IBM announces 350 more jobs in Nova Scotia expansion

IBM Canada has announced it will add another 350 jobs to its client innovation centre in Bedford, N.S., over the next five years.

The expansion will eventually bring its workforce in the province to more than 1,000 people.

"We're extremely excited," said Dave McCann, managing partner IBM Consulting Canada. "We've had a tremendous partnership in Nova Scotia that's continued to operate successfully for many, many years."

Nova Scotia Business Inc., a provincial Crown corporation, is offering up close to $9.4 million in payroll rebates.

McCann said the incentive sped up the expansion.

"What we have learned in Nova Scotia is we're able to, through the partnership we have with the province, really accelerate that growth, bring higher value, higher paying — our Canadian-leading and world-leading jobs into Nova Scotia faster with the success of the partnership we have," he said.

Business support centre

The company said new employees at the Bedford consulting operation will focus on artificial intelligence and connecting on-premises data centres to the cloud for banks, other large businesses and government departments.

"It's really all about how to help our clients better use their data and gain insights to drive value for their customers, their clients or their citizens, whether that's enabled through a data centre or moving that data into a hybrid multi-cloud environment, which we're seeing many of our clients do,' McCann said.

NSBI estimates that over the next five years the company could spend up to $102.57 million in salaries and benefits and the new employees would pay about more than $13.2 million through income and consumption taxes.

635 permanent jobs created since 2013

In 2020, IBM completed an eight-year agreement with the province that started the centre.

The company earned $22.6 million in payroll rebates for the 635 jobs created, resulting in $257-million payroll spent in Nova Scotia, NSBI said.

IBM recently established the first P-TECH (Pathways in Technology, Early College High School) at three schools in Halifax and a Mi'kmaw P-Tech school at Eskasoni Cape Breton.

In 2018, the company participated in the Deep Sense ocean data program in a partnership with Dalhousie University, the Ocean Frontier Institute, the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship, the Government of Canada, local industry and the Province of Nova Scotia.