Cyber, AI labour shortages lead to $1-million Bell investment in University of New Brunswick

The south gate into University of New Brunswick campus in Fredericton, New Brunswick on Friday February 5, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Stephen MacGillivray

A shortage in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity experts has led to a partnership between the University of New Brunswick and Bell Cyber to better train more students in the evolving digital age.

Bell is providing $1 million to get the program underway, with the hope it graduates 150 students annually who are ready to fill the gap.

John Menezes, president at Bell Cyber, a relatively new platform within Bell Canada that uses AI to detect cyber threats, says there’s at least 50,000 unfilled positions across Canada on the cybersecurity side alone.

There’s even more on the AI side, he adds, because it’s now involved in every facet of business.

“We can’t hire people. We can’t find people. We can’t find people with cybersecurity expertise,” he said. “So now if I want people to know cyber, know digitization and know AI, it’s almost impossible. So what we have to do is we have to develop the talent from ground up.”

That meets the mandate of the McKenna Institute, a centre at UNB focused on economic growth and the digital age.

Talent is needed in the sector, said former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna.

“You’re literally talking $1 trillion industry around the globe,” he said. “The cost of cyberattacks, the cost of ransomware and intrusion is staggering. It’s literally in the hundreds of billions of dollars. So this has become an absolutely mission critical area of focus now for governments and industry all over the globe.”

The labour shortage is more acute in Canada, said Menezes, complicated by the country’s current relationship with the United States.

“Canada unfortunately doesn’t have all the technology companies, so we’re still reliant on the U.S. companies for technology,” he said. “We want to have an ecosystem where we can provide secure applications and hyperscale support to all enterprises in Canada, so we’re totally independent of the U.S.”

McKenna feels it’s an industry that’s found a home in New Brunswick, but the sector could provide the province even more economic growth.

“It’s going to be a growth node in its own right, and also, as part of the big defence budget that’s come down. We think that we can make a major contribution there as well,” he said.

The University of New Brunswick has campuses in both Fredericton and Saint John and offers more than 100 programs.

But UNB president Paul Mazerolle says both the cybersecurity and AI industry is quickly becoming an integral and popular program.

“The work in cyber and computer science and IT and artificial intelligence, that’s our future. It’s going to affect every industry,” he said. “So, we want to make sure that our graduates are ready for jobs to make a difference.”

The program, officially called the McKenna Institute Cyber Talent Program powered by Bell Canada, will begin this year. Students will undergo 12 to 16 weeks of full-time, intensive training in digitization, AI and cybersecurity.

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