Ukranians relocate to Saint John, find work in growing IT sector

Twenty Ukrainian people, along with their families, are settling into their new home of Saint John, New Brunswick — all thanks to recently added, high-paying information technology sector jobs.

The Ukrainians, who have been relocating to the province since October, work for the Silicon Valley-based software developer RevJet.

READ MORE: Information technology employers struggle to fill thousands of jobs in NB

These people agreed to leave their Eastern European homeland — which, at times, has been the centre of violent civil and political unrest — to make a new home in the Maritimes.

“Basically it’s…very scary for most of the people [to] live in the country where the war is actually happening,” said RevJet employee Ievgen Rzhechytskyi.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Basically it's…very scary for most of the people [to] live in the country where the war is actually happening," said RevJet employee Ievgen Rzhechytskyi.

Employees and their families have been making their way to the port city since October, with about 50 people having arrived so far.

Opportunities New Brunswick is providing up to $400,000 in payroll rebates for creating and maintaining the 20 jobs for three years.

RevJet says it plans to continue to add to its workforce in Saint John. They’ve recently hired a full time recruiter and plan to add more positions in the future.

RevJet Founder and CEO Mitchell Weisman says that with offices in Odessa and Kiev, the potential for violence was too great a risk for his employees.

“When this fire bombing happened in Odessa, it was a big wake up call of ‘hey the war may be coming here,'” said Weisman. “So we picked up the phone and talked to Opportunities New Brunswick”.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "When this fire bombing happened in Odessa, it was a big wake up call of 'hey the war may be coming here,'" said Weisman. "So we picked up the phone and talked to Opportunities New Brunswick".

For Weisman, the move to New Brunswick is an emotional one, as his great grandparents made a similar move years ago, relocating to to the U.S. from Europe.

Limited visa openings in the U.S., among other things, played a factor in RevJet deciding to relocate their employees to Saint John.

The 20 jobs created in Saint John are expected to increase the provincial GDP by $2.7 million per year.