals pledged $25 million over three years to renovate the institute.
The province spent about $17 million on restorations and a new heating system before the Conservatives halted the project in 2018.
Bourgeois says the decision to stop the project was based on incomplete information.
“And when they decided to stop investing money in it, there was… Higgs was talking about, “there’s no plan, there’s no plan.” But there was actually a plan. About 40% of the building, I think 30 or 40% of the building had potential renters. The municipality wanted to rent the whole first floor to develop a community centre. I actually went to meet with the Minister of DTI, infrastructure and transportation, and he wasn’t aware that anybody wanted to rent any space. So they took a decision before actually knowing the facts on the ground, and I think that’s wrong. That’s not how you run a province.”
New Brunswickers go to the polls on September 14th.
