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

New Brunswick is in the middle of an unprecedented population growth trend.  This is leading to record employment but also to growing job vacancies.  Statistics Canada’s Job Vacancy Survey shows nearly 50% more job vacancies in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the pre-pandemic second quarter of 2019.  Minister of Post-secondary Education, Training and Labour Arlene Dunn and Deputy Minister Dan Mills join us today for a conversation on what government is doing to ensure New Brunswick has enough workers to meet demand and ensure the economy continues to grow.  A growing economy will provide the tax revenues needed to sustainably fund public services in the years ahead without raising tax rates.  Minister Dunn has an impressive resume having worked in top roles in both the union sector and industry before jumping into politics.  We talk about the construction workforce, nurses, manufacturing and other areas that are facing shortages.  Immigration and international students were another important topic and how we can retain these newcomers long term.  If you listen all the way through in the final few minutes, Mills proposes a couple of very interesting initiatives the Department is considering to help with foreign credential recognition and long term immigrant retention in our province.  This one ran a little long – a little over an hour and 10 minutes but if you are interested in this topic it will be among the most productive hour and 10 minutes you spend this week. Stay tuned for next week when we have our second discussion with Jim Irving, Co-CEO of JD Irving Limited. 

In recent months a number of food and consumer products companies have announced they are pulling well known products out of Canada including Kleenex, Skippy peanut butter, Delissio, Stouffer's and Lean Cuisine. In addition, there have been shortages of baby formula and cough medicine among other important products. This is leading to less competition for your grocery and consumer product spending.  How will the reduction in competition across Canada impact us in Atlantic Canada? Households in this region already spends a higher share of income on groceries and inflation on food purchased from stores has been higher in this region than the rest of the country in recent years.   To talk about this, we are joined this week by Michael Graydon, CEO of Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada, a 40-employee trade association representing most of the food and consumer product manufacturers in Canada. Michael provides an excellent overview of why companies are pulling out of Canada and offers some compelling solutions.  One place to start is regulation. There are over 140,000 different regulations facing companies doing business in Canada.  Some are important, others not so much.  He also thinks part of the solution would be to attract more manufacturing investment to Canada but right now jurisdictions in the United States are offering far more lucrative tax incentives to woo that investment.   This is an important issue and all Canadians should be paying close attention. 

John Risley of Mahone Bay is one of Nova Scotia's most successful businessmen.This week we revisit a conversation John had with Don and David about building and selling Clearwater Seafoods and some interesting thoughts on public policy changes needed in Atlantic Canada.   

Killam Properties is A Real Estate Powerhouse Since its founding in 2000, Killam Properties, headquartered in Halifax, has become one of Canada's largest landlords and Atlantic Canada's largest landlord. The company has $5 billion in assets, 25,000 housing units and annual revenues of over $300 million. This episode of the Insights Podcast features a conversation with Phil Fraser, the founding CEO of Killam, who has both a Master in Urban Planning and an MBA in his background. Phil takes us through the history of the company, the decision to become a REIT in 2016, the current challenges related to inflation and rising interest rates, the issue of housing affordability and what is next for Killam. This is a fascinating Atlantic Canadian success story that serves as a model for others in the region.

Mass Timber Can Shorten Construction Times Significantly  In this episode of the Insights Podcast , we examine a new initiative under development to build the first mass timber manufacturing plant in Atlantic Canada, led by Patrick Crabbe, the President & CEO of the Mass Timber Company and also the Director of Mass Timber for Bird Construction. Mass timber can be used to replace concrete and steel in the construction of residential and commercial buildings. There are already mass timber buildings being built in the region.  The company plans to build a manufacturing facility that will cost nearly $180 million and produce fifty thousand square cubic feet of mass timber, enough to construct more than 3,000 housing units per year once full production capacity is achieved. Mass timber, because it is manufactured off-site, has the advantage of shortening construction time by as much as 30 percent which translates into lower overall construction costs for developers, as well as lowering CO2 emissions by 45 percent. The company is working with two local sawmills, Elmsdale Lumber and Ledwidge Lumber, as their source of wood supply, which will create higher value end products for these sawmills. Construction is expected to start in mid-2024 and be completed in the fall of 2026.  This is the second in a new series on the Forest Industry in Atlantic Canada.  

