Up to $40 million over 10 years for the regional service commissions to support economic development, labour force development and newcomer retention services.
The provincial government announced the funding Tuesday morning in the Moncton region.
It will allow the commissions to expand their services to meet new responsibilities under the local governance reforms.
“Economic development is critical to the continued growth of our province. This support will help create the conditions to sustain our recent success,” said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder.
The province is in the process of signing separate, long-term, performance-based funding agreements with all of the commissions.
Holder said this new provincial funding will empower regions to develop their local economies.
“The outcomes related to these performance-based agreements will include population growth, labour force participation rates, labour force growth, employment growth, and the percentage of newcomers retained,” he said.
The Fundy Regional Service Commission, located in the Saint John region, will not be part of these agreements.
Back in 2020, the province signed a separate economic development agreement to help create what is now known as Envision Saint John.
It committed up to $10 million over 10 years to support economic development in the Greater Saint John region.
“That was a very historic moment when Saint John and all of the outlying areas came together for the first time to talk about how they had worked together to develop the economy of the region,” said Holder.
“We wanted to make sure that we created agreements with regions that met the needs of those local areas.”
Local Government Minister Daniel Allain said he expects this funding will encourage even more local cooperation between communities.
“These agreements will provide our regions with the ability to forge their own future through local decision-making that will allow each of the 12 regional service commissions to tackle economic development in a way that works for them,” said Allain.
Funding is provided through WorkingNB as part of the Canada-New Brunswick Labour Market Agreements.
