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Our latest Insights Podcast features a conversation with Peter MacAskill, the CEO of Invest Nova Scotia. Invest Nova Scotia is the new provincial agency that emerged from the merger of Innovacorp and Nova Scotia Business Inc. Our conversation focuses on a number of Invest Nova Scotia's principal activities, including its Start-Up Investment Fund, a venture fund with investments of $65 million to date and $100 million available for new opportunities. Invest NS is focused on the clean tech, ocean tech, ag tech, life sciences and IT sectors. We also discuss its Innovation Rebate Program for capital investments to improve productivity, a fund to provide a 25% contribution up to a $15 million capital investment, and its accelerator programs and incubation services. Invest Nova Scotia is working closely with Dal's Creative destruction Labs and COVE, both previous guests on the podcast.
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In Part II of our Insights Podcast with Scott McCain, the Chair of the Board of McCain Foods, we focus on his own businesses including his ownership of the Saint John Sea Dogs, a twenty-year labour of love, and his involvement in Seafort Capital as one of the founding shareholders. We also talk about his volunteer interests, including his work with the Fraser Institute as one of its Atlantic Ambassadors. It is an interesting conversation.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Our guest this week on the Insights Podcast is the affable Scott McCain, the Chair of the Board of McCain Foods, the largest potato processing company in the world. This is first part of a two-part podcast which focuses on the McCain story, how it started in rural New Brunswick and grew internationally to have 60 production facilities and have its products in 160 countries. It all started in the late 1950s with Harrison and Wallace (Scott's father) McCain and their two other brothers in Florenceville, New Brunswick. The company now has 23,000 employees worldwide, of which 1,600 continue to work in New Brunswick, including nearly 500 head office jobs. The company is the largest employer in both Florenceville and Grand Falls. Scott talks about the company's growth strategies over the years, the expansion of its product lines and some of the challenges of running a large global business. This is a rare conversation with a member of the McCain family that you won't want to miss. Next week, the podcast will focus on Scott McCain's personal business and community interest, including his ownership of the Saint John Sea Dogs, another equally interesting conversation.
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On the Insights podcast this week, Don and David talk with Ryan Albright, Founder and CEO of the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company. After a tragic fire in March 2024, the company is rebuilding bigger and better. In Hartland, New Brunswick, Albright has built the largest russet potato-based chip manufacturing company in North America and is exporting product around the world. He has dreams of building an even larger potato chip empire reminding us of a young Wallace McCain or Glenn Cooke. You will be inspired by this story of grit, leadership and entrepreneurial ambition.
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Fred Bergman, Senior Policy Analyst at the Atlantic Economic Council joins us today on the Insights podcast to talk about an important new report written by the organization. The report provides an assessment of the economic impacts of Indigenous communities and businesses across Atlantic Canada. The Indigenous economy is worth $6.2 billion to the region and supports some 89,000 jobs across the four provinces . Fred provides a good overview of the economy and workforce and weighs in on some of the challenges and opportunities facing the community in the years ahead.
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Travis McDonough may not be widely known in Atlantic Canada but he is very well known by the MLB, NBA, CFL, MLS, NHL and NFL and many of their leading star players. Travis and his partners developed Halifax-based Kinduct, a tech application that uses personal data to help monitor and improve the performance of professional athletes, including the best way to rehab injured players. Prior to Kinduct, he built a string of multidisciplinary health clinics and fitness centres, including one of Europe's largest custom orthotics suppliers, during a decade living in Ireland. When he sold his clinics and returned to Halifax, he used his expertise as a licensed chiropractor to develop the app for athletes. Kinduct was sold in 2020 for more than $70 million reportedly to mCube (now Movella) a Silicon company. He is now in a new tech start-up, based also in Halifax, called Wellnify that is focussed on improving community health using gamification. In this interesting podcast, he also talks about overcoming his learning difficulties growing up. His story will be an inspiration to others looking to grow businesses from Atlantic Canada.
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This week on the Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Peter Moreira about the 2023 Atlantic Canada Startup Data Report. Peter's firm, Entrevestor, publishes this report each year covering more than 800 tech-based locally-owned companies across the region. There was good and bad news in the report. Combined revenues are up but employment growth has flatlined. Angel investment has been soft making it hard for companies to scale. Peter provides his thoughts on the near term prospects for tech companies in the region. To download the report and follow Entrevestor's daily news feed visit www.entrevestor.com.
