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

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...

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 continu...

Atlantic Canada is a "have not" region but Niels Veldhuis of the Fraser Institute says it doesn't have to be that way. The president of the public policy research institute - or "think tank" as organizations like this are commonly known - tells Don Mills that the Atlantic provinces could follow the example of small provinces like Saskatchewan and create better investment climates that could encour...

In this episode of the Insights Podcast, we have a lively panel discussion about the current federal election and the opportunities that it holds for economic development for Atlantic Canada. The stunning victory of the PCs in Nova Scotia raise some warning signs for the Liberal Government regarding the mood of Canadians at this stage of the pandemic. We discuss the outcome of the Nova Scotian ele...

David Chaundy, President and CEO of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council joins us this week on the Insights podcast to talk about the challenges and opportunities for the regional economy coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Chaundy has convinced our ageing population and its impact on the workforce is a top risk to our economic prosperity in the years ahead. They also discuss recent reports pu...

In the fall, Alberta will hold a referendum on Canada’s Equalization system. The Alberta government wants leverage to force the federal government to negotiate a new formula that could significantly reduce the amount provided to Atlantic Canada each year.     Do provincial governments in Atlantic Canada rely too much on tax revenues generated elsewhere in the country? Do we suffer from a culture o...

Frank McKenna, Deputy Chair of TD Bank, joins Don and David on Insights this week to discuss economic development today compared to 25-30 years ago when he was Premier of New Brunswick. He weighs in on the importance of attracting industry as well as supporting homegrown firms. McKenna doesn’t pull any punches when talking about natural resources development, immigration and provincial fiscal sust...

On this week's episode of the Insights podcast, David Campbell chats with City of Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold and City Manager Marc Landry. This is the third in their series of discussions with municipal leaders in Atlantic Canada about how we can build prosperous cities.   There is no doubt about the City of Moncton’s status as a successful city. It has been one of the fastest-growing larger cities...

Charlottetown is the fastest growing city in Atlantic Canada, having grown by nearly 10% since the last census. This growth has not been an accident and is based on good planning and strategy as well as close collaboration with the various public agencies involved in economic development including the Port Authority, the Greater Charlottetown Development Corporation and the Downtown Business Inc....

Cranes in the air and growth in the GDP and population. This week, Don and David begin a series of conversations with the leaders of successful Maritimes communities. First up, the mayor of the region's largest urban centre.

The conventional wisdom around the global population, backed by the United Nations' own projections, is that it will continue to grow in the coming decades. Economies around the world are banking on that outcome, tying their growth plans to having more and more people generate new economic activity. Darrell Bricker, Global CEO of Public Affairs for Ipsos and co-author of ‘Empty Planet’, says the g...

In his first in-depth interview since leaving the premier's office in 2018, Brian Gallant chats with David Campbell about how to grow an economy that has been pretty flat for the past 15 years. They talk through strategies to grow the population, focus on development in the northern region that continues to fall behind the urban regions in the south, and achieve true reconciliation with Indigenous...

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...

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...

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 jo...

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 i...

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 Miloš...

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...

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...

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 ha...

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 a...

In this episode, Don Mills and David Campbell make the case for population growth across Atlantic Canada.   There are over 300,000 people expected to retire in the next decade and not nearly enough young people to take their place in the workforce.  If we can’t significantly boost the working-age population it will force many industries to downsize or leave the region. Less economic activity will...

David Campbell was in his 20s helping Frank McKenna pitch companies on setting up in New Brunswick. Don Mills was an MBA student in Halifax already incubating the market research company he would run for 40 years. In episode one of "Insights", the show hosts talk about the early days of their careers - David the economist, Don the social scientist - and how their work in the decades since informs...

A Nova Scotia social scientist and a New Brunswick economist are teaming up to host a podcast that explores the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada. Mills and Campbell, two of the region’s leading researchers and analysts, join Huddle editor and “Home Office” podcast host Mark Leger to talk about what listeners can expect from the new show launching on April 8 on the Huddle podcast...