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.

Thanks to former Premier Danny Williams, Newfoundland & Labrador has a state owned oil company. Williams wanted his province not only to benefit from the royalties from offshore oil but to have the benefit of ownership as well. This led to the creation of the Oil & Gas Corporation of Newfoundland & Labrador (OilCoNL), the crown corporation that holds equity in three major oil fields, Hebron, White Rose and Hibernia. The company originally began as a division of Nalcor before becoming a crown corporation in 2019.

Our podcast this week features a very interesting conversation with Jim Keating, the CEO and employee number one with OilCo who provided a comprehensive overview of the financial return associated with a state owned oil company and the enormous opportunity of the province's offshore oil & gas sector. The province earned $1.5 billion in royalties from the offshore in the last month alone. The offshore oil sector provides about 20% of the province's annual GDP. OilCo now has accumulated $1.3 billion in assets as a result of its investments to date and earned nearly $800 million in dividends since 2010. Keating indicated that Oilco has a legislated right to purchase up to 10% equity in any new discovery that leads to a producing well. The company is expected to take equity in the Bay du Nord project which is expected to be confirmed in early 2027. Bay du Nord's initial phase is expected to generate 500-600 barrels of oil over its lifetime and is the first of several phases. There are interesting lessons for Nova Scotia in the success of OilCo as it attempts to restart its offshore oil & gas sector.

One of Canada's most prolific and celebrated thinkers on regional economic development in Canada, Université de Moncton professor Donald Savoie is back on the Insights podcast to discuss his latest book, a biography of former New Brunswick Premier Louis J. Robichaud. This is a timely work that exposes a new generation to LJR's radical program to foster Equal Opportunity in New Brunswick, spanning everything from regional economic development to health care and education. Savoie tells Don and David about Robichaud's biggest reforms, including the modernization of the public service, the centralization of government administration in Fredericton, and the establishment of the Université de Moncton. He also suggests that LJR might not have been effective if he were leading the government today in the era of social media and deepening skepticism of politics. This was a thoroughly interesting conversation and well worth an hour of your time.

On this week's Insights podcast, Don and David talk with David Chaundy, President and CEO of the Atlantic Economic Council. The Council was established back in 1954 to provide research and support to economic development efforts across the region. Chaundy has been running the organization since 2018 and is passionate about its role helping the region address its biggest challenges and opportunities. We discuss everything from growth industries to demographics and the importance of regional cooperation. At times sobering (e.g. when Chaundy rattles off statistics about our health care and education systems) and inspiring (e.g. when he makes the case for a long-term vision), you will enjoy the conversation. You can learn more about the council and download public research reports at https://atlanticeconomiccouncil.ca/.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David are joined by the Honourable Luke Randall, Minister responsible for Opportunities NB (ONB), Economic Development and Small Business, NB Liquor and Cannabis NB and Traci Simmons, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Small Business and the Chief Executive Officer of ONB. The topic of the conversation is the Government of New Brunswick’s new Economic Development Strategy. The government wants to boost real gross domestic product (GDP) by 10 percent by 2030. Given the current context including a return to provincial population decline, increasing trade tensions with the United States, global competition for investment, an aging workforce and the rise of artificial intelligence, achieving this goal will be challenging.

The conversation covers a wide range of issues including: how the province tends to foster a more productive economy, a return to population growth, diversification of trade, industrial opportunities including mining and energy, ‘investment-ready’ industrial sites and the new ‘Growth Office’. Don and David also raise the issue of competitiveness at a time of rising energy and wage costs across the province. Collaboration is another important topic including between various government departments and agencies and also with other provincial governments within Atlantic Canada.

If you are looking for a primer on New Brunswick’s approach to economic development and population growth, this podcast is well worth an hour of your time.