New BrunswickEnvision Saint John presented its new strategic plan to city council, emphasizing efforts to attract business investment and skilled workers in key sectors like health care. CEO Andrew Beckett said global trade tensions are creating uncertainty that’s slowing local growth. Group trying to attract health-care and post-secondary talent to cityNipun Tiwari · CBC News · Posted: Oct 21, 2025 6:59 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoEnvision Saint John CEO Andrew Beckett says the biggest hurdle to the city’s growth is business uncertainty. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)A Saint John business group says the city has a lot of opportunity to build on as it faces a future with economic uncertainties. Envision Saint John delivered its strategic plan to attract more business and talent to the city in front of council members Monday night. In his annual update presentation, Envision CEO Andrew Beckett said the group is focused on sectors like health care, real estate, improving new immigrant experiences and advocating for the municipality’s airport. International trade conflicts and federal immigration measures cast their shadow over Beckett’s address, with councillors questioning their impacts on growth and what council and the agency can do to overcome the challenges. “The biggest challenge we’ve got right now is the uncertainty,” Beckett said, speaking with reporters after the meeting. “There’s a lot of businesses that are interested in the area because of the strengths we’ve got. But with the uncertainty that’s been created around global trade corridors, there’s a lot of businesses that are just holding off making any investments right now.” In February, a national Chamber of Commerce report named Saint John as the Canadian city most vulnerable to U.S.-imposed tariffs. Trade tensions aren’t the only challenge. The federal government’s international student cap — introduced in 2024 — has also had impacts. The Association of Atlantic Universities recently released data showing a drop in students enrolling from abroad in every province. The group said the drop will limit growth, with less talent coming into Atlantic Canada. New Brunswick’s international enrolment is 11 per cent lower than in 2024, with most universities seeing decreases two years in a row. “It’s not just international students. It means a decrease in immigration targets, too, that are really impacting us,” he said. “These are students that typically bring a lot of innovation and creativity to the local area that we’re missing out on by not having them here.” Targeting health-care and post-secondary talent Beckett said the agency is doing marketing campaigns to attract and retain talent. He said the group is focused on attracting “health-care professionals” and “post-secondary talent” by going to maritime universities to sell the city as a place for students to start their careers. He also said while the city needs more people in health care and education, these sectors are difficult to fill because of the challenging nature of the fields. “There are people that are trained to be in those environments at a recent graduate level that don’t want to go into those environments because the workplace is not a good place to be.” He said other sectors, like tourism, are also having trouble finding people to fill entry-level positions. Councillors want to reduce hurdles Some councillors praised the organization’s efforts to grow the city. Others voiced concerns and questions on how to help. “What are we missing? What product or service are we missing?” asked Coun. Paula Radwan. “Is there anything that the city could be doing to help break down barriers to making sure that we get the things that we need?” Beckett said the city should continue recreation investments like its “generational” $25-million upgrade to the Canada Games Aquatic Centre to make people want to stay in Saint John.The Spruce Lake Industrial Park expansion will make hundreds of hectares in the area ‘pad ready’ for industrial development to attract large business operations to the city. Beckett says there are four or five active files with interest in the area. (Roger Cosman/CBC)He also said large businesses need places to develop and that councillors took a positive step by approving the controversial Spruce Lake Industrial Park expansion, saying there are currently “four or five” active files with interest in the site.“I would say that we are still in a situation where we don’t have enough industrial land for where some of the opportunities are,” he said. “Continued focus and investments in that area are going to be needed to really capitalize on some of the opportunities that we’re seeing.” Coun. Gary Sullivan noted that Saint John has been growing slower than Moncton and Fredericton. Deputy Mayor John MacKenzie — filling in for Mayor Donna Reardon, who was absent — said the other cities’ airports also attract more opportunity than Saint John’s. Sullivan said he wants to see the agency make more active advocacy efforts to councillors. “You are our economic development agency. You play a big part — I would say the lead part,” he said.”If there are things that you think are important [and say], ‘Here’s something we’re working on that we would really like to nudge council to move because it supports what we are doing.’ Then we need to have that conversation.” Councillors questioned Beckett on impacts and how council can help. Coun. Paula Radwan, second from left, asked what barriers council members can remove to fuel the city’s growth. (Nipun Tiwari / CBC)Beckett said the agency is trying to provide more regular growth updates and agreed it needs to be more visible. Radwan noted that Envision’s marketing efforts wouldn’t be seen in the city because they target markets outside Saint John. Beckett also said there’s a lot to be optimistic about, including the port, general job growth and entrepreneurship. “Rather than bemoaning the fact that we’ve got all this uncertainty, we’re trying to find ways that we can build off it, trying to capitalize on some of the opportunities that are there,” he said. ABOUT THE AUTHORNipun Tiwari is a reporter assigned to community engagement and based in Saint John, New Brunswick. He can be reached at nipun.tiwari@cbc.ca.
Saint John business group says city faces challenges, opportunity in economic growth
