New Brunswick: a guide for first-time founders
Canada’s only officially bilingual province is a place where people start small and stay close to their customers. Here’s how to get going, and how to be online from day one.
New Brunswick’s entrepreneurial landscape
New Brunswick is a province of three small cities and hundreds of towns and villages. Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton each have their own character — a bilingual crossroads, a port and industrial city, and a government and university capital — and a lot of first businesses serve the countryside around them: trades, home services, auto repair, cleaning and care.
The rest of the economy follows the land and the sea. Forestry and sawmills inland, fishing and seafood along the Acadian coast and the Bay of Fundy, farms in the Saint John River valley, and a summer tourism season on the beaches of the Northumberland Strait all create seasonal businesses and the spin-offs around them.
A large share of New Brunswickers are francophone, mostly Acadians in the north and east. Many businesses serve customers in both languages, and many entrepreneurs here are people coming home after years working away, retirees, newcomers settling in the cities, and young graduates of the province’s colleges and universities.
Real help for new entrepreneurs
Free and low-cost help for New Brunswick entrepreneurs, in English and French:
- Corporate Registry of New Brunswick — Service New Brunswick’s registry for business names, partnerships and corporations.
- Opportunities NB — The province’s business development agency, with advice and programs for starting and growing a business in New Brunswick.
- Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) — The federal regional development agency for the four Atlantic provinces.
- CBDC New Brunswick — Community Business Development Corporations: local loans, advice and training for entrepreneurs outside the big centres.
- Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick — The francophone business council of New Brunswick, with services and events in French.
- Women in Business New Brunswick — Advice, training and support for women starting or growing a business in New Brunswick.
- Futurpreneur — Start-up financing paired with a volunteer business mentor, for entrepreneurs aged 18 to 39.
- BDC — The Business Development Bank of Canada: financing, plus free guides and templates for people starting out.
Your first steps in New Brunswick
- Register your business name with the Corporate Registry at Service New Brunswick if you’ll operate under a name other than your own.
- Get a business number and know your HST. New Brunswick uses the 15 % HST. You don’t have to register for it until your taxable sales pass CA$30,000 over four consecutive quarters, but you can register sooner. The CRA gives you a business number when you register.
- Get found on Google. A free Google Business Profile puts you on the map; link it to your website and pick the service area you cover, from your town to the whole province.
- Use a real email address. info@yourbusiness.ca looks established in a way a free webmail address never will.
Canada Revenue Agency: get a business number · CRA: GST/HST rates by province
How WebNewBee helps
A bilingual website matters more here than almost anywhere. WebNewBee writes your site in English or French and adds the other language in one click, with every word editable. Pick one of 30 designs and your site is built in about a minute.
One simple price
CA$6.99/month · plus applicable taxes
- Website with up to 6 pages, written by our AI from your facts
- Up to 3 email addresses on your own domain
- Your own domain from CA$24.99/year, or a free yourname.webnewbee.page address
- Secure (https), fast, mobile-friendly
- English, French or both
- Cancel anytime — no contract
Town guides in New Brunswick
We’ve written guides for starting a business in these towns:
Questions
Do I need a bilingual website in New Brunswick?
It isn’t required by law for private businesses, but many customers here expect to be served in their language. With WebNewBee the second language is one click away.
How much tax do I charge on my sales in New Brunswick?
If you’re registered for GST/HST, you charge the 15 % HST on most sales. Below CA$30,000 in taxable sales over four quarters, registering is optional.