The federal government will spend $12.9 million over four years to create a Centre for Innovation on Francophone Immigration and Economic Prosperity, two New Brunswick MPs announced Friday. 

The centre will provide "quality settlement services by and for francophones," said Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, the MP for Beausejour,

"Our future very much depends on successful immigration to Canada."

He said the centre's goal would be to recruit, settle and retain immigrants.

Since the departure six years ago of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, immigration in the area has risen and demand is there, said Ginette Petitpas Taylor, the MP for Moncton.

"We certainly needed to have an IRCC presence within our area," she said.

She said that in the next decade, 17,000 workers are expected to retire from the greater Moncton area.

"We desperately need new blood and fresh thinking of new Canadians, and we need the promise of the future their children offer," she said."I see it every day with newcomers who reach up to our office and the world wants to come here."

Open next year

LeBlanc said the government will allocate $6 million a year to keep the bilingual centre running permanently. He said the centre will employ between 30 and 40 public workers.

The office is expected to open in early 2022, five or six months from now.

"It'll be bilingual and will have dynamic young women and men who want to serve the government of Canada and Canadians."

The only Immigration Canada office now in New Brunswick is in Fredericton.

During a stop in Fredericton on Friday, O'Toole said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's repeated promises to force the province to pay for the service at Clinic 554 amount to politicizing the issue "for his own political gain and to divide Canadians."

He said in an interview it's "fundamental" that the federal government ensure there's access to abortion but "how the provinces run their health care systems is not what the federal government should be interfering with." 

In his first visit to New Brunswick since becoming Conservative leader, O'Toole made stops in three ridings the Conservatives believe they can win in an election expected soon: Fredericton, Saint John-Rothesay and Miramichi-Grand Lake.

In the capital, he made a campaign-style promise to be "a federal funding partner" for a proposed aquatic centre the city has been wanting to build for years. 

Clinic 554 is emerging as a key election issue in the province after Trudeau vowed again this week to pressure Premier Blaine Higgs to fund the procedure there.

Clinic 554, a private practice clinic that provides abortions in Fredericton, has been under threat of closing because of the province's refusal to fund the abortions it provides, according to the people who run the clinic. (Mike Heenan/CBC)

O'Toole said he is pro-choice and that abortion services are "a right that needs to be maintained for people in all parts of the country, including here in New Brunswick."

But he said that is the case already given three hospitals in the province provide the service.

Trudeau promised in 2019 to "ensure" clinic abortions are funded, and this week he cited a reduction in federal health transfers to New Brunswick of $140,216 as evidence he is following through on that vow.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland also promised July 23 that Ottawa would announce more measures "in the coming days," though that hasn't happened yet. 

O'Toole accused the federal Liberals of hypocrisy for calling on the province to fund a service at a private clinic when it is already offered in three hospitals. 

"I don't hear Mr. Trudeau advocating for private diagnostic clinics or surgical clinics for knees and hips and things like this," he said.

Clinic director disputes description

Clinic director Dr. Adrian Edgar said O'Toole's description of the clinic is misleading because all the other services it has provided are covered by Medicare, as in any doctor's office or clinic.

On the other hand, New Brunswick is the only province that refuses to fund abortions in such a clinic, he said.

"If a doctor wants to provide a service and it is a necessary service, the government's responsibility is simply to ensure public funding for it." 

Abortions funded by Medicare are now provided at three hospitals in New Brunswick: two in Moncton —  the Moncton Hospital and the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre — and the Chaleur Regional Hospital in Bathurst.

The Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton is one of three hospitals in New Brunswick that offer abortions funded by Medicare. (Radio-Canada)

The Higgs government says that's enough to comply with the Canada Health Act. The premier has said if more access is needed, it could be offered in other hospitals.

Last week Horizon Health CEO Karen McGrath said the number of women seeking abortions at the Moncton Hospital has gone down 20 per cent over the last five years, meaning there's not enough demand to warrant more access in other hospitals.

"It is our position that there is no need to establish another service," she wrote.

Clinic 554 announced in 2019 it would soon close, blaming the province's refusal to fund abortions at the facility. The clinic also offered other services funded by Medicare.

Despite that warning, the clinic remains partially open, offering abortion and IUD services, but it relies on support from a national advocacy group and on Edgar's income from his work as a doctor for the Canadian military. 

"We're still precariously positioned," he said.

O'Toole sees growth as key in region

On the federal equalization program that distributes money to have-not provinces, O'Toole said he's not in favour of adjusting the formula to account for the extra cost of health care for Atlantic Canada's older population.

Higgs and others have called for the formula to take that into account.

O'Toole, who recently said he'd tweak the formula to benefit oil-producing provinces like Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador when crude prices are low, said there are other ways to help this region deal with an aging population. 

"The biggest thing we need for New Brunswick and for Atlantic Canada writ large is economic opportunity, jobs and growth," he said.