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 proponen...
Aug 04, 2022•50 min•Ep. 72
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 nat...
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 71
In this episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell continue their series on innovative emerging companies in our region with a conversation with CEO Mike Kelland and Chief Chemist Will Burt of the Nova Scotia-based Planetary Technologies . The company has developed a unique ocean-based carbon removal technology that recently won a $1-million Xprize from the Elon Musk Foundation. Its mission is to remove one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by 2035. At the...
Jul 21, 2022•59 min•Ep. 70
Sustainable Marine has just connected its turbines to the Nova Scotia power grid in a real-life demonstration project to prove its surface-based technology can harness the power of the Bay of Fundy. Our conversation with their CEO Jason Hayman is a must-listen for anyone looking to understand the challenges and opportunities associated with tidal power. After numerous failed attempts by others to generate power from the world's highest and most powerful tides, Sustainable Marine has taken a diff...
Jul 14, 2022•59 min•Ep. 69
Atlantic Canada has a growing workforce problem. There are not nearly enough young people to take the place of those who are retiring. Rick Emberley, the founder of SeasonedPros, thinks he has one part of the solution. His company matches older workers with companies in need of short-term talent in technical, management and mentorship roles. On the latest Huddle "Insights" podcast, he joins Don Mills and David Campbell to talk about how older workers could be mobilized to help ensure workforce d...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 68
Over the summer, Don Mills and David Campbell will be interviewing the founders of high-growth potential companies across the region. The series starts with David Shipley, the CEO of Fredericton-based Beauceron Security. The company has an interesting product and service meant to help companies and their employees take better control over their own cybersecurity. David talks about his personal road to entrepreneurship and the company’s plan to carve off its share of the $75-billion cybersecurity...
Jun 30, 2022•55 min•Ep. 67
This episode of the "Insights" podcast features a fascinating conversation with Steve Matier, the CEO of Maritime Launch Services , the company behind the Spaceport to be built near Canso, Nova Scotia. With most regulatory approvals now in place, the company is nearing its construction phase which will see an investment of $150 million to build Canada's first commercial spaceport. Find out about the company's plans, its decision to locate in Canso and the economic benefits to the community. Mati...
Jun 23, 2022•51 min•Ep. 66
Michelle Simms, the president and CEO of the Genesis Centre at Memorial University , joins Don Mills and David Campbell on the latest episode of the "Insights" podcast. The Genesis Centre has been supporting startup companies in Newfoundland and Labrador for 25 years. Many of the province’s top tech startups - most notably Verafin, which sold for nearly $3-billion U.S. - were incubated through the centre’s Enterprise program, which has an innovative royalty-based financing model. Newfoundland an...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 65
On this week's "Insights" podcast, David Campbell speaks with Entrevestor Peter Moreira, who has tracked and accumulated data for more than 770 technology-based Atlantic Canadian companies, including investment, revenue and employment trends. Entrevestor , the leading chronicler on startup companies in the region, has a new report coming out on June 14 but he gives us a sneak peek. Want to know how much investment the 771 firms received in 2021? Want to know the percentage of the 2019 startup co...
Jun 09, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 64
In the latest "Insights" podcast, Jean-Paul Boudreau, the President of Mount Allison University and "CEO of Optimism," underscores the many roles that the post-secondary institutions play in the communities where they are located, especially smaller ones like Sackville. Beyond the role of educator, universities are important economic enablers as an employer and consumers of goods and services; as innovators and researchers; as incubators for entrepreneurs; and as community partners. "It's the la...
Jun 01, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 63
It is hard to overestimate the impact and importance of the contribution of the Nova Scotia Community College to Nova Scotia's economy and the communities where the College has campuses. In this episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell talk to CEO Don Bureaux about the transformation of the institution over the past 20 years, its role as an employer and economic enabler, and its success adapting to changing labour market needs. "We exist ... to produce the human capital fo...
May 26, 2022•47 min•Ep. 62
On the latest episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell are continuing their series of conversations with organizations helping to foster innovation in Atlantic Canada. Don and David talk with Dr. Beth Mason, the Chief Executive Officer of the Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy and the Environment located in Cape Breton. Listeners may be surprised to hear the organization is one of the larger research and development organizations in the region with 40 staff. Th...
May 19, 2022•57 min•Ep. 61
The Huddle "Insights" podcast has now surpassed 25,000 downloads since it was launched a little more than a year ago. And the show's most popular episodes are with the region's successful entrepreneurs. The feature interview with J.D. Irving, Limited Co-CEO Jim Irving topped the list. He emphasized that the key to growth for companies in the region is population growth and immigration. “If people feel welcome they generally stay if there are reasonable opportunities,” says Jim. “Just like we tel...
May 12, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 60
Innovacorp is the only organization of its kind in the region, perhaps the country, that combines incubation, acceleration programming and funding to the start-up community. Its one-stop approach has been proven successful, recently celebrating its first unicorn investment where its investment of $3-million in Meta Materials Inc. six years ago has returned $101-million to the crown corporation. Innovacorp operates three separate incubation facilities, the Labs, the Bays and COVE. "They have util...
May 05, 2022•54 min•Ep. 59
As part of their ongoing "Insights podcast series on fostering innovation in Atlantic Canada, David Campbell and Don Mills talk with Jeff White, the CEO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF). White talks about the importance of investing at the earliest stage in the life of an innovation-focused company. These early investments allow the firms to attract other sources of capital and ultimately scale their innovative ideas to national and international markets. White says NBIF has gen...
