Saint John introduces plan aimed at stemming population decline

Saint John is moving forward with a plan it hopes will turn around the city’s declining population.

The Population Growth Framework has been introduced to the city’s growth committee.

One of its goals is to make Saint John, New Brunswick’s most welcoming city. Saint John’s population numbers over the past several decades are stark.

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The city says between 1971 and 2016, the city’s population fell from 89,000 to 67,000. Part of that is likely due to suburban migration but it still represents a 25 per cent drop in 45 years.

The framework has three main objectives.

One goal here is to have more than 400 new residents between 2019 and 2020. The second objective is to enhance the newcomer experience in the city with the plan to have an immigration partnership strategy in place by the end of the year.

Finally, to retain the population with the goal of decreasing interprovincial migration by 2021.

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Those putting the framework together say there is no easy solution.

“A family deciding to move to another city of another province, it’s a big decision,” said David Dobbelsteyn, the city’s population growth manager.

“We need to make it really easy for people to get here.”

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The mayor says everyone realizes there will be many challenges, but the work must be done.

“This is a conversation that wasn’t even happening 15 or 20 months ago,” said Saint John Mayor Don Darling. “It’s going to be difficult but anything worthwhile is never easy.”

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The CEO of Enterprise Saint John, Ron Gaudet, began his career in Saint John before eventually leaving his native province.

For him, the decision was personal, aimed at coming home better equipped.

“In order for me to to do the job well, I felt I needed to get those external opportunities and learnings that I could again bring back to this region,” he explained.

The report was received and filed by the growth committee and will come before Common Council.