N.B. immigrants cheesed off at province for blocking business ideas
Last Updated: Thursday, June 11, 2009 | 6:33 AM AT
CBC News
A family of Belgian immigrants is claiming the New Brunswick government has mishandled its three attempts to start businesses in the province, costing the family a lot of money.
'The inspector [told] us, 'Here you are not welcome, because here people eat cheddar. We don't need your goat cheese.''— Patrick Henderson, Belgian immigrant
Patrick Henderson and his wife Marina came to Kent County in 2005, lured by the New Brunswick government's marketing campaign for immigrants.
When they settled in southeastern New Brunswick, they dreamed of opening a resort but claim they soon found the tourism statistics they were given by the province were inflated and that plan was scuttled.
So they opted to start a winery instead. That idea fell victim to government regulations on fruit growing.
Finally came the concept of producing goat cheese, except Patrick Henderson said the European-style crust on the cheese perplexed provincial inspectors.
"The inspector [told] us, 'Here you are not welcome, because here people eat cheddar. We don't need your goat cheese,'" he said.
Inspectors claimed cheese was contaminated
The inspectors declared some of the cheese contaminated even though four other laboratories found no trace of a problem.
Health Minister Michael Murphy wouldn't discuss the specific case, but said other laboratories don't matter.
"If one lab is the accredited lab, who provides the information to the Department of Health and that's the accredited lab, then that's what's followed," Murphy said.
Henderson said the cheese farm is running smoothly now but the experience with the provincial government has left him disappointed.
"We've lost a lot of money. We come here with the fire to do something good, and something new, local products in New Brunswick. And now we are tired," he said.
"We don't know what we can do but we [lost] our motivation."
Gilles Martin, who is with a Kent County farm co-operative, said the situation sends the wrong message to other potential immigrant farmers.
"I think that what they've gone through is to us totally unacceptable. Unjust, to say the least," Martin said.
