Honouring our Leadership Partner: the Government of New Brunswick

We are excited to have the Government of New Brunswick’s Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour as a leadership partner and a major sponsor for this year's inaugural InnovateNB Celebration. The Celebration is taking place on November 22nd in Saint John New Brunswick, where you can indulge in a full-day event aimed to raise awareness and spark interest in the innovative work that is happening in New Brunswick

About the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour (PETL)

The mission of the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour is to empower people with the skills and knowledge to succeed in New Brunswick as a place to live, learn and work in a fair, safe and inclusive environment. The department also aims to cultivate a well-educated, highly skilled and productive workforce and population through innovative programs and services that contribute to a prosperous province.

We spoke with The Honourable Trevor Holder about what InnovateNB means to NB’s ecosystem. Minister Holder was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick during the June 1999 provincial election and remains an MLA having now been elected seven times. He represents the riding of Portland-Simonds in Saint John. He has served as Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour since November 2018.

What does innovation mean to GNB and to you?

Innovation is required when there are complex problems to solve, and New Brunswick has many challenges that we, as a government tackle daily.  One example is labour force shortages.  From 2018 to 2027, New Brunswick will need to fill 120,000 job openings, and demographics are not on our side.  We have had to dig deep to build creative solutions to address the labour force gap in many of our priority occupations from healthcare to IT.  With our partners both inside and outside of government, we’re developing innovative new ways to train people, we’re investing in companies that are moving towards automation to reduce the need for manual labour and are launching pilot projects to test new ways of doing things.

For our economy to grow and for people to thrive, we want more innovative companies developing new products, services and methodologies that can be exported worldwide.  We need new people, new ideas, and new economic growth in New Brunswick. 

Innovation is a driver of all of this.

Why was it important for GNB to be a part of the InnovateNB celebration?

It is important to showcase the innovative work being done by existing New Brunswick companies and organizations and to inspire people to apply their creativity to solve important problems.  We need to engage all New Brunswickers in coming up with solutions that will help us grow as a province.  

What part of the InnovateNB celebration are you most looking forward to?

It all looks interesting, but I’m most keen to visit the Innovation Trade Show and Recruitment Showcase.  I want to meet with companies and organizations that are doing innovative work in New Brunswick so we can learn more about their successes, and how we can take what they’ve learned and apply it elsewhere. The thought-leadership sessions will also be a great opportunity to learn from leading thinkers on timely topics and ideas.

You certainly won’t want to miss the full day of programming at the InnovateNB Celebration, where you’ll get an inside look at the state of innovation in New Brunswick and beyond. You can purchase your tickets for the InnovateNB Visit our ticket page to purchase your tickets today.