Deloitte's Moncton office. The firm plans to hire as many as 200 people to establish a delivery centre across its three locations in New Brunswick's three largest cities. Image: Deloitte
A major accounting firm has announced plans to turn New Brunswick into its technological arm for Atlantic Canada.
Deloitte plans to establish a Canadian Delivery Centre in New Brunswick, a move that could bring as many as 200 jobs to the province.
The professional services firm’s delivery centers provide technical, functional, and HR-related transformation services.
Sheri Penner, Deloitte Atlantic managing partner, said transformation encompasses everything to do with technical systems – using the transfer of information to digital cloud services as an example.
“We have a whole practice based on helping companies with everything that has to do with technology systems, configuring them and transferring them,” she said. “It’s a major undertaking for many organizations and it’s how you bring systems digitally on board with strategy.”
Penner said bringing a delivery centre to New Brunswick will help Deloitte grow, better serving clients in Atlantic Canada and beyond. She said the expansion won’t mean any new physical infrastructure.
Deloitte plans to hire people to work mostly from home, with some in offices in Moncton, Fredericton, and Saint John.
Hiring will primarily take place across the technology and consulting sector over five years, with a focus on encouraging talent to move to New Brunswick from elsewhere and hiring graduates from the province’s post-secondary institutions.
To make these hires, the province plans to give Deloitte a payroll rebate of up to $1.9-million over five years. It’s an investment expected to have a $52.4-million impact on New Brunswick’s GDP.
This, essentially a rebate for the wages of the firm’s new hires, will cover some of the costs of expansion.
Information from the province says that hiring for the delivery center will draw on talent from multiple sectors, from new graduates to industry professionals in Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John. It will be done in collaboration with Opportunities NB.
This expansion will boost Deloitte’s capabilities in the region, as its current delivery center is based in Montreal.
The delivery center relies on a team of experts that serve international and national clients, providing technology, cybersecurity and HR transformation services – including cloud tech, data management and custom development.
Arlene Dunn, minister responsible for Opportunities NB, praised the planned expansion, saying it will improve the province’s technology sector.
Penner said the decision to choose New Brunswick was the result of a rigorous national search for the best location for such an expansion.
“Definitely one of the reasons we chose New Brunswick was the access to the post-secondary educated people who would have skills in the area of tech advancement,” she said.
She noted the cost of doing business, helpfulness of the government, and the bilingual nature of the province were also considerations.
Penner said Deloitte’s acquisition of Fredericton-based Blue Spurs in 2019 helped lay the groundwork for an expansion in the province.
“Having that presence there, with access to talent already made it stand out as a good place.”
Sam Macdonald is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
