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

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David welcome Susan Chalmers-Gauvin, the founder and CEO of Atlantic Ballet of Canada. This is an impressive entrepreneurial story. Founded in 2001, Susan and creative director Igor Dobrovolskiy built the only professional ballet company east of Montreal through grit and determination. Now, the company is internationally recognized and performing around the world including an upcoming tour in Australia. The ballet company has a $3 million annual budget and supports dozens of artists and creative workers every through its direct payroll and contract workers.
Not content with being just another dance company, Susan and Igor have used Atlantic Ballet as a platform for many social issues ranging from raising awareness of domestic violence to the challenges facing new immigrants to Canada. Atlantic Ballet has a strong commitment to Indigenous culture through its Mawiamalga’tijig/Mawokahtine Intercultural Indigenous Dance Program and other initiatives. 
Just finishing its sixth year, the innovative Ballet by the Ocean brings professional dance to a wider audience and enhances the company’s role as a tourism asset.
Don, David and Susan also discuss the broader importance of investing in arts and culture and its role in strengthening communities across Atlantic Canada.

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.