$200 million private investment in New Brunswick economy!

A refinery shutdown is also called a turnaround. During turnarounds refineries usually carry out inspections and replace or upgrade equipment to ensure safety, reliability and improve environmental performance.

“The Irving refinery spent $60 million in 2014 which employed 2,000 workers for a million hours. The turnaround was such a big event, it had a $51.6 million impact on New Brunswick’s GDP. This is in part because the many workers needed food, accommodation and other necessities, which benefited the local economy.” Source: www.canadianfuels.ca

This year’s turnaround, dubbed Operation Falcon #opfalcon, was just announced and involves a reported investment of $200,000,000! That’s over 3 times last year’s investment. This is the largest private sector investment in New Brunswick this year. The fundamental issue in determining the size of the economic impact is the “openness” of our regional economy. Regions that are more “open” are those that import their required inputs from other regions. Imports can be thought of as substitutes for local production. The more a region depends on imported goods and services instead of its own production, the more economic activity leaks away from the local economy. Citizens noted this phenomenon and formed local chambers of commerce with the goal of stopping such leakage by promoting  “buy local” programs.

Some of the infographics/statics used to illustrate the impact of this year’s turnaround really help drive home the spin off effect. One of my favourites is “162,000 cups of coffee are needed if every employee buys one large coffee per day during the 80 days”. Leave it to an Atlantic Canadian company to use coffee to put things in perspective! If their stats are correct our LOCAL Java Moose coffee roasters should experience an uptick in demand. BUY LOCAL!