How Atlantic Canadian IT Firms Stack Up Against The Rest Of The Country
David Campbell is a Moncton-based economic development consultant and co-host of the Huddle podcast, Insights. The following piece was originally published on his blog, It’s the Economy, Stupid!, on Substack.
Are Atlantic Canada IT firms scaling up as fast as the rest of the country?
Of course, the answer to this question depends on how you define scaling. You could look at capital investment, revenue, or other measures. If we want to use Statistics Canada data, employment level is an important measure.
Ideally, a jurisdiction would like to see a number of its tech firms (or any exporters) break out and become large firms with established export markets.
Looking at the growth in the number of IT firms with 50 or more employees, it seems Atlantic Canada, in general, is doing quite well. This data is only based on three NAICS industries: software publishers; data processing, hosting, and related services; and computer systems design and related services. It does not include video game production and other types of “tech.”
According to Statistics Canada, across Atlantic Canada’s four provinces between 2015 and 2022 there was a 44 percent increase in the number of firms with at least 50 staff. That compares to a growth rate of 30 percent across the country. New Brunswick saw a 63 percent jump, which was the highest growth rate in the country (except PEI, but the number in that province increased from 3 to 5, so the baseline was low).
Again, this is just one measure. But the fact that in these three discrete IT sectors there are now 59 firms across Atlantic Canada with 50+ employees is impressive. In New Brunswick alone there are 26.
Don’t get too worked up about this. Ontario is still way ahead in terms of IT GDP, export revenue, and other measures. But the fact that nearly one in ten IT firms in New Brunswick has more than 50 employees is an important achievement.
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