On this episode of the Insights Podcast, our guest is Greg Simpson, the President & CEO of Liverpool, NS based Mersey Seafoods, a company most would know very little about. Mersey Foods was founded in 1964 by a dentist, Dr. Bill Murphy and a group of likeminded businesspeople. It was started to replace a fish plant that had been destroyed by fire and has since become one of Atlantic Canada's largest privately owned seafood companies. The family continues to be privately held by the Murphy family. The company has 700 employees and its own fishing fleet and one of its ships can catch up to 10 million shrimp in a day. The company recently acquired additional scallop quota, raising its share of quota to 13 percent. The company is becoming vertically integrated with its own processing facilities, retail and wholesale operations. The company recently acquired the well-known Fisherman's Market and has plans to expand that business. They recently acquired the Shelburne Ship Repair facility, driving growth on the marine repair side of the business. It is a remarkable business success story that few will be aware of.

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt joined Don and David on the Insights podcast this week. She is the province’s 35th premier and, while only been on the job for three months, is already facing an unexpected challenge, the threat of a prolonged trade war with the United States. We talk about a wide range of issues from health care to immigration and long term economic development. One interesting topic discussed is her focus on empowering the Cabinet. Increasingly in New Brunswick and across Canada, decision making has been more and more centered in the Premier’s/Prime Minister’s Office. It looks like Premier Holt wants to let her Ministers play a more important role. For almost 20 years we have been talking about developing an electronic health record system for all New Brunswickers. She seems convinced her government will finally get it done. Municipal tax reform, housing and energy development are also covered in this conversation. Well worth an hour of your time.

Vision 2025 was an event held last week at the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub focussed on the growing opportunities for the life sciences and bio-science sector in Nova Scotia and featured presentations from four companies in this space including Oberland Agriscience and 3DBioFibR. The event was co-sponsored by GreenSpring BioInnovation Hub, IGNITE Atlantic and Life Sciences Nova Scotia. David and Don were the keynote speakers at the event and recorded a live podcast with Doug Jones, the Founder and CEO of Ignite as the guest host for the podcast, where they discussed the opportunities and challenges associated with growing this segment of the economy.