Saint John has unveiled its strategy to grow the local economy, but with a rapidly aging demographic, there are concerns the plan could fall short.

On Tuesday, Mayor Don Darling outlined what he called a ‘roadmap’ to boosting the population; an issue that he says is now priority number one.

"Population growth isn't optional anymore, or tax based growth frankly or jobs growth," says Mayor Darling.

The latest census showed the city's population fell almost 4 per cent to 67,000.

Auctioneer Tim Isaac has been a Saint John business institution for almost 50 years, he says the city's labour force is the key.

"You’ve got to have jobs, and not just any jobs,” says Isaac. “Saint John has a large population of people that are unemployed and have been unemployed for two to three generations, and if this doesn't change, all I can see is downhill."

Isaac says a turnaround can happen, but it will take decades to reverse a trend that began a half century ago.

Welder Joe Brothers, who’s preparing for a job in Ontario,sayshe believes the population will rebound only after the job market is revived.

"People want to come back home. Everybody wants to come back home, but they can't if there ain't nothing here for them," says Brothers.

He says there are hundreds of people like him, who would love to settle in Saint John permanently, and turnaround the city's 50 year population decline.

"(It’s) been going downhill ever since the 70's, and then after the shipyard left, we went further downhill,” says Brothers. “We have to have work for the younger generation to stay and for us older guys to come back home.”

Mayor Darling also says one of the priorities is to get some tenants in many of the vacant but valuable buildings in the city.

CTV News has learned that Saint John has entered into an agreement with Cooke Aquaculture to take over the vacant synagogue building in the city’s uptown for office and IT space.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron