Our guest on this episode of the Insights Podcast is Mike Whittaker, until recently the CEO and Co-Owner of TruCorp. TruCorp is the Truro based holding company that was owned by Mike and his partner Bill Hay until he sold his shares. Trucorp had two main holdings Bonte Foods, the federally certified meat manufacturer in Dieppe and Grinner's Food Systems, which owns Greco Pizza, as well as Captain Submarine and Frozu Frozen Yogurt. Mike has an interesting personal story, joining Trucorp as a marketing specialist, before over time becoming a 33 percent equity owner of the company. Under his leadership, Greco Pizza grew from less than ten outlets to 120 outlets around Atlantic Canada and became the number one pizza brand in the region with annual sales of over $50 million and more than a thousand employees. He introduced Grecoville and the thirty minute delivery promise and the memorable marketing tagline "Greco 310-30-30" that is still being used thirty years after its introduction. At the same time, Mike helped expand Bonte Foods through the acquisition of the Chris Brothers brand of deli meats. TruCorp sold its interest in Bonte in 2020 and Mike sold his equity in TruCorp a couple of years ago. It is a fascinating story of business success that is mostly unknown. Enjoy!

On this week's Insights Podcast, veteran oil & gas executive, Jim Livingstone, the CEO of RC Energy makes a compelling case for the development of the onshore natural gas in the three Maritime Provinces, which combined have estimated reserves of more than 200 TCF (Trillion Cubic Feet), the equivalent of the natural gas in the  Permian Basin in West Texas, considered one of the most prolific gas producing regions in the US. One TCF is enough natural gas to heat all the houses in Canada that currently use natural gas for two years. It could also be used to develop an LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) sector in our region, replacing the natural gas currently being imported. Livingstone has developed a drilling methodology that does not use hydrofracking to drill for shale gas. His method is based on using air to extract the gas and eliminates many of the concerns associated with hydrofracking. He insists that the type of shale basin in our region, derived from ancient lakes rather than most shale basins elsewhere, which are derived from ancient oceans, results in a much more densely compacted clay content, making it less suitable for hydrofracking. He claims it is one of the reasons previous drilling programs have failed in New Brunswick. This conversation is fascinating and could potentially lead to unlocking over $400 billion worth of natural gas in the Maritimes, thereby removing opposition to natural gas development in our region.

On this week's Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Mark Gaddas, owner and President of Woodstock, New Brunswick-based Ironwood Manufactured Homes Inc.  The company recently announced a large-scale expansion to help it meet the demand for housing in New Brunswick, Maine and beyond.  Mark tells us his new facility will be the largest manufacturing plant in Woodstock.  We discuss the role of manufactured housing in addressing housing demand, the challenges of recruiting staff in small towns, and the regulatory barriers impacting the sector.   As a share of GDP, New Brunswick has the largest manufactured housing sector among the 10 provinces in Canada.   The Ironwood expansion and other developments point to this being a potential growth sector for the province in the years ahead.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Tom Taylor, Executive Director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, about the state of finfish aquaculture in the region.  The industry is a significant engine for mostly rural areas in the region, supporting over 8,000 jobs and boosting gross domestic product (GDP) by over $900 million.  Over 1,300 suppliers generate $600-$700 million worth of business each year from the aquaculture sector.  Tom tells us about the history of the industry, dating back to government-led research in the 1970s, to the exciting innovation happening right now in our region.  Despite being one of the best ways to produce sustainable and healthy meat protein, the finfish aquaculture is having to fend off a considerable amount of misinformation.  Tom discusses this risk and the efforts his association is taking to counter misleading, inaccurate and outright falsehoods about the industry.

This week's Insights podcast addresses the challenge of growing crime across Atlantic Canada. This is a concern among business owners and the general public in all four provinces.  To talk about this issue, Don and David are joined by Mike Hammoud, Vice-President, Atlantic Canada at the Convenience Industry Council of Canada and Danny Fournier, Senior Manager with Rothmans, Benson and Hedges Canada’s (RBH) department of Illicit Trade Prevention (ITP).  Mike and Danny discuss trends that could be driving the increase in crime, such as the cost of living, the mental health crisis, expanded drug use and the growing presence of organized crime in our region. More importantly, the conversation focuses on solutions.  We need expanded public education, a stronger focus on prevention, better use of technology, and mobilization of communities through groups such as Crimestoppers and Neighbourhood Watch.  Importantly, our police services need the resources to focus upstream before the 911 call is ever made.  Better prevention and deterrents should lead to a decrease in crime across our region. This is an important conversation. 

