Talent Is the Foundation of Economic Growth
For too long, economic uncertainty has become part of the business environment. Over the past several years, our members have navigated a pandemic, inflation, labour shortages, rising costs, supply chain disruptions, changing immigration policies, trade relationship disruption, and evolving consumer behaviour. Each challenge has demanded adaptation, resilience, and leadership, yet despite those pressures businesses have continued to invest, hire, innovate, and grow. That resilience deserves recognition, but it should not be mistaken for an unlimited capacity to absorb new costs and uncertainty without consequences. The latest developments in the Canada-U.S. trade relationship are another such disruptive force. The United States remains Canada’s largest trading partner, and many New Brunswick businesses are directly or indirectly connected to cross-border markets and supply chains. It is true that every new tariff introduces additional complexity, every shift in trade policy affects investment decisions, and worse, every period of prolonged uncertainty risks weakening business confidence. It is equally true that these challenges can provide opportunities with the right focus. Across Atlantic Canada, demographic challenges have been building for decades. We are experiencing the combined effects of an aging population, increasing competition for workers, changing workforce expectations, and growing demand for specialized skills. At the same time, emerging industries are transforming the economy at a pace few could have predicted even ten years ago. Whether we are discussing cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, health care, skilled trades, defence, research, advanced manufacturing, or the knowledge industry, every conversation ultimately returns to the same issue: people. Talent is not simply one factor contributing to economic growth. Talent is the foundation upon which economic growth depends. This is a point the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce has consistently advanced through our support for population growth strategies, immigration pathways, workforce development initiatives, educational partnerships, and efforts to strengthen Fredericton’s position within the knowledge economy. We have emphasized that population growth and economic growth are inseparable, and that our strategy must focus both on attracting newcomers and on retaining and developing the talent already here. That dual focus is increasingly urgent. We cannot build a sustainable workforce by relying exclusively on immigration, nor can we meet all of our future labour needs through the existing population. We need to better connect students with career opportunities, help people acquire the skills required by a changing economy, create welcoming communities in which newcomers from abroad and other parts of the country can build lasting lives, and ensure that young New Brunswickers can see a compelling future for themselves here. We understand the importance of investing in roads, energy systems, housing, broadband, and transportation because businesses cannot operate effectively without them. The same principle applies to talent, perhaps moreso. Employers cannot expand without the people needed to support that growth, entrepreneurs cannot scale their ideas without skilled teams, and communities cannot attract investment if companies are uncertain that the required workforce will be available. The unsuccessful trade negotiations last week underline why this work cannot wait. When the rules governing international commerce can change with little notice, our response cannot be to pause investment, lower our ambitions, or wait for the external environment to become more predictable. We must instead strengthen the parts of our economy over which we have greater influence, and there is no more consequential place to begin than with our people. As I’ve written many times in this space, we are living in an era of uncertainly and the response must be to keep calm and carry on. We are better off using this latest turn as a further catalyst to continue to focus on the hard work of getting our own economic house in order. That means supporting local, diversifying trade markets, bringing down interprovincial trade barriers, increasing productivity through innovation, development our own resources and developing skills for the current and future workplace. That is why the chambers of commerce in Fredericton, Greater Moncton and the Saint John Region are partnering with the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, the Atlantic Economic Council, the University of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Community College to convene the Talent for Growth Summit on September 25, 2026. The summit will bring together representatives from business, government, post-secondary education, industry, economic development, immigration and settlement organizations, chambers of commerce, community organizations, and the next generation of professionals to address New Brunswick’s talent and workforce challenges. This cannot be another conversation in which we describe challenges that employers already know too well and then return to our respective organizations without a path forward. The purpose of the summit is to bring the right people into the same room, share evidence and experience, develop stronger partnerships, inform workforce strategies and advance practical solutions for attracting, developing, and retaining the talent our province and region need to grow. No single organization can solve this challenge. Employers understand their workforce needs, but they cannot redesign education and training systems by themselves. Post-secondary institutions prepare people for successful careers, but they need sustained input from employers about emerging occupations and skills. Governments establish policies and fund programs, but the effectiveness of those decisions depends on the lived experience of communities, businesses, workers, students, and newcomers. Immigration and settlement organizations help people establish new lives here, but long-term retention requires housing, employment, health care, belonging, and meaningful community connections. Too often, these conversations occur separately. The Talent for Growth Summit is an opportunity to bring them together and to acknowledge that fragmentation is one of the barriers we must overcome. The Summit also provides an opportunity to think beyond immediate vacancies. Filling today’s open positions matters, but our responsibility is larger than matching people with jobs. We must anticipate how work is changing, identify the skills our economy will require in the years ahead, create clearer pathways from learning to employment, and help employers adapt to technological and demographic change. We must also ensure that small and medium-sized businesses, which form the backbone of our economy, can meaningfully participate in workforce development rather than being expected to navigate increasingly complex systems on their own. This is particularly important for Atlantic Canada because national policies do not always reflect regional realities. Our communities face different demographic conditions, labour-market pressures, and population patterns than larger metropolitan centres. Our advocacy for approaches tailored to Atlantic Canada is not a request for special treatment; it is a recognition that effective public policy must respond to the circumstances of the people and places it is meant to serve. If recent trade negotiations have reminded us of anything, it is that we cannot build our economic strategy around variables