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

Dennis Campbell, the Founder of Ambassatours, first became interested in the tour business at the age of seven years ago when he accompanied one of his sister's guided tours and started his company in 1987 while still in high school. At its peak, the company had annual revenues of $30 million and employed nearly eight hundred people,100 buses and served 19-21 ports. Last year the company had 450,000 customers using the company's various land, water and amphibious tours. In this podcast, Dennis takes us on his personal business journey as he built his company, including some of the early challenges financing its growth, eventually selling off parts of his business as he begins winding down his long successful career. From the Harbour Hopper to double decker buses, the Silva, Harbour Queen, Theodore Tugboat, and the Magic Winery Tours, there is a very good chance listeners will have been on one of Dennis's tours. His role in the development of the hospitality sector within the region cannot be overstated. He is the consummate storyteller as you will see from this conversation.

This week's Insights Podcast is the first in our sponsored BioEconomy Series over the next three months in partnership with the Greenspring BioInnovation Hub and Bioindustrial Innovation Canada and features a conversation with JC Amado, Chief Development Officer with Vyterra Renewals and Cassie Turple, member of the third generation of family owners of Ledwidge Lumber about their interesting collaboration that will see the construction of a 40 million litre plant on Ledwidge's property using Vyterra's proprietary Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) technology and the wood by products from Ledwidge's operations to convert wood into low carbon fuel. The plant will cost $200 million to build and is expected to be operational by the end of 2027 and will use the feedstock of 2-3 sawmills in the province, which lost a significant customer for their products with the closure of Northern Pulp. If successful, Vyterra's has hopes of building two other similar plants in the province.

Everyone who owns a vehicle has used a parking meter, whether an old-fashioned coin operated meter or the new electronic smart meters. It is highly unlikely that you have ever heard of MacKay Meters of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, but there is a good chance that you have used one of their meters. MacKay is the only company manufacturing parking meters in Canada and has been in business for more than sixty years. Parking meters have become increasingly sophisticated, and MacKay Meters has been among the most innovative companies in this space. The company was the first to introduce the use of credit card payment and has the best coin validation system in the industry. The modular design of their smart meters makes it easier to keep the meters current. The company has developed software support to manage and maintain their meters, including the management of time-of-day parking rates around special events. Indeed, there are some years where revenue from their hosted subscription services exceeds their hardware sales. MacKay just completed the world's largest parking project ever undertaken when it installed 13,000 of its smart meters and 3,000 of its pay stations in San Francisco. Since its inception, the company has installed over a million meters.Our podcast with third generation CEO James MacKay provided an excellent overview of the secret to the company's success over such a long period of time and another reminder of the opportunities that exist for manufacturers in Atlantic Canada.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Sébastien Dupuis, President & CEO of Assumption Life.  The Moncton-based insurance provider has been around for over 100 years, and recently decided to become a national company. From its roots providing insurance services to Acadian households and businesses, Assumption Life is now a rapidly expanding national firm with considerably more clients outside New Brunswick.  Sébastien talks about the company’s journey expanding across the country, the business environment for the insurance sector in New Brunswick, and he muses on the importance of ambition as a driver of business growth.

