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

This episode takes a close look at the challenges of fulfilling the promise of delivering high-speed internet to 100 percent of households in Atlantic Canada. News flash, it is not likely going to happen, at least using fibre lines to deliver the service. Our conversation with Lee Bragg of Halifax-based Eastlink provides a much clearer understanding of the challenges for companies that must remain competitive and governments that have promised affordable high-speed internet no matter where you live.

In the latest episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell discuss the quality of the education system in Atlantic Canada with Paul Bennett, one of Canada's leading experts on public education.

Addressing climate change is among the most important challenges facing the world today.  However, many questions remain about how it can be accomplished. How long will it take? Who will pay for the transition? What other energy sources will replace fossil fuels? What about nuclear, hydrogen and tidal energy? Neil Jacobsen from the Atlantica Centre for Energy is on the podcast this week to answer these questions.  He will also talk about the economic impact of the energy sector in Atlantic Canada and how we can continue to use energy as an economic development driver in the years ahead. If you want a primer on the energy transition from the perspective of Atlantic Canada, Jacobsen provides an ideal summary. 

Charlene Johnson of the Newfoundland and Labrador Oil & Gas Industries Association (Noia) says don't give up on the oil and gas sector just yet. On the podcast this week, the Noia CEO explains why it's a critical part of global efforts to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and an important economic driver in Atlantic Canada going forward.

The ocean sector in Canada is large and growing, currently representing $30-billion in GDP and employing more than 300,000 Canadians. This week, we look at this increasingly important sector of our economy, especially for Atlantic Canada, by looking at the work of COVE (the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship). In conversation with COVE CEO Melanie Nadeau, we discuss the services and facilities provided by COVE to test new technologies, their incubation work with startups and their contribution to workforce development.

What started 15 years ago as an idea to build a new industry around a few key assets has grown into an impressive biosciences cluster with 60 firms, 2,200 employees, and more than $300 million worth of exports in 2020. The PEI BioAlliance has been at the centre of the cluster’s development and its CEO Rory Francis talks about its successes and future potential. He also provides insight into how the model might be replicated with other nascent cluster development efforts across Atlantic Canada. 

Brian Lee Crowley has little patience for governments that try to spend their way to economic prosperity. He also has no time for the view that Atlantic Canada is less prosperous because it has been mistreated by central Canada since Confederation.Crowley is the managing director and founder of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He's also the founder and former president of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, now part of the Fraser Institute. He joins Don and David to talk about how Atlantic Canada needs to take charge of its economic destiny and stop looking to Ottawa to solve its problems through equalization payments and regional aid programs.

On this week's Huddle "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell chat with David Dingwall, President and Vice-Chancellor of Cape Breton University, about the role of post-secondary education institutions as engines of economic development across Atlantic Canada.They discuss the direct economic impact of this sector and its increasingly important role as conduits for immigration, incubators of new entrepreneurs and catalysts for research and development.

Louis-Philippe Gauthier, Senior Director, Legislative Affairs, Atlantic for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) joins hosts Don Mill and David Campbell on the Insights podcast to discuss the state of small business in Atlantic Canada and what they are looking for in the upcoming federal election.  Armed with the latest CFIB survey data, Gauthier weighs in on the need for continued government assistance for industries hit the hardest by Covid-19 and the challenges of vaccine mandates. They also discuss longer-term issues such as the state of entrepreneurship in Atlantic Canada and the pending retirement of 30,000 business owners across the region.