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Don and David join Shelley Snodgrass, VP of Sales at Acadia Broadcasting, to review the highlights and learnings from their guests over the last 6 months. It is an optimistic discussion about the opportunities and successes happening in Atlantic Canada, as well as a future look into the challenges that the region continues to face. Take a listen to learn what motivates the Insights hosts to educate and influence the discussions of our region, and a sneak peek into some new projects.
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On this week’s Insights, Don and David talk with Adrienne Oldford, Executive Director at the McKenna Institute. Almost 30 years ago, then Premier Frank McKenna had a vision for what was called the ‘information superhighway’ and how it could transform the New Brunswick economy and society. While there have been some important successes, by some measures New Brunswick is a laggard when it comes to digital technology adoption. The former Premier had an idea to rekindle the province’s leadership in this area and asked Adrienne to help bring that vision to fruition. Now, $50 million in pledged support later, she has a team of 10 staff and the ambition to help transform the province through digital technology. Adrienne tells Don and David all about it in this informative and inspiring conversation.
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On this week’s Insights, Don and David talk with Blair Hyslop, Co-CEO, Mrs. Dunster’s about the opportunities to develop food manufacturing in New Brunswick. Blair shares his journey building the company from a staff of 50 to more than 270, the building of a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and growing export markets. He talks about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in his business and the firm’s retail stores strategy. We discuss broader themes such as access to capital, the cost environment, talent development and more. Blair and his co-CEO and life partner Rosalyn will be inducted in the New Brunswick Junior Achievement Hall of Fame this fall. Hearing his compelling story is well worth an hour of your time.
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This podcast was originally published In January of 2024 and was quickly the most downloaded podcast in Insights history. The podcast features legendary entrepreneur Harry Steele. Interestingly, Rob did not join Newcap Inc, his father's company, until he was nearly forty years old. Up until then, Rob was already a successful entrepreneur in his own right and busy building his auto portfolio. While he was the CEO of Newcap Inc, he successfully built a portfolio of one hundred radio stations, which he sold to Stingray in 2018 for $500 million. Since then, he has focused his efforts on building his auto group which had revenues of $2.8 billion in the past year and is the largest auto group in Atlantic Canada, employing 2,500 people in the region. He branched out into Texas a few years ago and has grown to nine dealerships in the state. He now has 32 brands with 64 locations across Atlantic Canada and Texas. We talk with Rob about his father, their working relationship and the lessons he learned working with him. Rob shares his thoughts on the future of electrical vehicles, as well as what keeps him entertained in his personal time.
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Canada has a productivity problem but many of the diagnoses, such as blaming immigrants, are not compelling. Dr. Heather Exner-Pirot, Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, makes a strong case that a main reason for our weak productivity has been a sharp decline in investment into Canada’s resource sectors including oil and gas, mining and electricity production. David talks with Dr. Exner-Pirot about her thesis on this week's Insights podcast. They talk about the national challenges but also zoom in on Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia, it turns out, is one of the worst places in the world for mining according to the Fraser Institute. David and Heather discuss how places like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick can become mining-friendly jurisdictions while still maintaining a rigorous environmental and regulatory regime.
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This episode features a really interesting conversation with Regis Duffy, the founder of Chemical Diagnostics Limited in Prince Edward Island. The business was partly sold to Sekisui Chemical, a Japanese chemical company in 2007, while the remainder of the company turned into Biovectra, a company with 700 employees and a new mRna vaccine manufacturing facility that opened in 2023. The company also has operations in Nova Scotia. Sekisui Diagnostics has nearly 200 employees on the Island. Regis has been called the Godfather of Biosciences in PEI and was instrumental in the establishment of the PEI BioAlliance, serving as its first Chair of the Board. This sector now accounts for over $600 million of mostly export revenue for PEI and over 2,200 jobs. It is likely that there would not be a biotech cluster on the Island without Regis Duffy. Regis is likely not that well known outside of PEI, but it is yet another example of the amazing entrepreneurs in the region. He continues to be involved in start-ups and mentorship with the PEI BioAlliance and is an active philanthropist on the Island. This is an inspiring podcast.
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This episode of the Insights Podcast offers something a little different as we take a look at the world of a political cartoonist and the related challenges of the print media. Our conversation with award winning Michael De Adder is wide ranging and looks at the challenges of getting political cartoons approval in this era of political correctness. De Adder currently works for the Toronto Star, the Hill Times and the Chronicle-Herald. He also worked for a time as a cartoonist for the Washington Post and talks about the differences of doing political satire in the US versus Canada. He is well known for his cartoons about Trump and talks about the amount of criticism associated with doing these cartoons. He is currently exploring a new channel for his cartoons using Substack, partly in response to the challenges and the uncertain future faced by the print media and offers his opinions about the future for political cartoonists.
