Companies Coming To Moncton Need To Know The ‘People Infrastructure’ Is There
MONCTON – For a long time, communities in New Brunswick have focused their energies on attracting companies to create employment here. But lately, those business coming to the province have questioned whether we have the right people to fill the jobs, says 3+ Corporation co-CEO Frederic Gionet, and so economic development officials and politicians are working together on a different strategy.
The Moncton region is now pivoting from a focus on attracting companies to Greater Moncton to paying closer attention to workforce development, Gionet said. As it became more difficult to fill vacant positions, a shift started to happen.
“The openings were there. But it took longer and longer to fill these jobs. And some of our investors started asking more questions about our capacity like they do everywhere else,” he said. “We realized more and more, labour force is going to be a factor. We cannot attract new companies here if we can’t find the labour force.”
At its annual public meeting Monday, 3+ Corporation, the economic development agency of Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe, Gionet said it will develop a regional workforce strategy this year.
This will complement the region’s immigration strategy and be presented at the Workforce 20-20 Summit on November 12-13, which is being hosted in tandem with the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Moncton. Economist David Campbell has been in close discussions with Gionet to ensure the strategies work together, Gionet said.
3+ has hired a national firm through an RFP process to develop the regional workforce strategy, he said.
“We know a lot about what we need to do. But we need a little more guidance as to what are best practices across the country, what’s been learnings from other regions…what’s unique from our region that we can actually tap into.”
Gionet said now there’s more consideration put into the “people infrastructure.” And 3+ wants stakeholders, including the three levels of government and private organizations to collaborate on the strategy.
“The demands for labour are huge and this isn’t just touching a few industries….everybody’s waking up. Everybody’s saying, ‘what can we do? I have problems recruiting people’…We’re starting to see the first signs of a tight labour market,” he explained.
Bernard Lord, the chair of 3+’s Economic Leadership Council, said the competition for talent is a global one.
“We live in a world that’s over competitive and we need to adapt to that. And we need to be mindful about that. And we need to maintain our energy, our focus and our collaboration for future success,” he said.
The workforce development strategy will look at not only immigration but also tap into the future career plans of high schools students (grade 10), retraining the 55+ population, among other things, Gionet said.
“[Immigration is] a complex path to get talent. It’s an important one, it’s probably going to be the dominant one. But it’s also looking at what we have already here in the region,” he said. “A lot of people are underemployed or are in industries that are not growing as much…what are the skill sets that are lacking?”
Some companies are more prepared for the labour challenge. TD, for instance, has a multi-year plan to fill jobs at its recently opened corporate offices in Dieppe. Gionet believes the company will succeed in filling all those positions, including by hiring from other parts of Canada, and said that will create healthy competition among employers.
“Economically, that raises the bar for everybody. It’s not a bad thing. It creates some difficulties for some companies losing some talent but really economically, for the region, it ups the bar. Everybody has to create new working environments, new compensations packages that are reflected in the market,” he said.
3+ also wants to brand Greater Moncton to fit the region’s ambitions.
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Last January, 3+ announced a five-year regional economic strategy with goals including growing the population by 2 per cent and the labour market by 1.5 per cent a year. The plan called for a three-to-four per cent GDP growth a year through 2022.
It also aimed to attract more national and international firms to the region, nurture business expansion activities, and develop workforce-based programs that would boost business investment. And it wants to see the creation of 20 to 30 startups a year.
“We’re on track with the targets for startups…As far as workforce, we had a lesser goal in the first year but really our goal is we need two-to-three thousand people moving into the area fully employed every year to meet demand,” Gionet said without providing specific numbers on the updates.
3+ also announced new additions to its board of directors Monday to replace directors’ whose terms have expired. The new board members, with terms set to expire in 2021, include Grant Thornton partner Jean Marc Delaney, Sun Life Insurance advisor Khaleelurrahman, Horizon Health Network chief HR officer Maura McKinnon and Linda Schofield, general director of Philanthropic Development and Relations with Graduates at the Université de Moncton.
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