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

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with the new CEO of TechNL, Andrea King. Newfoundland and Labrador’s tech sector is booming. Some of the most interesting tech companies in Canada are based there including Verafin, Kraken Robotics, CoLab Software and Spellbook. The province has led the country in venture capital per capita and the tech sector contributes an estimated $1.8 billion to provincial GDP and supports approximately 10,000 jobs. Andrea provides insights into why tech is thriving and the outlook for the future. The conversation covers everything from the role of immigration to the innovation ecosystem and the potential of data centres and artificial intelligence. 

On this week's Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Donnie Fillmore, President & co-owner of Atlantic Pacific Transport about the life and legacy of Wes Armour. Wes took a company of 11 employees in 1968 and by the time he sold it in 2021, Armour Transportation Systems employed nearly 2,000 people and operated 26 freight terminals, with services reaching across Canada and internationally. Donnie, Don and David remember Wes and the importance of ambitious entrepreneurship to our prosperity in Atlantic Canada.While we had Donnie in the room, we asked for his insight into the state of the truck transportation sector in Atlantic Canada. Worker shortages, regulatory uncertainty and technological change are threatening this important industry - one that employs over 16,000 workers and contributes $1.5 billion to Atlantic Canada's GDP every year. 

This week on the Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Michael Brown, author of Back to Prosperity: Awakening Canada’s Next Industrial Giant. Michael was born in the Sussex area but moved away to pursue a career in finance. He came back to put what he has learned to work in Atlantic Canada. He is a prominent tech investor and advocate, and his new book outlines an optimistic vision for innovation-led economic growth across the region. Michael makes the case that Atlantic Canada was once "one of the world's most prosperous and consequential regions" and could be again. His prescription includes shifting the focus from tangible to intangible value creation through scientific discovery and seeing data as the new natural resource. We talk about the innovation ecosystem and the role of government to animate this new prosperous future.You can find his book through online booksellers or by visiting www.tlt.capital.

This is rebroadcast of a previous episode. This week's Insights Podcast focuses on a recent report prepared by David Campbell for the Public Policy Forum called "Help Wanted: Solving Atlantic Canada’s Growing Labour Challenge". David is a Fellow with the Public Policy Forum as well as the co-host of the Insights Podcast.  In our conversation, he notes that Atlantic Canada will need more than 440,000 new workers by 2035 to replace those retiring and fill new jobs created by economic growth. He points out that 20% of today's workforce in the region are 55 years old or more and will most likely be out of the workforce by 2035. More critically, due to low birth rates and an older population, Atlantic Canada does not have the capacity to produce the workers needed for the future. In fact, the shortfall is nearly 270,000 workers that will have to be attracted to the region from elsewhere. It is a crisis that is already evident. We talk about what needs to happen to address this growing problem.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Paul Bennett, author of a provocative new book Struggling in Class: A Report Card on Education in New Brunswick. Bennett believes the K-12 school system is in a protracted crisis and failing the current generation of students. He points to the latest PISA scores which place New Brunswick last among the 10 provinces. The book covers a wide range of issues from inclusive education and French Immersion to the growing disparity in rural education outcomes. The Insights podcast is focused on economic development and fostering greater prosperity in our region. The ability of our K-12 education system to turn out graduates that are ready for the modern, complex world is key to that future prosperity. You may not agree with all of Bennett’s conclusions and recommendations but you should listen to what he has to say.