On today's Insights podcast, Don and David talk with well-known author and Globe and Mail journalist John Ibbitson.   The wide-ranging discussion covers his two recent books, as well as his thoughts on everything from demographic trends and interprovincial trade.  In The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada, he makes a compelling case that Diefenbaker should rank higher on the list of Canadian Prime Ministers.  In A Nation's Paper: The Globe and Mail in the Life of Canada, Ibbitson curates 30 essays from Globe writers on the role the newspaper has played at important times in Canada’s history. He has a new book coming out in the Fall with Darrell Bricker called "Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk." Ibbitson is a fairly rare breed among national writers and commentators in that he has deep knowledge of the Atlantic Canada population and economy.  We discuss immigration, Employment Insurance, trade and other topics with a focus on Atlantic Canada.

Monette Pasher, President of the Canadian Airports Council, joins Don and David on the Insights podcast this week to talk about the council’s new report called “Keeping Canada Connected: The Challenge of Regional Air Service and Federal Policy”.  The transfer of airport management in Canada from the federal government to local authorities in the 1990s is considered by many to be an excellent example of good public policy. However, over the past decade or so, there has been an increasing erosion of services and connectivity between smaller airports and their surrounding communities. The new CAC report finds that flight frequency at regional airports has decreased by 36% since 2014 – a trend exacerbated by the pandemic. Pasher believes that more of the $500 million in rent that airports pay the federal government every year should be allocated to an “Essential Air Service program”, similar to a program in the United States.  We talk about a range of issues, from the rationale behind the transfer 30 years ago to the role of provincial and municipal governments in ensuring regional air connectivity.

We spent the month of June on a tour around the region to promote our newly published book, "Toward Prosperity: The Transformation of Atlantic Canada's Economy." The reception has been very gratifying, and the early reviews have been very favourable. Among those stops was the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton, where their high-energy CEO, Kim Wilson, moderated a lively discussion about the book with us, covering the main themes of the book and why we are so bullish on the future of Atlantic Canada. We wanted to share that conversation with you.  You can purchase the book at local bookstores, Indigo, Amazon and even Costco. Enjoy! 

This week's Insights Podcast is the second of three in our special series on the bioeconomy sponsored by the Greenspring Bioinnovation Lab and BioIndustrial Innovation Canada and features a very interesting conversation with Greg Wanger, the Founder & CEO of Oberland Agriscience. Oberland has a brand new 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Ragged Lake that is nearing completion that uses Black Soldier flies to produce fertilizer for the agricultural sector and feed for the pet food market and the aquaculture and farming sectors. The plant when fully operational will divert 100 tons of organic waste from landfills on a daily basis to feed the Black Soldier flies to produce 20 tons of fertilizer and 20 tons of feed protein per day. Prior to forming Oberland, Wanger worked with the Jet Propulsion Lab in California and helped develop equipment for the Mars Rover. The company is proud to introduce the lowest carbon-footprint protein ingredient to the market and expects to be totally off the grid and using only renewable power in the near future. Wanger is just getting going and plans more manufacturing facilities in the future.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Dr. Trevor Tombe, Professor in the University of Calgary’s Department of Economics and Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy at the School of Public Policy.  Dr. Tombe has published a number of papers related to interprovincial trade barriers including a recent one for the Public Policy Forum specifically covering the benefits to Atlantic Canada from making it easier to trade across provincial borders.  We discuss a variety of barriers to provincial trade including rules and regulations, and we go deeper with a lively discussion of issues such as government subsidies to industry, provincial tax rate differentials, infrastructure investments and other government-related benefits that may provide advantages to industries in one province but not another.   This one got a little wonky but we are sure you will enjoy the conversation.