Business
Start it. Fund it. Run it. Know who’s in your corner.
The desk for anyone who makes payroll in Fredericton: how to start, where the money actually is, the newcomer’s route in, the rules once you’re open, the organizations that represent you, the news as it happens, the dates nobody emails you about, and one business a week worth knowing. Checked against the primary sources. Never paid for.
- Register, permit, hire
Starting a business
The sequence, the fees and the phone numbers, from the Corporate Registry to your first employee. No general business licence, and other surprises.
Start here - Loans, contributions, credits
Funding a business
Twenty-one programs with the amounts and the catch. Most of it is loans, not grants; we say which is which.
Find the money - New to Canada, building here
The newcomer’s guide
Settlement, pathways, credentials and the programs built for immigrant owners and professionals. Most of it is free.
Read the guide - Year six, not year one
Running one here
Holiday closing, the levies, assessment reviews, the filings with penalties, parking, noise, and selling up. Plus the ten City Hall answers.
Know the rules - Chamber, DFI, BFN, Ignite and more
Who speaks for you
Nineteen organizations that represent, levy, lend to or serve Fredericton businesses: what each costs, what you get, who to call.
Meet them - The Ledger
Business news
Who opened, closed, moved, got funded or gave. Dated, sourced, nothing paid for. Send us what we missed.
Read the Ledger - Mixers, workshops, deadlines
Business events
Chamber, Ignite and DFI events from the live feed, merged with the filing dates nobody emails you about.
See the calendar - Nominate a business
Weekly Spotlight
One business, one proper story, every week. Chosen from your nominations, never paid for.
Nominate a business
Latest from the Ledger
Opened, closed, moved, funded
-
Opened
MoVe scooter rentals
Halifax-based MoVe put its purple rental e-scooters on Fredericton streets in mid-September, to the usual mix of delight and muttering. The company already runs in Halifax and Moncton.
Source: CTV ↗ -
Award
Fredericton tap water
Named best-tasting in North America by the American Water Works Association, over 31 regional winners. The city draws about 20 million litres a day from eleven wells under downtown, which is a fact worth dropping at a patio.
Source: Global ↗ -
Funding
Youth in Manufacturing
The province committed $2.1 million over three years to connect young New Brunswickers with manufacturing employers. Worth a call if your shop floor has a hiring problem, which most do.
Source: CTV ↗ -
Opened
Greener Village Thrive food rescue centre
An $8-million perishable food rescue centre, described as the first of its scale in Canada, backed by the McCain and Weston foundations, Food Banks Canada and ACOA. Expected to move up to $4 million of food a year that would otherwise be wasted.
Source: CBC ↗ -
In the news
Wolastoq River Resort Casino
Sitansisk (St. Mary’s First Nation) announced a $170-million casino resort for 489 Union Street, the former MacLean’s Sports site: a 30,000-square-foot casino, a hotel with more than 100 rooms, a spa and a 1,000-seat event centre. Construction is targeted for 2027.
Source: CTV ↗ -
Funding
Lastwall
The Fredericton-founded cybersecurity firm marked a $16-million Series A extension at a news conference with the Premier. BDC Capital’s StrongNorth fund led; NBIF put in $1.5 million, its largest investment ever.
Source: BNN Bloomberg ↗
Every entry carries a source. Missing something? Submit it to the Ledger.
Business gives back
Fifteen owners, one cheque: $75,000 to the Chalmers Foundation
A group of fifteen Fredericton business owners pooled a $75,000 gift to the Chalmers Foundation this month. No naming rights, no gala, just a cheque and a photo. It is the kind of thing that happens here more often than anyone hears about, which is the point of this section.
- Cause
- Chalmers Foundation
- From
- Fifteen Fredericton business owners, alumni of the Wallace McCain Institute
- When
- September 2026
All fifteen are alumni of the Wallace McCain Institute, UNB’s entrepreneur school without the lectures: founded in 2006 with a gift from Wallace and Margaret McCain, it runs peer-group programs for owners of growing Atlantic Canadian companies, the best known being the year-long Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, in which a cohort of owners spends ten sessions learning mostly from one another. This cheque is what that room looks like afterward.
Weekly Spotlight
One business, one proper story, every week. Never paid for.
The first Spotlight comes out of Nomination Week, the week of September 21. After that it is one a week, chosen from your nominations, and the archive becomes a portrait of the city’s economy one shop at a time.
Nominate a businessAsk Freddy, owner edition
The questions you’d rather not phone City Hall about
Keep reading