Saint John a Strategic Location For These National, International Corporations
SAINT JOHN — Three major corporations have chosen to open up shop in Saint John over the past six months.
First Onsite Property Restoration opened up its first Saint John location at 44 Whitebone Way on December 1. The company is Canada’s leading independent disaster restoration services provider, which has done significant work in the Atlantic provinces following the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona.
“We have already recruited an experienced staff that is entirely local to the Saint John area,” says Peter Keefe the director of operations for the Atlantic Region at First Onsite. “First Onsite always hires locally and has a focused recruitment program to ensure that we employ the best local talent that we can engage.”
On Friday, the federal and municipal governments announced $30 million in funding for climate change mitigations to critical infrastructure, such as raising the Courtenay Bay Causeway to prevent flooding.
While First Onsite says it is not involved with any of the announced projects, Keefe notes “we are often involved in Federal, Provincial and Municipal, Mitigation and restoration projects.” The company’s services include everything from mould and environmental remediation, to large and complex loss recovery, to flood, fire and catastrophic event recovery.
“Saint John is the hub and industrial centre of New Brunswick, and this location provides a strategic beachhead for our continued growth,” said Darren Bezanson, regional vice president of the Atlantic Region with First Onsite. “The new office also allows our team to better meet the demands of our customers and insurance partners, who have been keen on the company opening an office here for some time now.”
Keefe adds that the Saint John location “fulfills our commitment to providing emergency restoration coverage for residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the three major centres of New Brunswick. With existing branches in Fredericton and Moncton we now complete what we call the major centre hub triangle in the province.”
On November 21, Kinectrics, a Canadian company specializing in advanced technologies for the power industry with a focus on nuclear, opened their Saint John office at 1 Germain St. In addition to having a presence in Ontario, Kinectrics also has offices in the US, the UK, Germany, Romania and India.
Kinectrics will be working in the nuclear power plant life cycle and small modular reactor fields, making its location in Saint John extremely important.
“This new location will enable Kinectrics to continue working closely with NB Power and SMR vendors,” said David Harris, president and CEO of Kinectrics. “Kinectrics aims to invest in the province of New Brunswick which will help build capacity and increase capability of the local supply chain in support of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, and for new advanced reactor development and deployment in the province.”
SMR design and development firms ARC and Moltex also have a strong presence in the region, making Saint John a hub for nuclear innovation. Kinectrics is actively looking to fill positions and anticipates hiring up to 40 people for well-paying jobs in the Saint John area.
In August, Ascension Elevating Devices of Quispamsis was acquired by Schindler Elevator Corporation Canada, with the aim of enabling further growth in the region.
AED was founded in 2010 and focuses on elevator modernization, service and repairs within the Maritimes. The office at 355 Hampton Road in Quispamsis, has been maintained as the new Schindler office.
The acquisition is a significant one, giving the Swiss-based corporation a presence in the province it previously lacked.
“We are very happy with the acquisition of AED and looking forward to the expansion of our Schindler operations into the east coast,” said Lisa Konny, president of Schindler Canada. “We are pleased to welcome AED customers and employees to our team. We see a great opportunity to enhance the customer experience. We are also very excited to now be positioned to offer our products and services to our existing national customers coast to coast.“
Arlene Dunn, Minister responsible for Opportunities NB says that the province has had “an outstanding year in terms of both economic investment and population growth.”
“Positive momentum is clearly on our side, “ she says. “The recent addition of companies like Kinectrics, which will allow for growth in a nuclear skills capacity and will help NB to be a leader in this industry, Schindler Canada’s acquisition of Ascension Elevating Devices, and First Onsite Property Restoration in Saint John is evidence of this. “
“As one of the largest cities in New Brunswick, Saint John’s economic growth is crucial to the success of our province, and we’re happy to see businesses setting up shop, investing and creating jobs there.”