Blog Post
This blog was authored by Jasmeet Narula (Project Coordinator) and Simon Marmura Brown (Strategic Director of Research and Knowledge Mobilization) at UNB’s Pond-Deshpande Centre
Atlantic Canada Has the Talent. Now It Needs a Plan.
For decades, Atlantic Canada’s story was one of economic stagnation and out-migration. Suddenly, that changed. According to the Public Policy Forum, the region added 260,000 people between 2019 and 2025, a turnaround driven largely by immigration. Now that wave is slowing, and the question of where the region’s workers will come from is once again urgent.
That question brought employers, educators, policymakers and community organizations to Fredericton on September 25 for the Talent for Growth Summit. The issues were familiar: an aging workforce, slower immigration and international student numbers, newcomers who arrive but do not stay, young people disconnected from work and school, and four provincial systems that too often pull in different directions.
One question kept coming up throughout the day: how many conversations like this have we had before? The message from speakers was clear. Atlantic Canada does not lack ideas. It lacks a coordinated talent strategy with concrete plans behind it.
Immigration Alone Cannot Carry The Strategy
For years, Atlantic Canada’s labour force growth depended heavily on newcomers. From 2018 to 2025, the region’s workforce aged 15 to 34 grew by 84,000, and almost all of that growth came from new immigrants and temporary international workers.
That model is now under pressure. Preliminary Statistics Canada estimates suggest that new international student cohorts at public postsecondary institutions fell 64% nationally in 2025/26. Speakers also pointed to cuts in permanent resident and international student intake, with the steepest declines among non-permanent residents.
The deeper point was not that immigration no longer matters. It was that recruitment without retention, credential recognition and a clear match to regional needs is not a strategy. Bringing people in only to place them in jobs well below their potential is a poor bargain, both for them and for the region.
Retention is Economic Infrastructure
Attracting people is only half the job. The other half is giving them lasting reasons to stay.
Statistics Canada reports that one-year retention among immigrants admitted in 2022 was lowest in the Atlantic provinces, ranging from 46.7% to 64.3%. Every departure means paying twice: once to recruit, and again to replace.
That means treating retention as economic infrastructure. Jobs and wages matter, but so do credential recognition, rural settlement supports, access to health care, community connection and better use of the experience of older adults. As Senator Krista Ross framed it, talent is at once an economic issue, an immigration issue and a community issue.
The Region Has Talent It Is Not Fully Using
The talent challenge is not only about attracting people from elsewhere. Some of the region’s biggest untapped potential is already here.
A Statistics Canada analysis of youth aged 20 to 29 found the highest shares not in employment, education or training in Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick. Figures shared at the summit pointed in the same direction, with one presenter estimating that about 14% of young people aged 15 to 25 in Atlantic Canada are disconnected from work and school.
Skills are part of that story too. Speakers pointed to worrying learning outcomes and called for more flexible pathways, stronger links between employers and postsecondary institutions, and training systems that can respond more quickly to regional labour needs.
Atlantic Canada Needs to Act Like One Labour Market
A recurring frustration at the summit was that the four Atlantic provinces face similar pressures, yet often tackle them separately. That fragmentation makes it harder for people, employers and training systems to move at the speed the labour market requires.
The scale of demand is significant. One speaker estimated that roughly 400,000 jobs will need to be filled between 2025 and 2035. Construction, energy and electricity were all cited as sectors where retirement, succession and major project timelines make workforce planning urgent.
The good news is that the foundations already exist. Red Seal certification lets tradespeople work across provinces, and the Atlantic provinces signed an apprenticeship mobility agreement in 2015. The next step is closing the remaining gaps, from safety training and onboarding requirements to regulated occupations, so skilled workers can move across the region without unnecessary retraining.
From Agreement to Execution
If there was one takeaway from the day, it was that Atlantic Canada does not have to choose between attracting people and developing the talent already here. It has to do both, and it has to do them together.
The days of treating population growth as something to be acquired are over. With the Atlantic Chamber’s Atlantic Population Growth Strategy as a shared starting point, the region has what it needs to start acting more like one labour market.
One panelist’s line stuck with us: “We have the talent.” The challenge now is moving past platitudes to concrete plans.
Agreement was not in short supply at the summit. Delivery is what remains. The question is no longer whether Atlantic Canada understands the problem. It does. The test now is whether the region can move from conversation to execution.
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