Insights with Don Mills and David Campbell- An Acadia Broadcasting Podcast

On the latest episode of the "Insights" podcast,  we get an update on the state of the tourism industry in Nova Scotia and across Atlantic Canada with Darlene Grant Fiander, President, Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia and Executive Director, Nova Scotia Tourism Human Resource Council.The discussion ranges from the current state of the industry (not expected to fully return to the pre-pandemic level until 2025), some of the positive trends emerging from the pandemic and what needs to happen to ensure tourism remains an important economic driver in Atlantic Canada.Across the four provinces, it is a $3.5-billion export sector that supports 46,000 direct jobs. Fiander talks about the work underway to boost the tourism workforce, attract entrepreneurs and build strong tourism products in our region.You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

With annual revenues of more than $5 billion and $36 billion in assets, the importance of Emera on the regional economy is not well understood. In a wide-ranging conversation on the "Insights" podcast with Emera's President & CEO, Scott Balfour, Don Mills and David Campbell learned that only 30 percent of the company's revenue is generated in Nova Scotia, with the bulk of the rest coming from the U.S.This revenue supports a couple of hundred high-paying head office jobs in Halifax. Emera spends more than $2 billion annually on goods and services in the region, benefitting more than 7,000 companies across Atlantic Canada and creating more than 4,000 indirect jobs.At the same time, its subsidiary companies like Nova Scotia Power are in transition from thermal electric generation to renewable energy to achieve net zero emissions by 2030. Scott talks about the challenge of closing coal plants before their time and the strategies to replace this source of energy.You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

On this week's edition of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell are joined by Herb Emery, Vaughan Chair in Regional Economics at the University of New Brunswick and Director of the Atlantic Institute for Policy Research.Emery helps us understand the current state of the economy in Atlantic Canada and what we need to do to foster a strong economy moving forward. The conversation is wide-ranging from inflation to immigration and export-led economic growth."You start with exports, that draws in capital, then you draw in population," says Emery. "You can get to three percent growth if you can grow the value of your exports. It can be [the] quantity that you put out, it can be increasing value add or it can just be increasing the price by finding new markets. To [increase] exports, what does the government need to do? Focus with laser-like accuracy on the conditions that make exports competitive."You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

For several weeks now, David Campbell and Don Mills have been exploring the landscape for green energy companies in the Maritimes, speaking with leaders of companies developing wind, nuclear and hydrogen sources to supply the region with growing power needs.This week on the Huddle "Insights" podcast, they speak with Scott Skinner, the CEO of the Clean Foundation in Nova Scotia. With a staff of 90 people, the non-profit organization delivers programming on green energy solutions for individuals, organizations and businesses. They also develop policy prescriptions for helping the province and country at large achieve ambitious net-zero emission targets by 2050."We've become really good at speaking to people who are in our 'climate bubble,' " says Skinner, "but a lot of things that are coming out in policies and programs, the general public is kind of confused by them, not always keeping track of them in the same way.""We're thinking a lot about how we get these messages out to the community in the ways that they are ready to accept them. And identify how they can be part of solutions. We feel it's important to make sure the right people who are eligible for programs are putting their hands up when they need to."You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Ron Joyce's vision to create a destination resort on Nova Scotia's north shore that would contribute to the local economy has been largely achieved with new near-term investments being planned.Joyce and his family have invested more than $100 million in the resort that opened in 2000. The resort's economic impact in terms of county taxes, employment and purchase of local goods and services is in the millions of dollars annually.In the latest "Insights" podcast, Kevin Toth, the President of Fox Harb'r, talks about how the resort has managed through the pandemic, the current season and the increase in business,  the opening of the new conference centre; and their plans looking ahead. Having a world-class destination like Fox Harb'r is important not only for Cumberland County but the whole of Nova Scotia.You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

