Saint John, New Brunswick - Economy

Economy

Politically, socially and economically, the sea has shaped Saint John. The Fundy City has a long history of shipbuilding at the city's dry dock which is one of the largest in the world. Since 2003 shipbuilding has ended on the scale it once was forcing the city to adopt a new economic strategy. The University of New Brunswick, the New Brunswick Museum and the New Brunswick Community College are huge institutions along with Radian6 and Horizon Health Network and many others are apart of Saint John's fast growing Research and Information Technology sectors. As the city moves away from its industrial past it now begins to capitalize on the other new growing economies in Saint John of tourism, having over 1.5 million visitors a year and 200,000 cruise ship visitors a year, creating a renaissance in the city's historic downtown (locally known as uptown) with many small business's moving in and large scale waterfront developments underway such as the Fundy Quay being condo, hotel, office space along with the Saint John Law Courts and Three Sisters Harbour front condos.

The Arts & Culture sector play a large role in Saint John's economy. The Imperial Theatre is home to the highly acclaimed Saint John Theatre Company, and the Symphony New Brunswick and hosts a large collection of plays, concerts and other stage production year round. Harbour Station entertainment complex is home to the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMHL and the Saint John Millrats of the NBL.

Art galleries in Saint John cover the uptown, more than any other atlantic Canadian city. Artists like Miller Brittain and Fred Ross have made Uptown Saint John their home and now the torch has been past to artists like Gerard Collins, Cliff Turner and Peter Salmon and their respective galleries. Uptown art galleries also include the Trinity Galleries, Citadel Gallery, Handworks Gallery and the Saint John Arts Centre (SJAC). The SJAC located in the Carnegie Building, hosts art exhibits, work shops, local song writers circles and other shows too small to be featured at the grand Imperial Theatre.

Saint John still maintains industrial infrastructure in the city's east side such as a large oil refinery. Wealthy industrialist K.C. Irving and his family built an industrial conglomerate in the city during the 20th century with interests in oil, forestry, shipbuilding, media and transportation. Irving companies remain dominant employers in the region with North America's first deepwater oil terminal, a pulp mill, a newsprint mill and a tissue paper plant.

Other important economic activity in the city is generated by the Port of Saint John, the Moosehead Brewery (established in 1867, is Canada's only nationally distributed independent brewery in Canada ), James Ready Brewing Co., the New Brunswick Power Corporation which operates three electrical generating stations in the region including the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, Bell Aliant which operates out of the former New Brunswick Telephone headquarters, the Horizon Health Network, which operates 5 hospitals in the Saint John area, and numerous information technology companies. There are also a number of call centres which were established in the 1990s under provincial government incentives.