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

After the federal government privatized national airports in the 1990s, most underwent massive modernization. There is no better example than the Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

The Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA) has invested $750 million in transforming the airport since taking control about 25 years ago.

Don and David's conversation with HIAA CEO Joyce Carter looks at the role the airport has as an economic enabler for the region, the challenges presented by the pandemic, the authority's efforts to rebuild air traffic, and the future of air travel from Halifax, especially within the region.

During the pandemic, the number of routes was reduced from 46 to just four and the airport had to take on $150 million in debt to survive. Nonetheless, Carter expects a full recovery by 2025.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Is modular housing really the answer to New Brunswick's housing crisis?

The stereotypical images of flimsy buildings and low-quality mini-homes don't reflect today's reality. New technologies and practices mean modular construction can be used to create high-quality buildings, sometimes as high as 30 storeys. In Sweeden, about 85 per cent of homes have some modular element to them.

Brandon Searle is at the forefront of modular technology in the Maritimes. He's the Director of Innovation and Operations at the University of New Brunswick’s Off-site Construction Research Centre.

Searle joins Don and David on this week's Insights Podcast to talk about the work the centre is doing, and how modular construction could help address the Maritimes' housing crisis.

The Off-site Construction Research Centre has worked on more than two dozen projects and aims to be a national leader in the sector. According to Searle, modular construction is not only well-positioned to help with local housing demand, it could grow as a home-grown export sector in the years ahead.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Moosehead Breweries is a New Brunswick icon. The company has been in business for more than 150 years and is described as “the last major brewery in Canada still owned by Canadians." With annual sales of $200 million and a staff of nearly 300 people, Moosehead is one of the larger manufacturing companies in the province.

Andrew Oland, the company's president and CEO, joins Don and David on this week’s Insights podcast.

Andrew tells Don and David about the company’s long history since Susannah Oland started the firm in 1865 (he is the 6th generation), and the bumps it encountered along the way, including burning down "several times."  He discusses the challenges and opportunities of being primarily focused on export markets and provides insight into how New Brunswick can continue to generate the second-most GDP from the brewery sector out of province in Canada.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Only 2.8 percent of the world's venture capital is given to women entrepreneurs, yet women-led startups outperform their male counterparts.

Sandpiper Ventures is a women-led venture fund (which in itself is a rarity) that invests in seed-stage tech startups with women founders who hold C-suite positions. Sandpiper is based in Atlantic Canada, although invests beyond the region.

Sandpiper recently raised an initial $20 million fund. Our conversation with one of the fund's three founders and managing director, Rhiannon Davies, looks at the challenges women entrepreneurs face, the opportunities for investors focused on this segment of the market, and Sandpiper's investment strategy.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

On the latest Insights Podcast, we continue to spotlight mining and its importance to Canada's climate goals. This week, Don and David sit down for a fascinating conversation with Ed Moriarity, the executive director of Mining Industry NL.

Newfoundland and Labrador's mining sector generates nearly $6 billion of economic activity, employs around 7,000 people, and represents about 8 percent of the province's GDP. The province is Canada's second-largest producer of iron ore and nickel and the third-largest in terms of copper production.

With a population that's more receptive to mining than other parts of the country, Newfoundland and Labrador has the potential to provide many of the critical minerals, including cobalt and lithium, needed to achieve net-zero by 2050.

Ed Moriarity is the perfect person to dig into this topic, and he provides valuable insight.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Saint-Quentin, New Brunswick-based Groupe Savoie is a thriving forest products business with sawmills, pallet production facilities, a pellet manufacturing plant, and other operations across the Maritimes.

The company is one of the largest private-sector employers in northeastern New Brunswick with more than 500 employees and it generates more than $150 million in annual sales.

Today on the Insights podcast, Don and David talk with Jean Claude Savoie, who founded the company with his father in 1978.  They discuss a wide range of issues including building a successful business from a small community, attracting and retaining immigrants into a rural area, family succession planning, and much more.

Jean Claude was inducted into the JA New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame in 2010.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Last year, every urban centre in the Maritimes witnessed population growth. Moncton and Halifax, in particular, had the fastest-growing populations among Canada's 35 largest urban centres.

The big challenge facing cities now properly managing growth as they see a rapid increase in house prices, homelessness, and increased wait times for just about every public service.

Halifax's recently retired CAO, Jacques Dube, joins the Insights Podcast to talk about how municipalities can foster sustainable growth. He weighs in on it all: long-term vision, strategy, public engagement, downtown development, affordable housing, and public safety.

He also serves up a few spicy takes he never could have got away with in his old role. Did our leaders make a mistake with amalgamation? Are rural residents paying their fair share of taxes?

You'll have to listen to find out.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Tim Banks may not be well-known beyond Prince Edward Island, but he is among Atlantic Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs. His business, APM MacLean, is involved with real estate development, with annual revenues of more than $100 million.

 Over his forty-year career, Tim has become the Island’s largest commercial real estate developer. On the latest Insights Podcast, Tim talks about the housing shortage on the Island and some of the impediments limiting developers' ability to provide enough homes, especially within the urban core of Charlottetown where building heights are severely restricted. 

He also talks about the time he almost sued the premier, losing workers to the public sector, and his $60 million Blackbush resort development near Grand Tracadie.

You can listen to the full conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

It's hard to think of Clearwater Foods without conjuring to mind John Risley. But while Risley was the public face of the company, his former brother-in-law, Colin MacDonald, was not only the co-founder of the company but responsible for its day-to-day operations through much of its history.

MacDonald deserves as much credit for Clearwater's success as his higher-profile partner.

In the latest episode of the Insights podcast, MacDonald takes Don Mills and David Campbell through the company’s development and growth, as well as the ultimate decision to sell to a B.C.-based company and a group of First Nations led by Membertou in Cape Breton.

He talks about his long partnership with Risley and the reasons for their estrangement. This is a rare and very candid conversation with one of the region’s least-known but most successful entrepreneurs.

You can listen to MacDonald, Mills, and Campbell's conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.

The Insights podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Don Mills considers Stephen McNeil to be Nova Scotia's most consequential premier in the last half-century.

McNeil's reform of the collective bargaining process for public sector contracts, and his decision to close the pulp mill in Pictou and two aging hospitals in Cape Breton were all made knowing he would lose political support in each case.

His efforts to open new markets in China for the lobster industry and legislating the presumed consent for organ donations law were other notable achievements during his tenure. He got elected to govern. He did not govern to get re-elected. He was perhaps the most successful "conservative" premier in terms of his fiscal policies yet true to his liberal roots in terms of social justice issues. Like him or not, he lived by his principles.

Find out more about this important Nova Scotian and his legacy on the latest "Insights" podcast.

You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.

The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.

Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.