Halifax

Thank you, Stephen…

Minister Paris…
Ms. Duchscher…
Ms. Decarie and your staff at TD Insurance Meloche Monnex…

Ladies and gentlemen…

Today is an exciting day for the Province of Nova Scotia.

TD Insurance Meloche Monnex has been a Nova Scotia company since 1996.

Then, it was staffed by an office of seven.

It goes without saying that TD Insurance has grown from humble beginnings. The company now employs 145 full-time employees, making it one of the province’s largest employers in the insurance industry.

Through many years of hard work, the organization has become a leader in this industry – one that provides Nova Scotians with high-value, well-paying jobs.

Today, I am pleased to announce that TD Insurance will be expanding even further in our province, hiring up to 140 more full-time employees over the next six years.

The province, through NSBI, will support TDI’s growth with a 1.8 million-dollar payroll rebate.

This news is an excellent example of Nova Scotia’s commitment to providing Nova Scotians with a secure future under the jobsHere plan.

Put simply, jobsHere will help grow and strengthen our economy. Its importance cannot be understated.

The plan has three priorities:
- learning;
- innovation; and
- competitiveness

TD Insurance is a company dedicated to growth in the province, and creating high-value jobs for our citizens. That’s what jobsHere is all about.

It was just last month NSBI announced it was extending its payroll rebate agreement with Citco Fund Services, the world’s leading hedge fund administrator.

That agreement could see as many as 225 new jobs in Nova Scotia’s financial services sector.

I had the opportunity at that time to meet four new Citco employees. What excited me most was that all of them were attracted to Nova Scotia because of our job opportunities and our unrivalled quality of life.

Our partnership with businesses contributes to that growth.

We are seeing more and more examples of this. And it is exactly what TD Insurance is doing now and will continue to do.

As you can see, investments such as these have wide-reaching benefits for the province. Companies like TD Insurance are able to hire and train new graduates from Nova Scotia. Retaining these graduates contributes to a strong province.

And we’ve been working hard to make sure even more young people stay and build their lives in Nova Scotia. We want to help them. Last year, the province launched the Nova Scotia Graduate Retention Rebate.

This great program is available to students who graduate from an eligible post-secondary program and choose to stay and work in Nova Scotia.

With this incentive, recent graduates will be working at great companies like TD Insurance.

Thank you for inviting me here today. I want to express my sincere congratulations to the great management and staff. You have a very bright future in Nova Scotia, and I am excited to be a part of it.