The mayor of Saint John says the city is starting to see results from its population growth efforts.
At a growth committee meeting on Tuesday, members were told the city has seen a 6.5 per cent increase in permanent residents so far this year.
The numbers do not indicate how many of those people are choosing to stay in the city.
Mayor Don Darling said many newcomers he has heard from say Saint John is a gem of a city.
“I think we’ve got a lot of the right pieces of the puzzle now in place,” Darling said. “We have jobs, we have a quality of life to sell, we have a really welcoming and generous and kind community.”
Population growth strategy
In February, the city launched a population growth strategy aimed at attracting newcomers and retaining the people already living here.
David Dobbelsteyn, manager of population growth for the city, said Tuesday work has already begun on 27 of the 30 action items.
They include conducting recruitment missions, creating a youth retention task force, and organizing hiring fairs for students, graduates, newcomers and international students.
Some have suggested New Brunswick will need to attract as many as 150,000 new people over the next two decades in order to grow its population.
Darling said the race to attract more people to Saint John is not a sprint, but a marathon.
“We always have to be pushing for results at the end of the day,” he said. “Growing the population, filling those unfilled jobs, growing the tax base; that’s what matters most to the city.”