Our Insights Podcast this week features a conversation with Rannie MacDonald, the VP of JD Irving's Retail Division and Patrick O'Neil, the General Manager of Kent Building Supplies that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Since its founding in Bouctouche (Kent County), Kent has become the market leader in the region in building supplies. Most Atlantic Canadians have shopped at a Kent's at one time or the other. The company has 48 retail outlets ranging in size from its large big box stores of up to 125,000 square feet to its smaller 24,000 square foot sized traditional stores located in smaller communities. Kent has become one of the region's largest private sector employers, with 3,700 full-time employees generating more than $200 million in wages that are mostly spent in the region. It supports nearly 1,400 vendors in the region, spending $300 million a year on local goods and services. It has a major 560,000 square foot distribution centre in Moncton with over 25,000 product skus and sources the vast majority of its products from Canadian manufacturers. Indeed, only 10 percent of their products come from US suppliers. It has spun off Atlas Structural Systems that now has 11 locations and an incremental 600 employees, as well as Industrial Commercial Supplies with another 100 employees. It is proudly an Atlantic Canadian success story and one that you will enjoy learning more about.

A few weeks ago, Gerry Pond, one of New Brunswick's great business leaders, passed away. On this week's Insights podcast, Don and David welcome Curtis Howe, Gerry's long-time friend and business partner, to discuss his life and legacy. Few in New Brunswick have had such a meaningful business career. For more than three decades, he helped shape NBTel into one of North America's most innovative telecommunications companies. He then went on to co-found a top information technology (IT) company in Atlantic Canada and invest in over 80 companies through East Valley Ventures.

After a 40-year relationship, few are better positioned than Curtis to share the story of Gerry Pond. After leaving NBTel, he mused about starting an asphalt company. While there is no doubt he would have succeeded in this business, Atlantic Canada's IT sector and the dozens of successful entrepreneurs he supported are glad he went in a different direction. This one is well worth an hour of your time.

On this week's Insights Podcast, our guests are Todd and Jeff Bishop, who, along with a third brother, Alex, founded the Dormie Workshop in 2014. The company is the market leader in producing high-end leather head covers for golf clubs, with production facilities in both Halifax and LA. Golf Digest has recognized the company multiple times as the category leader in its niche. The company has both a wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales channel. Their products are found in many of the most prestigious golf clubs in the world, and the company has deals with Augusta National and the upcoming British Open at St. Andrews next year. The brothers admit the business suits their lifestyles and have ambitions to diversify into clothing for golfers, recently adding a line of high-end belts to their product offerings. This was a fun conversation for us, and we know you will enjoy the brothers' journey to their current success.

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.

Our guest on this week’s Insights podcast is Lana Asaff, Senior Economist with the Atlantic Economic Council. Lana stopped by to talk about a new report published by the Council entitled “Fixing the Leaks in Atlantic Canada’s Education-to-Employment Pipeline”. This conversation was a little unusual for the pod as it got quite animated. There wasn’t a lot of good news in this report. Lana reported on the many challenges in the K-12 system, from lowering test scores and rising absenteeism to the unpreparedness of many high school students to enter post-secondary education. Some 40% of university students drop out before finishing their degree. Both Don and David feel very strongly about the need to address the growing challenges in the region’s K-12 education system. Lana also discussed the youth NEET population (not in employment, education or training). More than 58,000 or 12% of Atlantic Canadians aged 15–29 were NEET during the 2024/2025 school year. Forgone income among NEET aged 20–29 exceeded $470 million regionally in 2024/2025.

This report is a sobering reminder of the challenges and should be a wake-up call for all Atlantic Canadians who care about the region’s future.

Read the full report here:

https://atlanticeconomiccouncil.ca/page/AGPEducationEmploymentPipelineJune2026

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Mary Butler, President and CEO of the New Brunswick Community College. The NBCC has six campuses, 1,200 employees, 5,500 full-time students and 13,000 total learners each year. Enrolment has been rising, and the college boasts a 90 percent graduation rate. Butler and her team are rethinking the role of college education in New Brunswick, tackling issues such as international skills recognition, strengthening college entry pathways for high school students and embracing artificial intelligence (AI). As the NEET rate among young New Brunswickers (those Not in Employment, Education and Training) is rising, she sees a golden opportunity for the NBCC.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Bruce Fawcett, the outgoing President and Vice-Chancellor of Moncton-based Crandall University. After 14 years at the helm, Fawcett is retiring in August. During his tenure, Crandall University has increased enrolment from 750 to nearly 2,000 students, eliminated its debt and is building up the university’s endowment funds. The university has expanded programs and now attracts hundreds of international students every year.

Fawcett reflects on his tenure at Crandall University, the importance of entrepreneurial thinking and the role that Crandall plays in turning out graduates that meet workforce demand across the province. He estimates 85 percent of international graduates stay in the province.

This week's Insight Podcast features an in-depth and revealing conversation with Lee Bragg, the Executive Vice Chair of Eastlink, one of the companies in the Bragg Group of Companies, one of Atlantic Canada's most successful family companies. The early history of the Bragg family was in forestry, but John Bragg's decision to build a manufacturing facility in Oxford in 1968 marked the beginning of the shift of the wild blueberry sector from a cottage industry to a scalable, large-scale business. In 1968, the total production of wild blueberries in North America was about 200,000 pounds. Now, production exceeds 140 million pounds annually. Today, Oxford Frozen Foods represents nearly half of all the blueberries produced in North America and has plants in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine with 220 million pounds of storage capacity. Along the way, the company has become the largest beekeeper in Canada, with nearly 40,000 hives to pollinate its 45,000 acres of blueberry fields under its management. Employment at the Bragg Group peaks at nearly 10,000 during the growing season. The Group of Companies includes airport services, renewable energy, forestry, cable, hospitality (including the Rodd Hotel Chain and Cabot Cliffs and Links) and real estate development. The company recently purchased 435,000 acres of forest land, previously owned by Northern Pulp, from the Province of Nova Scotia, making Bragg's one of the largest landowners in the province. This podcast is a rare insider view of a spectacularly successful company.