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By James Mallory

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Bathurst Mayor Stephen Brunet is optimistic about the city's economic future, due to various construction projects.

"As you drive up and down the streets, you see all kinds of construction," he noted in a year-end interview.

He said along St. Peter Avenue, work includes new restaurants from KFC and Pizza Delight, plus a Suzuki vehicle dealership. In the downtown, work continues on the waterfront village project and on a condominium project on Douglas Avenue. And, this past fall, a new seniors complex opened on Union Street.

Mayor Brunet also pointed out the opening of a Quizno's sandwich shop beside Shoppers Drug Mart and The Brick furniture/electronics store opening a store in

the former Shopper's Drug Mart location.

Mr. Brunet said the Bathurst Industrial Park was also a hot spot with expansion to businesses such as the Bathurst Machine Shop and Future Alternative Wood Products. He added that two new files being worked on for 2009.

"I can't say what they are but there's other people looking at the Industrial Park," he said. "We are applying for monies to improve our industrial Park now. We're hoping to fix up some of the road work in there and the street lighting and lighting to make it more attractive for people to build."

Donald Hammond, executive director of Enterprise Chaleur, also praised the developments at the Industrial Park.

Mr. Hammond also pointed to the continuing success of the Port of Belledune and a wind farm project in the Caribou Mountain area.

"When you look at what's going on at the Port of Belledune, there's a lot of activities and they plan expansion...Also, there is SUEZ Energy has started to build its wind energy park and that's going to continue next year."

Not that 2008 didn't bring its share of bad news on the economic front. Caribou Mines near Bathurst suffered from low metal prices and the operation was unexpectedly closed down indefinitely earlier this month. Also, people continue to brace for the loss of hundreds of jobs in early 2011 when Xstrata Zinc Brunswick Mine closes.

"We have to work in partnerships for the next while with Brunswick Mines coming near (the end of) its life cycle," said Mayor Brunet. "Caribou was a great start this year...but sadly within the same year we had the announcement of the closure. But in that time, it did put $120 million into that piece of land and we're still hopefully the economy will turn around and they'll need the ore that's up there."

Mr. Hammond said the focus must now be how to keep these mine workers in the Chaleur region.

"Many people came to the region because of Caribou Mine. Some were not from here and some of them want to stay in the region. So the next step is now we're working with the employees and supporting them in the adjustment process."

For 2009, Mr. Brunet said the region will continue to diversify its mining sector and look towards other business projects such as the Kent property concept, which calls for a major retail/office/housing development on the Main Street site.

Mr. Hammond concluded that Enterprise Chaleur predicts that the next few years will be busy.

"There's still a lot of projects in the next few years that we'll be working on. Some might be pushed a few months later but most will happen so the outlook is very positive," he concluded.