N.B. news: Workers concerned over hours at provincial parks

Provincial tourism workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 1190 spoke out Thursday, saying some provincial parks are cutting back on their worker hours.

Mike Bravener says he’s been told he’ll working 31.5 hours a week, compared to 36 hours last summer. Bravener is an actor and performer at Kings Landing living museum – a New Brunswick provincial attraction celebrating its 50th season.

“You see the nice ads, you see the nice promotions and yet when you walk into the park it’s almost looking like it’s a bit of a ghost town,” he said.

The union represents 550 tourism workers, most whom work on a casual basis.

Local 1190 president Jonathan Guimond said some parks won’t be open as long, or there will be fewer people working within them when they are open.

The union is pointing its finger at the tourism minister and her deputy for a trip the duo took to Europe that cost taxpayers more than $22,000. They wonder why there was money budgeted for that journey.

“They’re a bit taken aback that they need to suffer reductions and the parks the quality that they provide are suffering reductions when there’s funds available for things like that,” Guimond said.

Tourism Minister Tammy Scott-Wallace said just two locations – Kings Landing and the Village historique acadien – will see a reduction in some areas, but that’s not happening to all parks across the province.

She also said the European trip she took was valuable for building relationships in key areas like France and the United Kingdom.

“It’s unfortunate to me that the people who work in our parks and attractions would feel that any time the minister goes across the province or outside of the province or outside of the country, to promote tourism and to bring new visitors to the province, that they don’t see a value to that,” she told reporters.

The union says the cost of that trip would have equated to several hundred worker hours at the parks.

For Bravener, he’s concerned about maintaining the magic that can be found at Kings Landing.

“I think people are coming and they’re going, ‘Oh, this isn’t open. Oh, I thought this was happening today. Where’s the theater? There’s no theater. Where is the dances in the fields? How come there’s no barn dance anymore?’” he said. “It’s that kind of impact.”

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