COMMUNITY EVENTS & INITIATIVES

Port Saint John fosters port culture and identity through multiple events and initiatives throughout the year.

Saint John Seafarer’s Mission

The seafarers who work on vessels in the inner and outer harbour and help keep vital trade products moving are essential members of the Port Saint John community. We support them by donating time and resources to the Saint John Seafarers’ Mission. The pandemic intensified the extremely isolated life of seafarers. Port Saint John stepped up, investing in pier-side Wi-Fi at the West Side terminals to help our seafarers stay connected in a time of crisis.

Several members of our management team also serve on the Board of Directors of the Seafarers’ Mission.

Maiden

Among our many firsts this year, we welcomed Maiden, an all-female sailing yacht which made the only Canadian stopover in its 2022 leg of their three-year world tour in Saint John. Sponsored by global logistics leader DP World, their 90,000 nautical mile journey launched from Dubai to raise funds to support and empower girls from around the world through education.

The Harbour Lights

The mission of The Harbour Lights Campaign is to coordinate fundraising for 16 food banks in Southwestern New Brunswick on an annual basis and to disperse the funds raised to those food banks. The Campaign primarily occurs during the month of December each year via a founding partnership of CBC Radio One in Saint John and Port Saint John, and with supporting partner Saint John Energy. The charitable organization is now managed by a community-based board of directors.

In 2022, Nutrien, who is a Port Saint John waterfront stakeholder, announced a $200,000 four-year commitment to The Harbour Lights Campaign. Nutrien has since been named a 'Sustaining Donor'.

The Port Pod

Located in the AREA 506 Waterfront Container Village, the Port Pod is an interpretive experience for the public to learn about all things Port Saint John. Engaging with the community is a top priority, and the Port Pod provides the perfect space to welcome youth groups and students. In 2023, the Port Pod was operated in collaboration with our regional growth agency, Envision Saint John. The Port Pod pairs both visitor experience and information about economic development in our region with our original port interpretation displays in a seamless holistic presentation. This season we engaged with over 2,100 visitors.

Education

Our Port Education Program for local students inspires them to consider a career in the marine transportation industry and develops engaged community members who understand port operations. Since 2014, we’ve shared in-class presentation materials with teachers for Grades 3-12 and given port education tours. PALS (Partners Assisting Local Schools) was instrumental in helping us develop our Education Program, and PALS schools are still the core users of the program, which reaches between 800-1,000 students in a typical school year.

Each year PALS students plant marigolds outside of our corporate office for the annual city-wide Marigold Project.

Supporting Post-Secondary Education

Annually, we award the Betty MacMillan Bursary for high school students pursuing higher education in the tourism industry. The scholarship honours Betty, who retired from Port Saint John a few years ago. She pioneered the cruise industry in our region, and her work lives on in our bustling cruise sector.

Port Saint John supported 23 student work terms throughout 2022 and 2023 in various areas such as business development, IT, human resources, health/ safety, and engagement and sustainability.

In partnership with the Pond-Deshpande Centre, university and college students from across New Brunswick participated in the journey to decarbonize Port Saint John with a business plan competition, designed to stimulate ways for the Port to engage Port tenants and customers to reduce GHG emissions.

In 2023 we completed the final contribution of a three-year commitment to NBCC’s “Going Beyond” Campaign which was designed to build capacity trade sectors. Our contributions were targeted to increasing student capacity in trades impacting the transportation and logistics industry.