insight & evidence
Innovation posts by the Policy Wonks.
Who actually creates jobs, and why Nova Scotia’s policies are aimed at the wrong target By Bernard F. Miller KC, ICD.D There is a familiar sequence in Nova Scotia economic development that persists. A large employer signals that it is considering a location or relocation decision. Officials assemble a package. A payroll rebate is announced, denominated in jobs promised over a defined...
A concept from a Harvard Business Review article transformed a stagnant professional services firm. The same logic — put the people who do the work first, and growth follows — may be exactly what Nova Scotia’s economic policy has been missing. By Bernard F. Miller KC, ICD.D | Contributing to A Better Place Sometime around 2009, I was managing partner of a law...
by Peter Nicholson This essay updates a previous update posted June 26, 2025, and a paper of the same title published by the Public Policy Forum in December 2024 ( ). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Industrial Revolutionary makes the case that today’s unprecedented developments in artificial intelligence (AI) will drive a new era of global innovation and economic growth, comparable to the transformative shifts...
by Peter Nicholson – St. Francis Xavier University Convocation – May 4, 2025 Chancellor Mulroney, President Hakin, faculty, distinguished guests, proud families, and most of all, graduates—thank you for the honour of joining you on this never-to-be-forgotten milestone day. Taking inspiration from the motto of St. FX—Quaecumque Sunt Vera: Whatsoever things are true—I will talk today...
by Peter Nicholson In terms of growth of GDP per capita, Canada’s Maritimes ranks at the bottom among US States and Canadian Provinces. But the story less often told is how much the Maritime Provinces have converged toward the all-Canada average over the long run. The chart below shows that PEI has gone from 46% of the Canadian average GDP per capita in 1960 to 75% in 2016, and likely higher...
by Peter Nicholson Summary: The objective of the paper is to make the case for Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a “General Purpose Technology”—analogous in potential economic impact to revolutionary technologies of the past such as the steam engine, electricity, and the microchip which spawned the industrial revolutions that created the modern world. The theme is the potential of AI to reignite...
by Bernie Miller In May of 1994, Peter Drucker wrote a broad-ranging article for the Atlantic Monthly which he called The Age of Social Transformation weaving together observations which, 26 years later, seem remarkably prescient. One passage is worthy of special note: “The twenty-first century will surely be one of continuing social, economic and political turmoil and challenge, at least in its...
How Atlantic Canada Can Become an Energy Superpower By Peter Nicholson for public policy forum INTRODUCTION Less than 200 kilometres off the coast of Nova Scotia lies the fabled Sable Island, known to generations of seafarers as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, a testament to the countless ships that foundered on its shallow, sandy reefs. Famous for its unique herd of feral horses that have...
insight & evidence