FREDERICTON — Come September minimum wage will rise to $10 in New Brunswick, but politicians and business leaders, such as the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA), continue to discuss the subject.

In fact, the CRFA is urging the government to introduce restaurant tip and training differentials. “The minimum wage increase introduced in early 2010 has been a job killer. Between 2009 and 2010, 2,100 jobs were lost in foodservice with 1,300 involving young people under the age of 25,” said Luc Erjavec, CRFA’s vice-president, Atlantic Canada. He added: “A tip differential will help protect the hours of work and tip income for those who rely on those hours to earn tips, and a training differential will encourage employers to hire more first-time employees,” says Erjavec.

ST. ANDREWS, N.B. — Despite efforts to encourage other countries to conserve salmon stocks, an international organization is warning steep declines are an imminent threat Canada needs to take seriously.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation, which will be participating in a North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) meeting in Ilulissat, Greenland in June, believes Atlantic salmon could go the way of Newfoundland cod if Canada doesn’t discourage Greenland from starting a commercial fishery next year, Canadian Press reports.

"They're [Greenland] not happy with not just the science but also the fact other nations throughout the North Atlantic, including Canada, continue to harvest far too many fish," Bill Taylor, federation president, told the CP. "It's a matter of practising what we preach.”

FREDERICTON — Snow crab fishermen are expecting a good year following a 50-per-cent increase in price per pound, CBC News reports.

Jean Lanteigne, the head of the Canadian Federation of Professional Fishermen in New Brunswick, told the CBC the price hikes are occurring in part because of lower quotas imposed on crab last year by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

DIEPPE, N.B. — Potato farmers in P.E.I. continue to feel the pinch when it comes to finding buyers for their crop, according to a recent CBC report.

The news agency reports Cavendish Farms will reduce its spud order by 10 to 15 per cent this year. "With the recession that we've just had down in the United States and here in Canada, people [haven’t been] travelling out into the restaurants to eat as much, and therefore the demand of our products dropped off," Robert Irving, president of Cavendish Farms told the CBC.

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