This afternoon, we dropped by Bluedrop Performance Learning in Fredericton, an advanced-learning company that’s been growing in leaps and bounds in recent years.
Today, CEO Emad Rizkalla was joined by Business New Brunswick Minister Victor Boudreau and Finance Minister Greg Byrne in downtown Fredericton to announce a government investment of $260,000 that will help this company hire 20 more employees. Rizkalla says this expansion has the potential to triple Bluedrop’s revenue during the next few years.
The new hires will add to the current company’s workforce of 13 - a number that has doubled since it first came to Fredericton with a staff of six in 2007.
This is an exciting time for an emerging cluster, and Bluedrop is a tech-savvy company with an eye for e-learning.
Right now, more companies are looking for e-solutions to train their employees, and Bluedrop has the ability and experience to tailor unique software to meet the growing needs of government, technology, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and insurance companies.
They also cater to the aerospace and defence sector – one of the few Canadian companies with the know-how to provide courseware for this dynamic industry.
Thanks again to Emad and his staff for hosting us today and letting us peek into the e-learning world! We know how important this industry is to New Brunswick and are excited to watch it continue to grow.
DEW Engineering and Development Ltd. from Miramichi announced yesterday that is has been awarded a major $130 million contract to build shelters for the Canadian military.
It will partner with B.C.-based firm Weatherhaven to complete the contract, bringing more than 45 new jobs to the province in the next few years.
We’re thrilled to see this skilled, dedicated New Brunswick company make national headlines! A huge congratulations to DEW Engineering, a company that Business New Brunswick has supported over the years, including with a forgivable loan last December to create 165 new jobs in the region.
Just a few months after two of New Brunswick’s cities were named to the list of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities in the world, our province is garnering even more international recognition.
We found out today that the Fiber-to-the-Home Council of North America is commending New Brunswick for being a technological pioneer with its new, all-fibre telecommunications service, announced a few weeks ago in Fredericton.
As videos from the event (below) show, this partnership with Bell Aliant will help build a Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network that will bring faster, more reliable connections to 70,000 homes in Saint John and Fredericton…another giant leap for Canada’s smart province.
“Canada has not seen the level of end-to-end fibre deployment that the United States is experiencing, so this announcement indicates a change is in the works,” said Joe Savage, President of the FTTH Council, which represents the manufacturers of FTTH equipment and builders and operators of all-fibre networks.
Demand for bandwidth growth is ramping up across the country, and New Brunswick is the first to take steps to meet the call for more sophisticated Internet and video applications, helping the province attract skilled workers and further grow its expanding ICT sector.
But it doesn’t stop there. Yesterday, Premier Shawn Graham was joined by Business New Brunswick Minister Victor Boudreau and representatives from Barrett Xplore to ‘light up’ the first of more than 150 fixed-wireless towers in the province.
Barrett Xplore, through its Xplornet brand and partnership with the province, has been brought on-board to make sure the remaining ten per cent of New Brunswickers have consistent access to broadband Internet.
That means more high-speed internet for more people in New Brunswick, and these fixed-wireless towers will help bridge the gap in rural and urban service.
The roll-out will continue with event s in St. Stephen and Ripples later this week, moving right across the province to eventually light more than 150 fixed-wireless towers in different communities.
This is a place where technologies meet and merge, offering New Brunswickers the chance to work and play in the community outside their front door…and right at their fingertips.
It will be easier than ever to swing by our YouTube page for a glance at the latest videos and blog content from Business New Brunswick, thanks to a partnership with the province of New Brunswick and Bell Aliant.
Bell Aliant, in conjunction with representatives from the province, including Premier Shawn Graham, announced yesterday on the UNB Campus that they will be the first in Canada to cover an entire city with a unique broadband technology.
In fact, coverage will extend to two cities - Fredericton and Saint John – and Bell Aliant has already begun the process of installing fibre optic cables in those areas. The cables are part of a technology called FibreOP. It is connected directly to a customer’s home, instead of to a point in the neighbourhood, and will allow customers to almost instantly receive and send large amounts of data such as photos, music, and videos.
Bell Aliant is investing $60 million in the initiative, which will offer the technology to more than 70 000 residences by mid-2010.
The advantages for local businesses are significant. This ‘fibre to the home’ technology will enhance the ICT industry, offering our local companies the ability to connect and transmit faster than ever before. It represents important bandwidth capability, which will in turn enable the growing bandwidth needs of customers. And it will create crisper, clearer images on computer and television screens both in the home and at work.
This leading technology will attract further investment and bring companies to New Brunswick, a critical step in developing and expanding our province’s ICT sector, as well as maintaining our leading edge in telecommunications technology in Canada.
To see today’s event, check out our latest YouTube video!
More details on this exciting new initiative will be released in coming weeks, so be prepared to download faster, send further, and be even more connected right here at home.