By his own admission, Ron Lovett was a juvenile delinquent and a troublemaker on the wrong track in his early life but also a born entrepreneur. His first business was selling weed. He also has had to learn to deal with both ADHD and dyslexia. In his first book "Outrageous Empowerment", he outlines his management philosophy that is based on employee empowerment, a philosophy that helped him grow Source Security to one of Canada's largest security firms from Halifax with more than 1,500 full-time employees. His personal experience providing executive protection is discussed in the podcast, including an interesting experience with Ringo Starr. After growing his revenues to more than $10 million annually, he sold his business to Pavion in 2023, a large US based technology and systems integration company. After selling Source Security, Lovett started VIDA (formerly VIDA Living) and has since developed a portfolio of 190 buildings with nearly 3,000 affordable rental units employing a new model of offering quality housing at reasonable cost. Lovett is in the process of raising $300 million to grow the number of units to 10,000. His innovative approach to this sector is turning heads. This is a great story and worth a listen.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Sara Napier, the CEO of United Way Maritimes.  United Way has been supporting the social sector in the Maritime Provinces for more than 100 years.  Recently, seven local United Ways combined to create one larger organization that covers most of the Maritime Provinces (except southeastern New Brunswick and Cape Breton).   Sara discusses the motivations for this amalgamation as well as some of the big issues and challenges facing the social sector across our region.  We are seeing increased homelessness, crime, food insecurity and youth mental health challenges in all three provinces. The United Way is at the forefront trying to address these challenges in partnership with dozens of community partners.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with the Honourable John Herron, Minister of Natural Resources with the Government of New Brunswick. No other province in Canada has seen a larger decrease in economic activity associated with mining in the past 30 years.  The GDP from mining has declined by more than 85 percent.  Minister Herron is on a mission to change this.  He would like to see New Brunswick become an important producer of critical minerals creating high paying jobs as well as tax and royalty revenue for government.  Don, David and Minister Herron discuss how to make New Brunswick an attractive location for mining investment, the partnership with First Nations and how to achieve community support.  For anyone interested in economic development, this is well worth an hour of your time.

It might be surprising to many that Atlantic Canada has two of only four ambulance manufacturers in Canada. One is Dieppe based Malley Industries led by Terry Malley, the company's CEO and the other is Yarmouth based Tri-Star Industries, founded by Keith Condon, previous guest on the Insights Podcast. Malley operates a 92,000 square foot facility with 80 employees in Dieppe near the airport and produces 200 ambulances annually with 35 percent exported to the US, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The average cost of an ambulance for the Canadian market is between $150-160,000, with an ambulance lasting only about four years due to their high usage. The company also produces accessible vehicles through a network of dealers in Canada and the US. The company has developed a specialty in the production of thermoformed products like van liners and partitions for its vehicles which makes them safer and lighter, as well as less costly to operate. Malley talks about the challenges of operating a manufacturing business in Atlantic Canada and his plans for the future of his business. Malley is a well-known community leader in the Greater Moncton area and has served on ten different boards.

The QEII Foundation is in the midst of a major $100 million capital campaign under the theme of "We Are". The campaign is being led by Sherry Porter, our guest on this episode of the Insights Podcast, is a long-time board member of the Foundation and an accomplished business leader. She continues to be active as a board member, including serving on the board of Organigram, Canada's largest cannabis company and a previous guest on the Insights Podcast. Porter has been active as a community builder for a long time and was instrumental, alongside Ruth Goldbloom, in the establishment of Pier 21 and it being designated as Canada's National Museum for Immigration. Her community building efforts led to her receiving an Order of Canada in 2018. The QEII's daunting capital is the largest ever for a healthcare facility in Atlantic Canada and has already raised 80% of its goal and that money is already hard at work enhancing healthcare delivery in Nova Scotia through the acquisition of surgical robotics and precision oncology innovations like gene sequencing technology to tailor treatments to individuals with cancer. In this podcast, Porter takes us through the stages of managing such a major campaign and tells us why campaigns such as the "We Care" campaign are important.

Many people would be familiar with the ChatGPT app as a tool for research purposes and composition. But the use of artificial intelligence is much more complicated and sophisticated than that. For example, do you know the difference between predictive AI and generative AI? On this week's Insights Podcast, our guest, Jennifer LaPlante who is the Chief Growth and Innovation Officer for Canada's Ocean Supercluster provides a useful tutorial into understanding what AI all about and how it is currently being used in the region as well as the potential use of AI moving forward. LaPlante has responsibility for helping grow the ocean sector which currently accounts for about $40 billion in GDP contribution supporting overall 400,000 jobs across Canada, but with the Ocean Supercluster's Ambition 2035, the goal is to grow that contribution to $220 billion by 2035 and the use of AI is part of that strategy. LaPlante estimates that about 40% of businesses are currently using AI in one form or another. Any business with data can benefit from the use of AI according to LaPlante and she outlines how businesses can get started using AI in our conversation with her. This podcast will be of value to all those seeking a better understanding of AI, especially in their own business.