Community Life on Your Terms promotes Greater Saint John to potential residents
Cindy Wilson/Telegraph-Journal
Local mayors left to right, James Huttges of St. Martins, Grace Losier of Grand Bay-Westfield and Norm McFarlane of Saint John check out the portal for Life on your Terms.
Bruce Bartlett
Telegraph-journal
Appeared on page C4
SAINT JOHN - From a yoga loft on the third floor of a historic building on Germain Street, Enterprise Saint John officially launched a new way to promote the region through cyberspace.
Called Life on Your Terms, it is billed as a way to tell the story of life in the region. Mayors from Grand Bay-Westfield to St. Martins gathered on the hardwood floors, normally reserved for yoga mats, as the portal (a souped up website) linking information about the whole region was unveiled.
Not only does it contain information about careers, real estate prices, recreational activities and entertainment, it also has profiles of people who enjoy life on their terms here in the Greater Saint John region.
Sarah Stashick, who co-ordinated development of the portal for Enterprise Saint John, has seen the power of the profiles on the site.
The first one posted during a trial run in November featured Margaret Kennedy from IBM and within a few days drew a response from Darin Sobool, a certified management accountant in Calgary. He said although he appreciates the great opportunities in Alberta, he is looking for a life, like the one described by Kennedy.
As a result Sobool has had a few job interviews in the area and is confident the right opportunity will soon arrive.
Kennedy, originally from Ontario, has been in the area four years and wrote about leaving her office in the summer and being on a sailboat in 10 minutes as well as how easy it is to get to a number of hockey arenas in the winter.
Since then Kennedy said life has gotten even better because IBM offered her a new job she can do from her home office, overlooking the Kennebecasis River.
"It doesn't get any better than that," she said.
When Stashick speaks of Saint John, she uses it as a brand recognition name for the region, with no disrespect to the surrounding communities. It is the same way that the Ottawa region is composed of a number of communities but is referred to by the city name.
"We already have a great base of skilled people, we just need to increase it," she said.
The portal is a way to do that providing answers to questions people have when they are considering a move to a new community, she said.
"Life on your terms is a tool that will assist recruiters, human resource professionals, business leaders and everyday community members in bringing people to our community," she said.
It will help encourage people who have never lived her to give it a try as well as provide help for ex New Brunswickers to come back home.
Each of the mayors took part in the introduction showing a small bit of the information available on the portal about their communities. In a spirit of co-operation Mayor Ron Maloney of Quispamsis stood in for Mayor Bill Bishop of Rothesay, presenting the profiles of both the neighbouring towns.
Anyone interested in checking out the portal can find it on the Internet at www.saintjohnlifeonyourterms.ca and is encouraged to submit comments, story ideas and names of people for potential profiles.