Apr 28, 2022•58 min•Ep. 58
As part of a new series of Huddle "Insights" podcasts, Don Mills and David Campbell are talking to experts to determine what we should do to foster a more innovative economy in Atlantic Canada. New research published by the OECD finds the four Atlantic Provinces invest far less than the OECD average in research and development as a share of GDP. What would it take to encourage businesses to invest more into innovation? How can we better leverage public research and development expenditures to cr...
Apr 21, 2022•59 min•Ep. 57
CEO Wendy Luther joins Don Mills and David Campbell to discuss Halifax Partnership's new five-year strategy, which focuses on three themes: People, Planet and Prosperity. This episode of Insights is brought to you by MNP Digital – a firm that guides, protects, and empowers organizations along their digital journey. See how at mnpdigital.ca.
Apr 14, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 56
In this episode of the Huddle "Insights" podcast, Premier Andrew Furey provides a thoughtful overview of the demographic and fiscal challenges faced by Newfoundland and Labrador, the need to diversify the province's economy, and the near term opportunities for the province's oil industry which represents 25 per cent of its GDP in the wake of the war in Ukraine. The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the chall...
Apr 07, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 55
Premier Tim Houston of Nova Scotia wants to be remembered for setting the stage for growth when people look back on his government's achievements decades from now. Population growth is a top priority along with improving access to healthcare, he tells Don Mills and David Campbell on the latest Huddle "Insights" podcast. "People drive economies so we need people," says Houston of his ambitious goal to grow the population to two million by 2060. "We know the flip side of that from depopulation. We...
Mar 31, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 54
This is the second of our exclusive Insights interviews with Atlantic Canada’s premiers. New Brunswick weathered the pandemic better than most jurisdictions in the areas of public health, economic growth, population growth and government finances. Premier Blaine Higgs discusses a wide variety of topics from how his government tackled the pandemic to economic development, municipal reform, bilingualism and the new health care strategy. Higgs says the province is emerging strongly from the pandemi...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 53
In this episode, Don Mills and David Campbell start a series of conversations with the Premiers of Atlantic Canada, beginning with Dennis King of P.E.I. Progressive Conservative Premier King is an unconventional poilitical leader in these highly partisan times. He is a collaborator - a friendly, affable and self-effacing person who gives credit to and works well with others, including opposition parties and former premiers from other parties. A noteworthy example would be former Liberal premier ...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 52
Don Mills and David Campbell chat with Bernard Leblanc, the CEO of the Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport, about the impact of the pandemic and the efforts underway to rebuild its routes and increase cargo traffic. They also discuss how important the decision to move to a community-based airport authority was to improve infrastructure and service in air transportation across Canada. When the airport released its last economic impact study in 2016, it showed the Moncton airport w...
Mar 10, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 51
On this episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell take a closer look at the importance of the agricultural sector to the economy both across Canada and in Atlantic Canada with a wide-ranging conversation with Sylvain Charlebois - one of Canada's top food experts widely known as the "Food Professor." Charlebois, the Senior Director of the Agri-Foods Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, chats with Mills about the opportunities for growth in an Atlantic region that already e...
Mar 03, 2022•58 min•Ep. 50
Kathryn Lockhart, the CEO of the startup accelerator Propel, says start-up incubators and accelerators are playing a vital role in nurturing the tech sector across Atlantic Canada, supporting, in some way, around 90 per cent of all recent successful tech startups across the region. Lockhart shares her vision of an Atlantic Canada that is home to dozens of ‘baby unicorns’, startups with a valuation of at least $50-million.
Feb 24, 2022•57 min•Ep. 49
This episode features a fascinating interview with one of Canada's most distinguished market researchers, Michael Adams, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Environics Research. In this wide-ranging conversation, Michael provides listeners with a data-based analysis of the diverging differences in values between Canadians and Americans through the pioneering work done by Environics in social values research.
Feb 17, 2022•59 min•Ep. 48
David Campbell and Don Mills continue their series profiling the region's top entrepreneurs 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.
Feb 10, 2022•52 min•Ep. 47
When people think about the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) they usually focus on lottery tickets and big prizes, but its impact is much greater than that. It's an important contributor to the economy through its role as an employer and the indirect jobs created in the region which support the lottery. ALC has contributed $10-billion since its inception in the 1970s to provincial governments in support of public services like health and education. In the latest Huddle "Insights" podcast, Don ...
Feb 03, 2022•50 min•Ep. 46
The Century Initiative is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that is advocating an audacious long-term population strategy for Canada to achieve a goal of 100 million Canadians by the end of this century. In conversation with co-host Don Mill, CEO Lisa Lalande outlines the reasoning behind this ambitious goal and what it would mean for Atlantic Canada.
Jan 27, 2022•58 min•Ep. 45
On this week’s podcast, entrepreneur Blair Hyslop, Kathryn Lockhart, CEO of Propel and Jeff Larsen, head of the Creative Destruction Lab in Atlantic Canada, discuss a new proposal for a new regional equity tax credit to help grow investments in the region's companies. Under the proposal, qualified businesses could receive angel investment from across Atlantic Canada and the investors would receive a tax credit no matter where the company is located within the four provinces. The three make a str...
Jan 20, 2022•57 min•Ep. 44
Francis McGuire has a very interesting background, having been both a Deputy Minister during the Frank McKenna era and the CEO that built Moncton-based Major Drilling into the second biggest company in its sector in the world. In this edition of the Huddle "Insights" podcast, McGuire talks with co-hosts David Campbell and Don Mills about the strategies he used to grow Major Drilling and the current ones he is employing to take Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) in a new direction. Convi...
Jan 13, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 43
