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Don Mills: What I Learned as a Columnist with the Newspapers

Feb 2, 2025 | Latest Issue, Opinion, Politics

What I Learned as a Columnist with the Newspapers

By Don Mills

After six years of writing the “To the Point” column for the Saltwire Network and the “On the Edge” column for Brunswick News, it was time to bring the columns to a conclusion at the end of 2024. When I look back, the columns had evolved from the time I began to where we are now. In the early days, I spent most of the time continuing to advocate for the kind of changes needed across the region to become more prosperous and self-sufficient. I have always chafed at being a have-not region. I am glad to say that much have changed in the past six years, much of it positive.

Demographic Challenges Persist

Atlantic Canada continues to the much less urbanized than the rest of Canada. Indeed, the region’s rural population continues to be more than twice as high as elsewhere in the country. This is an economic challenge simply because full-time, year-round job opportunities are scarcer in rural communities which continue to be heavily reliant on seasonal work like fishing, farming and forestry. Year-round opportunities like aquaculture and mining, and now wind farms, faced stiff resistance from both slow regulatory processes and NIMBY proponents. Premier Houston’s recent announcement to review the natural resource sector and take the “no” out of Nova Scotia is a welcome sign for future development in our province.

The good news is that the region is slowly but surely beginning to narrow the urbanization gap between the region and the rest of the country because of recent population growth that has matched or exceeded that elsewhere in Canada.

Not only has Atlantic Canada enjoyed population growth that matches national population growth, but more importantly, we have been able to retain a much higher proportion of our young people because of the opportunities created mostly as a result of population growth.

The last census indicated that Atlantic Canada continued to have the oldest population in the country based on median age (the number where half the population was below that number and half was above that number). The aging of the population has been a problem across the country driven by the baby boomers who are now retiring in large numbers from the workforce. Without a growing population, there were simply not enough workers available to replace those boomers. Significant population growth, especially that driven by young immigrant families, is slowly lowering the median population age across the region. This is more good news.

Growing Economic Opportunities

I have chronicled the fact that the composition of the workforce in Atlantic Canada indicates a higher dependency on government jobs in the region than elsewhere and a proportionately smaller private sector. This is a problem for growing wealth in the region. In Atlantic Canada, more than one four of those employed still work for the government. This compares with about one in five who work for the government in Canada. This might seem like a big difference, but it is in terms of growing our economy in the region.

More importantly, when government jobs are considered the best in terms of compensation, benefits and pensions, it is difficult for the private sector to compete for workers. This has been a factor in dampening entrepreneurism in the region. The good news is that seems to be changing through the work of the accelerators and incubators in the region which are developing a new generation of highly ambitious entrepreneurs focussed on national and international opportunities.

At the same time, the drive to achieve NET Zero goals by 2050 have created many new opportunities in green energy. Whether it is NB Power’s efforts to develop SMRs (Small Modular Reactors), the development of green hydrogen that is underway in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, the game changing offshore wind opportunity, or the need to increase critical minerals by six-fold to meet climate goals, the number of major economic opportunities in the region have never been greater.

Regulatory Barriers

One of the common issues that David Campbell and I have heard on our Insights Podcast over the past three years are the barriers related to unclear and untimely regulatory processes. One directly affecting the public is the certification process for foreign medical professionals. Cooke Agriculture’s Glenn Cooke has labelled Nova Scotia one of the most difficult jurisdictions in the world to gain approvals. The regulatory process for new mines is even more difficult, taking seventeen years on average from exploration to production. This in a time where the need for critical minerals has skyrocketed and are needed to meet climate goals. We are now in the process to develop the regulatory process for offshore wind.

Atlantic Canada would benefit from a coordinated and standardized regulatory environment across the region that would bring clarity and certainty to the regulatory processes. Trump’s tariff threats might lead to reduce or even eliminate interprovincial barriers to trade. Atlantic Canada could lead the way in this regard.

Growing Optimism for the Future

I would like to conclude by focussing on the future of Atlantic Canada. David Campbell and I have written a book that will be published in the spring of 2025 based on our optimism for the future of the region entitled” Towards Prosperity: The Economic Transformation of Atlantic Canada”. I believe the future has never been better and we have been offered an opportunity to change the economic trajectory for the region and take advantage of a changing attitudes about the region both internally and externally.

We need to become less reliant on government. We need to have bigger ambition and bolder vision. We need to seize the unprecedented opportunities, especially those related to green energy. We need to improve our exports and our productivity.

There is no question that immigration has helped energize our major cities and driven a new level of entrepreneurism across the region. We need to become more welcoming for immigrants and learn to live with increasing diversity in our communities. At the same time, it is evident that we need a more orderly process for managing the inflow of immigrants into our region, to ensure that the housing, education and health deeds of a growing population are met.

Final Word

I have appreciated the opportunity provided by the Saltwire Network and Brunswick News to write these columns. I do not envy their jobs given the precarious future for newspapers. Newspapers are important for local content and are under significant duress in a fragmented news environment. For those who have read my columns and taken the time to reach out to me, thank you.

You can still follow me on the Insights Podcast, and through Substack. And of course, support local news gathering by considering a subscription to The MacDonald Notebook.

Business leader Don Mills writes a monthly column for The Macdonald Notebook.

Halifax-South Shore business leader Don Mills.

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