This week on the Insights podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell continue their conversations about the transformation of the energy sector in Atlantic Canada as it looks to decarbonize our economy and continue to foster a strong regional economy.Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) could be an important source of electricity production that provides essentially carbon-free energy that, unlikely many other sources of green energy, provides baseload stable power production whether or not wind is blowing or the sun is shining.SMRs are smaller, less complex, lower cost and should be far faster to deploy compared to earlier, larger-scale nuclear energy facilities.We talk to Brett Plummer, Chief Nuclear Officer and Vice President at NB Power about the potential of SMRs not only to address energy needs in New Brunswick and possibly around the region but also as a catalyst for regional economic development. If all goes to plan, potentially hundreds of businesses in the supply chain will develop expertise here that could be exported around the world. The plan is to have an SMR providing power to the New Brunswick electricity grid by 2030.You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

The latest "Insights" podcast features an in-depth conversation with Trent Vichie, the CEO of EverWind Fuels, which has plans to be the first company in Nova Scotia to commercially produce green hydrogen from wind power.Vichie's company has already invested about $100 million in the project, recently completing the purchase of the tank farm at Point Tupper which has the capacity to store nearly eight million barrels of fuel.EverWind has ambitions to transform Nova Scotia into an energy hub in Eastern Canada. Learn more about EverWinds' ambitious plans that include details on when the company plans to begin production of green hydrogen (and ammonia) is expected.You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

In this rebroadcast of one of the most popular “Insights” podcasts, David Campbell and Don Mills chat with one of Atlantic Canada's most successful business leaders, Clearwater Seafoods co-founder John Risley, someone who has been part of building three different companies that sold for more than $1 billion each.Risley shares candid opinions about the kinds of public policy changes needed in Atlantic Canada. He also tells the story about how Clearwater Seafoods was founded and the decision to sell to a company with an ownership group that includes a Mi’kmaq First Nations coalition.“[We] didn’t’ have family in the business and it made sense to pass ownership on to [peope] we thought would be good stewards of what we had put together over the long term,” says Risley.“The company will have had its best year ever since the sale, so it’s a great way for them to have started off this relationship with the company performing above both their expectations and our expectations.”This conversation was originally uploaded on May 13, 2021, but the insights are still fresh. You can listen to the conversation with Risley in the player above. Better yet, search for “Huddle Insights” on a podcast platform like Apple or Spotify. Follow the show and never miss an episode. You can also listen to past episodes on those platforms.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, to promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and to encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

John Bragg will make you believe that rural and small-town economies can flourish despite the widespread perception that the future of job and wealth creation is in our larger urban centres. After all, he has built globally competitive companies from a small town - Oxford, Nova Scotia.In this rebroadcast of one of the most popular Huddle “Insights” podcasts, Don Mills and David Campbell have a look at the challenges of rural economic development and speak to one of the region’s biggest proponents of rural development, the CEO of the Bragg Group of Companies that includes Oxford Frozen Foods and Eastlink.With more than 600 employees in Oxford, Nova Scotia, and more than 6,000 across the entire group of companies, John discusses the impact of the growth of his businesses on the small town of Oxford and offers some concrete suggestions on how other rural communities can grow and what is needed to support rural development in Atlantic Canada.“You have to start with the entrepreneurs,” says Bragg. “When I travel around Nova Scotia…I would say, ‘who is the entrepreneur in this town? Who is the entrepreneur in this village?’ There are entrepreneurs in every town and village in Atlantic Canada. We need government policies that encourage those people.”John says he’s not talking about “giving money away.” He’s talking about supporting them by making it easy for them to cut through red tape and access capital to start and grow successful businesses. He also says small communities need schools and available housing to support an employee base.This conversation was originally uploaded on May 13, 2021, but the insights are still fresh. You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, to promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and to encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

In the last couple of episodes, Don Mills and David Campbell have talked about companies about the ocean of opportunities for power generation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the region. In this episode, they speak with John Hawkins, the CEO of Nova Scotia-based Heritage Gas, about the natural gas and hydrogen opportunities in the region.Hawkins provides an interesting perspective on what needs to be done to get to net zero by 2050, especially with regard to the role that renewable natural gas and green hydrogen can play in transforming his company over time. They have also a good discussion about the proposed Atlantic Loop and some of the challenges associated with its implementation. You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.