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Damon Goodwin and Jeff White are tired of New Brunswick being the least research-intensive province in Canada. Damon, the CEO of Research NB, and Jeff, the CEO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, join Don and David on this week’s Insights podcast to talk about recent changes to the innovation ecosystem in the province and how the new model should accelerate research investment and innovation. The Conference Board of Canada gave New Brunswick a D- on its provincial innovation report card. Damon and Jeff have ideas on how we can start bringing home better report cards in the future.
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This week we present a special edition of the Insights podcast. Don and David recorded a conversation with Michelle Robichaud, President, Atlantica Centre for Energy live at the Canada's Ocean Supercluster event in Saint John. Held on May 14th, the Supercluster folks are pitching Ambition2035, a plan to grow the output associated with Canada's ocean economy from $40 billion in 2019 to $220 billion by 2035. Almost half this growth is expected to come from the energy sector. Robichaud walks us through the various opportunities from oil and gas and offshore wind to tidal energy and green hydrogen. Want a primer on ocean-related energy opportunities in Atlantic Canada? This is well worth an hour of your time.
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On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David talk with the Honourable Margaret Johnson, Minister of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries in New Brunswick about agriculture, food production and the opportunities for growth in the province and region. Agriculture and food production (excluding fish and seafood), is the second most important export industry in New Brunswick supporting nearly 17,000 jobs and $1.9 billion in export revenue. The sector has been growing rapidly in recent years and Minister Johnson tells us why and what is being done to exploit future growth opportunities.
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This week's Insights Podcast features a revealing interview with oil & gas veteran, Phil Knoll who has held senior roles with major companies like AltaGas and Duke Energy as well as Maritime & Northeast Pipelines and Corridor Resources (now Headwater Exploration) in the region. Knoll was CEO of Corridor Resources when the Gallant Government in New Brunswick imposed a moratorium on shale gas exploration. Headwater Exploration is the only company still producing natural gas in Atlantic Canada from its field near Sussex. He talks about shale gas exploration and its safety records over decades in terms of environmental impact. He also provides an estimate of the size of gas reserves in New Brunswick which would be sufficient to supply the current needs in the region for the next century. Currently Atlantic Canada imports hundreds of millions of imported natural resources, money that could benefit the region if the gas from the region was developed. Knoll also points out that natural gas will be needed for the foreseeable future in the transition to green energy in order to ensure sufficient baseload to meet peak demand, especially during the heating season. This is a conversation that everyone should listen to in order to better understand the transition to a green economy.
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There are 140+ financial technology (fintech) firms located in Atlantic Canada ranging from small startups to Verafin with more than 900 employees in St John’s. Fintech employs over 4,000 people in Atlantic Canada. Why is this sector thriving in Atlantic Canada? This week Don and David talk with Lori Weir, Co-Founder and CEO of Four Eyes Financial about fintech and why so many firms are choosing Atlantic Canada. Four Eyes is a rapidly growing firm based in Saint John with 50+ employees and ambitious plans to expand their business into the United States and the United Kingdom. What is the value proposition? What can we do to support this growing cluster of firms? Lori, Don and David answer these questions and more.
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Nova Scotia's Efforts to Transition to Green Energy
On this episode of the Insight Podcast, we feature a conversation with Peter Gregg, the CEO of Nova Scotia Power, who is faced with the challenge of ensuring 80% of electricity is produced by green energy resources by 2030. That is indeed a challenge given only 43% of electricity is currently produced by green energy (mostly wind). Nova Scotia is also faced with being the highest user of coal generated electricity and has a mandate to stop using coal by 2030. As Gregg mentions, some of the current coal generating plants will be closed and some will be repurposed to use natural gas to meet peak electricity demands. The transition will be expensive and the impact on affordability for users is still to be determined. For example, there is a need for high-capacity battery storage to support wind power. Gregg also talks about the need to increase generation capacity by 60% by 2060 to serve a growing population and energy demand and the challenges of climate change which has seen a 54% increase in the frequency of winds above 80 kms/hour in the last five years. He also discusses a number of other renewable energy sources, including nuclear power.
- Visa fler