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David are starting a series on the forest products sector in Atlantic Canada.   The region’s forests support thousands of good paying jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for the region’s governments each year.   New Brunswick generates more gross domestic product (GDP) and export revenue from the forest products sector than any other province in Canada, adjusted for population size.  Kim Allen, Executive Director of  Forest NB and Mike Legere, Government Relations Manager at AV Group join Don and David to cover topics ranging from workforce challenges and the sustainability of the wood supply to the impact of carbon taxes on the sector’s competitiveness.   The conversation also highlights the advantages of the sector. As one example, Legere calls New Brunswick’s Crown Lands and Forests Act a ‘brilliant’ piece of legislation.  To learn all about the forest products industry, its challenges and opportunities, download the podcast now. 

Between 1983 and 2004, the value of exports (in inflation adjusted dollars) from Atlantic Canada increased by an average of nearly five per cent per year.  Over the same 20+ year timeframe, the economy expanded by an average of 2.6 per cent per year (real GDP).  Since then, between 2005 and 2021, the value of exports in real terms has declined and real GDP growth has dropped to an average of only 1.0% per year across the region.  On this week’s Insight’s podcast Don and David talk to Dr. Herb Emery about the importance of the export economy and explore whether or not the region can get back to a moderate level of economic growth without growth in exports.  The conversation covers a wide variety of topics from the role of international trade agreements and interprovincial trade to the impact the current shortage of workers is having on the region’s exporters.  Emery is one of the top thinkers on economic and demographic topics in our region and makes a strong case for a greater focus on exports and on creating a positive business environment for companies that compete in global markets.

This week on the Insights podcast, Don interviews David about a recent report he wrote about housing demand in New Brunswick.  Commissioned by the New Brunswick Business Council, the report looks at housing demand by region across New Brunswick between 2023-2030.  For the past 30 years, New Brunswick has averaged around 3,000 housing starts per year.  David’s report proposes the province will need to build an average of around 8,500 per year through 2030 to have enough housing to support a fast-growing population.  Don and David weigh into a wide variety of topics from the lack of construction workers to affordable housing to the potential role of manufactured housing.  Well worth an hour of your time.  A copy of the report can be found at the Housing Hub of New Brunswick website: https://hhnb-rlnb.ca/advocacy/

One of Canada’s most thoughtful analysts of politics and economic development, Donald Savoie, has written a new book entitled “Canada: Beyond Grudges, Grievances and Disunity”.  In the book, Savoie chronicles Canada’s history of ‘victimhood’ including geographically-based groups – Quebecers, Maritimers, Western Canadians, rural Canadians and, of course, Ontario.  He also covers the grievances of various demographic and ethnic groups as well as the country’s Indigenous population.  There is a reason Canadians are known for saying sorry.  Savoie believes this apologetic culture has helped shape the country we have become but worries that in the current climate it could do more harm than good. While he believes some of the claims of victimhood are exaggerated, he spends a lot of time discussing the relationship between Canada’s indigenous and non-indigenous population.  He believes this is one of the defining issues of our era.   As always, Savoie’s insights are rooted in a strong understanding of Canada’s history, institutions and politics. This will be well worth an hour of your time.

Today on the Insights podcast, Don and David talk with economist Richard Saillant about the federal Equalization program.  There has been a lot of talk about Equalization including efforts in western Canada to eliminate or significantly downsize the program.  Richard provides an excellent tutorial including when and why it was put in place, it’s purpose and whether or not the region should look to reduce reliance on the program.  After listening to this podcast you will know a lot more about fiscal federalism than you knew before.  Well worth an hour of your time.