Marketing Greater Saint John Intro Text

Saint John is a city in transition. Our economy is moving from one based in labour to one based in knowledge.

More than at any point in our history, the success of the Greater Saint John economy is tied to global supply chains, investment flows and people migration.

It is imperative that Greater Saint John be known both internally and externally as an excellent place to live, work, start a business, invest, attend school, and visit.

Saint John’s Role In The Provincial Economy

Greater Saint John is too large and too important not to have its economic challenges addressed. If we want sustained economic growth for the province, then we need a strong Greater Saint John.

Over the past two decades there are many examples of New Brunswick’s economic performance mirroring that of Greater Saint John.

Between 1998 and 2008, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in New Brunswick averaged 2.7 per cent per year. Based on estimates from the Conference Board of Canada, GDP growth in the Saint John Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) averaged 2.8 per cent during the same period. For more than a decade, the GDP in New Brunswick and in Greater Saint John grew at almost exactly the same rate.

Between 2008 and 2017, average annual GDP growth in the Greater Saint John area dropped to just 0.4 per cent. It was only 0.5 per cent across New Brunswick. Again, the economies of New Brunswick and Greater Saint John moved almost in parallel.

Another way to look at this is that 20 years ago, the Saint John CMA accounted for 19.7 per cent of New Brunswick’s GDP. In 2017, it accounted for almost the same share, at 19.6 per cent.

Based on the last two decades of data, it is unlikely that New Brunswick will get back to robust GDP growth without a renewal of strong economic growth in Greater Saint John. The economic performance of all communities in New Brunswick matters. However, as an example, Greater Moncton’s economy grew more than three times faster than the Greater Saint John economy between 2008 and 2017, but it wasn’t enough to foster overall robust provincial economic growth.