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

Don Mills and David Campbell look at the economic challenges and opportunities in Nova Scotia in the third of a four-part series on provincial economies in Atlantic Canada. This episode features an in-depth interview with Scott Brison, the Chair of the Economic Growth Council, who provides his insights on how best to grow the economy within Nova Scotia.Scott provides some interesting examples of emerging opportunities in the province, some addressing a key challenge for Nova Scotia - growing the economy beyond Halifax where most of the population and economic growth is happening in the province.

With the recent release of the re-opening plans by each of the four Atlantic Provinces, David and Don, in conversation with Huddle editor Mark Leger, look at the opportunities to jump-start the economic recovery. In this podcast, the lack of a coordinated re-opening strategy for the whole of Atlantic Canada is specifically questioned. Don and David look at several impacts and potential strategies to advance the re-opening of the region without undue risk to the population and challenges the seemingly ultra-conservative approach currently in place given the pace of vaccinations and declining cases and hospitalizations across Atlantic Canada.

The recently released Greene Report underscores the financial difficulties faced by Newfoundland and Labrador. A province with a debt load of $47-billion, an aging and declining population, and an over-reliance on the oil and gas industry. The province has a structural deficit as a result of spending during premier Danny Williams' time in government and has had 61 deficits in the 71 years since joining Confederation. The question is whether or not the province is ready to face its problems head-on and accept the strong medicine prescribed by Dame Greene. Former Liberal Finance Minister Cathy Bennett joins us to address this question.

In this episode of the Huddle "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell start a four-part series on each of the provincial economies in the region. Prince Edward Island has led the way in both population growth and GDP growth in the region for the last decade and this episode explores the reasons for the Island's success. This week's featured interview is with Wade McLauchlan in his first in-depth interview since leaving the Premier's office in 2019.

In the third of a three-part series on economic development, David and Don are joined by Mark Leger for a round table discussion on the key elements associated with successful urban economic development drawing on the success of three Atlantic Canadian cities as role models for other urban communities in the region that are themselves economic hubs.

On a special edition of the podcast, David Campbell chats with Malcolm Bricklin, the entrepreneur behind the Bricklin SV-1 that was manufactured in New Brunswick in the 1970s. David and Malcolm talk about auto manufacturing in the province back then, the role of Premier Hatfield and what went wrong. Bricklin shares anecdotes about his interactions with Elon Musk, Henry Kissinger and Slobodan Milošević, among others. In his 80s and showing no signs of slowing down, the CEO of Visionary Vehicles is back with a new electric vehicle project, the Bricklin 3EV. This conversation was the keynote event at the Town of Riverview annual Sustaina-Palooza conference in April. The three-day virtual event featured 40 speakers from 14 countries leading a conversation about innovative leadership within the sustainability sector.

In this episode of the Huddle "Insights" podcast, 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, John Bragg, 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.

The economy in Atlantic Canada has underperformed the rest of the country despite all the federal, provincial and municipal economic development efforts.Key economic metrics like GDP growth and job creation have lagged behind the rest of the country in the region with the exception of PEI. At least a billion dollars per year is spent on economic development activities in the region. It is fair to ask whether or not we are receiving a fair return on that investment or if that spending is fostering economic growth at all. At a minimum, it is time for a higher level of accountability.In the first in a three-part series of conversations about improving economic development performance in Atlantic Canada, hosts Don Mills and David Campbell chat with Stephen Lund, the CEO of Toronto Global, the organization responsible for attracting international investment to the region. Stephen is the only person to have been CEO of both Opportunities New Brunswick (ONB) and Nova Scotia Business Inc., the two organizations responsible for leading development in those two provinces.

On the Insights podcast for the past couple of weeks, Don Mills and David Campbell have been talking about the importance of growing the population of Atlantic Canada.  In this episode, Don chats with Jennifer Watts, CEO of the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS) about how to improve immigrant retention in the region.Historically, the four Atlantic Provinces only retain about half of the newcomers over the longer term. Retention rates have been getting a little better in recent years, particularly for those who have a job that matches their education, skills and background.

J.D. Irving, Ltd. is among the largest employers across Atlantic Canada and in recent years has been struggling to recruit staff particularly into specific occupations such as truckers and forestry workers. They have started to recruit immigrants as part of their overall human resources development plan. In this week's episode, David Campbell and Don Mills sit down with Co-CEO Jim Irving to talk about the company’s immigration attraction activities and to get his insight into how we can better attract and retain newcomers to our region. Instead of just complaining about the growing shortage of workers, Jim Irving believes the private sector should work closely with the government to develop solutions.*