Don Mills has spent most of his career measuring Atlantic Canada. For 40 years he ran Corporate Research Associates, now Narrative Research, the region’s largest market research firm. He used its data to raise early alarms on population decline, an aging workforce and immigration, long before most people were talking about them.
Today he co-owns Cabco Technologies with his son and brother, co-hosts the Insights podcast with economist David Campbell, and co-wrote the book Towards Prosperity: The Economic Transformation of Atlantic Canada. Last year, federal minister Sean Fraser asked him to chair the Atlantic Economic Panel.
“I’ve been in training for a long time for this role,” Mills told Northern Heat host Bob Lennon.
A business-led blueprint
The panel of seven Atlantic business leaders spent a year in engagement, including CEO roundtables across the region, before unveiling its report, Bolder Ambitions: Prosperity for All, to a packed room in Moncton. The mandate was to find transformational ideas that would drive above-normal growth and lift productivity, which in the three Maritime provinces is the lowest in the country.
The result is seven core recommendations backed by dozens of specific actions. The full report runs about 180 pages, but a shorter summary is available, and Mills urges every Atlantic Canadian to read at least that. Because the work is so grounded in data, he says, it has drawn little criticism since its release.
His goal is ambitious: a region less reliant on transfer payments, and maybe one day a “have” region.
The seven recommendations
The report rests on one big idea: the four Atlantic provinces tackling shared challenges together. Its seven recommendations build from there.
- One Atlantic Canada approach. Speak with one voice and tear down interprovincial trade barriers, which Mills calls the fastest way to grow the economy. That includes labour mobility: an electrician licensed in New Brunswick should be able to work in Nova Scotia.
- Faster project decisions. In Nova Scotia, it takes 17 years on average to go from mineral discovery to production. Standardized, transparent and timely regulation across the region would give investors the certainty they need.
- Integrated electricity system. Between Churchill Falls, offshore wind and potential new nuclear, the region could become an energy powerhouse. The panel recommends an independent regional system operator, with federal support to build out transmission. Mills calls energy foundational to everything else.
- Develop natural resources. Newfoundland and Labrador ranks third in the country for productivity, largely because it develops its resources. The Maritimes need to do the same, responsibly.
- Win the competition for talent. Even at modest growth, the region faces a gap of about 270,000 workers by 2035. Closing it means population growth of at least 1.8% a year, mostly through immigration, backed by a made-in-Atlantic-Canada immigration strategy and a study of future workforce needs.
- Productivity + AI. Fewer than 20% of Atlantic businesses are using AI today. The panel wants that number at 80%.
- Atlantic Prosperity Fund. The final recommendation, an Atlantic Prosperity Fund, is detailed in the full report.
From report to action
For Lennon, the energy in the Moncton room was unmistakable. The challenge now is execution. As Scott McCain told the crowd, a well-crafted study only matters if it gets put to work rather than left on a shelf.
Mills closed with a call to action. Read the report, pick the recommendations you support and advocate for them. Business owners should speak up publicly, and anyone can contact their MLA and MP to ask what they plan to do. The business community, he says, has been too quiet for too long.
To learn more, visit the Atlantic Economic Panel’s website. https://aep-peca.ca/en/home/
Watch the two part video series here: