Ignite Fredericton is building on that legacy. The organization has packaged Fredericton’s assets into what it calls the “Innovation District”, a two-kilometre radius encompassing over 60 research and development organizations. Innovation District is anchored by Knowledge Park and the University of New Brunswick — responsible for the output of more than 75 per cent of the province’s university-related research.

Additionally, Ignite Fredericton is using the Smart Grid project currently being developed by NB Power and Siemens as a case study for marketing its Digital Product Development Living Lab model (DPDLL).  The DPDLL packages the assets of Ignite Fredericton (talent, research, digital infrastructure) and regional market attributes to attract investment. And Guthrie says there’s much more being developed to boost Fredericton’s knowledge sector.

“We absolutely anticipate more growth,” she says enthusiastically. “We just launched a first of its kind export acceleration program called Export Igniter, which will help take our export-ready companies to the next level.

“We are working on some exciting initiatives,” she adds, “and there will be more news to come in 2017!”

The knowledge sector is central to the work being done at Opportunities NB, a crown corporation that works to attract and support prospects that grow the economy and create jobs. Opportunities NB provides support services and resources across the province, all aimed at attracting new investment, boosting New Brunswick exports, growing small businesses and startups, and supporting creative entrepreneurs.

Opportunities NB is the lead organization for four pillars of the New Brunswick Economic Growth Plan 2016: supporting New Brunswick becoming the hub for Smart Grid development; advancing the growth of the business support services sector; identifying economic opportunities from the legalization of marijuana; and identifying and developing opportunities in the global cybersecurity market — a key component of the province’s growing and valuable knowledge sector.

Last May, New Brunswick secured a Canadian milestone, becoming the first province to launch a comprehensive cybersecurity plan. Opportunities NB is supporting the provincial cybersecurity ecosystem (and in turn growing the province’s technology sector) in partnership with New Brunswick’s innovative universities and colleges, as well as CFB Gagetown, one of the largest military bases in Canada.

“Cybersecurity is the fastest growing sub sector of IT and will be for the next 20 years,” says Stephen Lund, Opportunities NB’s chief executive officer.
“We recognized this global challenge as an opportunity and became the first province in Canada to launch a comprehensive plan with our partners last spring,” said Lund. “With the establishment of Cyber NB, we are positioned to take a leadership role in Canada.”
Lund has 30 years of experience in the financial and economic development industries, first in commercial banking, later as vice-president of Canada’s largest national venture capital firm. He notes that the worldwide cybersecurity market is estimated to grow from $77 billion in 2015 to $170 billion by 2020. And there’s plenty of potential for job growth: approximately 67,000 of the 192,000 Canadian IT jobs projected by 2021 will be in cybersecurity.

Lund and the Opportunities NB team are also working to expand the province’s contact centre sector, a knowledge industry that New Brunswick has excelled in for more than two decades.

Contact centres are a major employer in New Brunswick: one out of every 20 workers in the province (18,000 people) is employed at almost 90 centres. Contact centres in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton account for 85 per cent of this employment but centres also exist in Miramichi, Bathurst, Campbellton and Edmundston as well as in many rural communities, providing valuable employment. In all, contact centres contribute more than $1 billion annually to the province’s GDP. And Opportunities NB is growing that figure.

“We are focused on continuing to develop the skilled workforce that companies are looking for. Those people will be critical to the evolution and growth of this sector,” Lund explains. “One of the goals will be to increase the number of business service centres in stable sectors such as banking, finance, information technology and research. Skilled workers will be needed for jobs such as system management specialists, technical services professionals and customer centre representatives.”

When pitching New Brunswick to prospective investors, Lund always highlights the province’s knowledge sector. Recently he spoke to more than 100 business people in Los Angeles.

“I told them about our IT ecosystem, including our universities, and how we have been a leader in the IT field in Canada, and about how New Brunswick university graduates are revolutionizing traditional industries around the world. I talked about how we have international companies like IBM and Salesforce and that two Silicon Valley companies chose to set up operations in New Brunswick. I told them that New Brunswick is a leader in Smart Grid, and that we are the epicentre of cybersecurity in Canada,” he continues. “To say people are impressed with what we have done and are doing is an understatement,” he adds.

“We all need to keep telling our story.”