By Rhonda Tulk‑Lane, President & CEO, Atlantic Chamber of Commerce and Mary Butler, President & CEO, NBCC
 
Atlantic Canada is navigating a prolonged era of rapid destabilization and change. Global uncertainty, technology disruption, and shifting national policies are reshaping conditions in which our businesses operate, our institutions plan, and our communities live. Despite continually shifting tides, one truth has once again become clear, our people are our greatest strength, and talent is the foundation of Atlantic Canada’s future prosperity. 

Every day, Atlantic Canadians see the effects of a changing world around them: new technologies reshaping how we work, supply chain disruptions driving up costs and creating uncertainty, and employers struggling to find the people they need to grow and innovate. Against this backdrop, one truth stands out: the future of our region will not be determined by technology or circumstance alone, but by people. Talent has always been the foundation of growth and prosperity. Today, however, declining workforce availability and rising demand for skilled workers have elevated talent from an important advantage to an urgent imperative.

Charting the Waters
 
The Atlantic Economic Council (AEC) has shown that long‑term growth in our region depends on strengthening the talent pipeline across every sector. This urgency is underscored by recent demographic trends. Atlantic Canada experienced its first regional population decline since 2012, falling by approximately 7,500 people between late 2025 and early 2026. Slowing population growth directly constrains labour supply across the region, making talent development, attraction, and retention even more critical.
In its State of the Region 2026 report, the AEC identified People as one of the four pillars of a strong economy. To grow, we must ensure we have the right number of people with the right skills, competencies, and attributes and that every person can develop and use their full capabilities. That means strengthening health care, improving fiscal stability, and most importantly, improving education and literacy outcomes so young people are prepared to enter the workforce.

In the June 2026 report Fixing the Leaks in Atlantic Canada’s Education-to-Employment Pipeline, the AEC made the challenge unmistakable. Too many young people are falling through the cracks. Eight people aged 15–24 enter the labour force for every ten approaching retirement. One in four Grade 10 students lacks baseline reading skills; one in three lacks baseline math skills. Those gaps follow students into college and university and help explain why more than 50,000 youth, about 12 percent of the relevant age group, are not in employment, education, or training. The AEC estimates that foregone income among NEET youth aged 20–29 already exceeds $470 million a year. This is not only an education problem. It is a labour-market and growth problem.
 
When the Tide Turns: Policy Impacts on Talent Attraction

Atlantic Canada’s unique conditions require tailored approaches. Perhaps the impacts of recent federal changes are clearest in the International Student Program. In March of this year, the Auditor General of Canada released a report entitled International Student Program Reforms, which revealed that federal policy changes intended to curb program growth and strengthen integrity have produced disproportionate and unintended impacts on smaller provinces, particularly those in Atlantic Canada. While modest reductions were forecasted, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba each experienced 59% or greater declines in approved study permits in 2024. By 2025, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick reached only 15% and 43% of their forecasted approvals.
 
For Atlantic Canada, the consequences have been immediate and profound. International students are critical to the region’s population growth, workforce development, and economic sustainability. The sharp and unplanned reduction in student approvals is already contributing to labour shortages in key sectors, financial strain on post-secondary institutions, and a weakening of community vitality. It also risks long-term reputational damage to Canada as a reliable and welcoming destination for international learners.

Setting a Regional Course: The Atlantic Population Growth Strategy

The Atlantic Chamber of Commerce’s Population Growth Strategy (December 2025) marked a step ahead in addressing Atlantic Canada’s demographic and workforce pressures. Adopted by chambers and boards of trade across the region, the strategy advances a dual focus: retaining and engaging domestic graduates and residents and attracting and supporting newcomers from across Canada and around the world.

Its six core initiatives, including an Atlantic Graduate Retention Tax Credit, coordinated post‑secondary recruitment, K–12 industry integration, improved credential recognition, expanded experiential learning, and immigration reform to reduce “brain waste”, form a coordinated, region‑wide call to treat population growth as economic policy and talent development as the central lever of long‑term competitiveness. A coalition letter signed by over 60 chambers reinforced this message, urging federal action to support attraction, retention, and workforce readiness.

New Winds Ahead: National Opportunities for Atlantic Canada

The federal government’s Canada Strong for All, Spring Economic Update presented a major statement of national objectives and intentions. The Update introduced a $6‑billion Team Canada Strong package, including support to train up to 100,000 Red Seal workers, a five‑year extension of the College and Community Innovation Program, and major investments in recruitment, training, and modernization across the skilled trades. It is estimated that Canada will require 1.4 million additional trades workers by 2033, with a persistent annual gap of 20,000 workers, rising to 80,000–100,000 by 2030–31.

Defence related skills training receives $250 million over five years, explicitly positioning colleges and universities as partners in hands‑on technical training. Combined with the equally impactful AI for All strategy, where universities and colleges are enumerated to play a major role in SME adoption and workforce upskilling, public post‑secondary institutions are clearly essential infrastructure for Canada’s economic missions.

For Atlantic Canada, the message is clear: national priorities now hinge on regional training capacity, applied research, and the ability to mobilize talent at scale.

Steering Toward a Shared Future

Education sits at the centre of this challenge. Colleges, universities, and training partners are not just institutions they are engines of economic development. They prepare the workers who build our homes, care for our families, drive innovation, and support the industries that anchor our regional economy.

In Atlantic Canada, collaboration has quietly become a competitive advantage and nowhere is it more essential than in how we build, attract, and retain talent. Across the region, we are seeing new momentum through federal sector tables, national alliances, and cross‑provincial partnerships that bring employers, educators, and policymakers together around shared priorities and action. These efforts recognize a simple truth: Atlantic Canada plays a meaningful role in Canada’s economic future, and our ability to contribute depends on the strength of our people.
The challenges are real: employers can't find the people they need, too many young people struggle to find their path, and retirements continue to outpace new entrants to the workforce. But these challenges are solvable when we work together.

That is why this conversation cannot wait. On September 25 in Fredericton, the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Chambers of New Brunswick, NBCC, UNB, and the Atlantic Economic Council, will host the Talent for Growth Summit. Bringing together business, government, post-secondary education, industry, and community leaders, the Summit will focus on one of the most pressing challenges facing our region: how we develop, attract, and retain the talent Atlantic Canada needs to thrive. More than an event, it is a call to action, an opportunity to challenge old assumptions, share practical solutions, and build the partnerships required to strengthen our workforce, businesses, and communities. It is also a powerful example of what is possible when Atlantic Canada comes together with urgency, focus, and ambition.

The path ahead is clear. The work is underway. And the future of Atlantic Canada will be shaped by the people we engage, educate and empower today.