Irving refinery halt hinders job opportunities

New Brunswick's energy minister is conceding the decision by Irving Oil and BP to mothball the proposed second refinery in Saint John will hinder economic opportunities and the ability to lure workers back to the province.

Jack Keir said he's disappointed that the proposed $8-billion oil refinery was scuttled on Friday.

While remaining optimistic, Keir said the province will have to review its budget projections for 2010 to see how the cancelled project will impact its economic estimates.

Keir also said the loss of the $8-billion second refinery project will prevent hundreds of New Brunswickers working in Western Canada from coming home and finding work. It was estimated that 1,000 people would work at the refinery and it would create about 3,000 jobs during the eight-year construction phase.

But he said the idea of an energy hub around Saint John is still viable.

"Is it gloom and doom and is the sky falling? I don't think so. I think there are plenty of opportunities there. The energy hub itself is alive and healthy," he said.

'Nobody put their hopes and dreams in going down there and working in that refinery that I talked to.' —Gerry Harrison, Harvey Station resident

Keir pointed to the existing Irving Oil refinery, which is the largest in Canada, the only liquefied natural gas facility in the country and the Sussex potash mind expansion as proof that the energy hub concept is still moving along.

He said those projects have insulated the province from the global economic downturn.

"I think part of the reason we haven't been hit as hard as other provinces is because those things have already been ongoing and it's a real part of the energy hub," he said.

The proposed refinery was intended to be a substantial spoke in that energy hub, creating thousands of construction and permanent jobs.

However, Irving Oil and BP shelved those plans on Friday, citing the economic downturn and changing trends in how consumers use petroleum products as factors.

'It kind of cut my dream off'

Jean-Maurice Boudreau, who left Bathurst nine years ago for work in Western Canada, said many tradespeople were counting on work at the refinery.

"It kind of cut my dream off from me because I was planning to go back home there shortly, and be able to prepare and finish my retirement plan," Boudreau said.

Now, he said, he is resigned to several more years away from his family in northern Alberta.

Gerry Harrison is a Harvey Station resident who has been working in construction in Fort McMurray, Alta., for four years.

Harrison said about 80 per cent of his company workers are from Atlantic Canada, but he was skeptical about how many people would have left Alberta to work at the refinery.

"A lot of us have worked here and are quite happy with our working conditions," he said.

"Nobody put their hopes and dreams in going down there and working in that refinery that I talked to."