Immigration And Innovation Drive Growth, Say Speakers At Moncton Business Community Breakfast
MONCTON – Innovation and talent attraction were two key issues discussed by various speakers at the 3+ Growth Breakfast Thursday, including Alicia Ismach, Venn Innovation’s Entrepreneur in Residence.
“My main message is to embrace diversity and to understand that it’s a power and that can foster innovation and not [be] a threat. Many people think that when you don’t feel comfortable, something is wrong, and it’s exactly the opposite. When you feel too comfortable is when things are not working too perfectly. You need a challenge to grow and to change and to innovate,” she said.
Ismach is an Argentinian who has spent more than 20 years in the technology and innovation space in Israel, specifically the fintech sector. She came to Canada just a couple of months ago.
She spoke to the challenges faced by the business community in Greater Moncton and Atlantic Canada. Demographic woes have made it difficult for businesses to find workers across various skill levels, said Kent Estabrooks, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s (ACOA) Vice President for New Brunswick.
ACOA found through consultations with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing space that the key challenges revolve around finding the right talent, technology implementation, and managing change.
“Virtually all the firms told us it was very difficult to find skilled workers. And even if they were able to find skilled workers, they have to invest an exorbitant amount of money to get them to the skill level they needed,” he said in his presentation.
Immigration is crucial for New Brunswick’s labour pool. But companies need to focus more on retaining newcomers and integrating them better at the workplace and in the community. Estabrooks said businesses should also look to hire from underrepresented communities, such as the Indigenous population – the only segment of Atlantic Canada’s population that grew in the decade through 2016.
And despite great examples of innovation happening in the region, there’s a low awareness among SMEs on where the opportunities for automation are and how the nature of work is changing.
“Immigration alone won’t solve the skills shortage. Automation is key,” he said. “Automation doesn’t always mean job loss. In fact, the vast majority of businesses that we spoke to that have automated processes ended up upskilling affected workers, placing them in better jobs, resulting in their firms becoming more productive and yielding higher salary masses than before.”
Even though an estimated 25,000 to 40,000 of the 400,000 jobs available in Canada are in the Atlantic area, youth employment remains low and they continue to leave the region.
“We’re wondering if businesses are looking for different skills than youth have, or is it a lack of awareness among youth about opportunities here in the region? It could be a mix of a number of things,” Estabrooks said.
ACOA has been working to bring industry and the academic world closer in order to set up a pipeline of talent and prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow. It’s also bringing schools and industry together to introduce youth to existing opportunities.
Ismach said these kinds of collaboration need to happen more and New Brunswick businesses need to be more vocal about their achievements.
“I think everybody’s open to [collaboration] but it just didn’t happen enough,” she said.
“I think that you have an amazing community that’s prepared for change and has already the roots for it. Amazing corporations have been growing here. But I find them sometimes too humble. They don’t speak enough about themselves, what they’re doing. That’s important because they need to be a role model for the next generation.”