Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members. On behalf of the Cape Breton Partnership I would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
The Cape Breton Partnership is Cape Breton's private sector-led economic development organization, made up of more than 150 private sector investors who are all committed to investing in our island's future and believe that, by working together, we can create a thriving Cape Breton-Unama'ki.
Cape Breton, or Unama'ki, as the Mi'kmaq have called it for centuries, is a breathtakingly beautiful island in northeastern Nova Scotia. It makes up about a third of Nova Scotia's land mass and about 14% of its population at just over 132,000 people spread across five municipalities and five first nations.
The story of Cape Breton's last century is a familiar one in North America. For more than 100 years, the coal and steel industries boomed, turning Cape Breton-Unama'ki into one of the most bustling industrial centres in the country. This was followed, however, by a prolonged decline and a near simultaneous collapse of the fishing, coal and steel industries over the last few decades, and the impact has been devastating. Unemployment, poverty and youth outmigration have all soared, seeing the island's population drop by over 30% in the last 30 years.
However, this history also includes the longer, more constant story of entrepreneurship and innovation that has allowed diverse cultures to thrive on the island for centuries: from the Mi'kmaq to the European farmers and fishers, especially the Gaelic-speaking Scots and French-speaking Acadians who settled on the island and had to rely on their wits and hard work to carve out prosperous lives; from later arrivals like the inventor Alexander Graham Bell who, with his wife Mabel, established one of the first innovation hubs in the world at Beinn Bhreagh in Baddeck; to the host of extraordinary artists and thinkers who have called Cape Breton-Unama'ki home ever since.
I am here today, most of all, to share with you the news that this spirit of invention and creativity continues to thrive in Cape Breton-Unama'ki in the numerous cutting-edge businesses, innovators and artists who live and work on the island, including in Victoria County, which has the highest number of small businesses per capita in all of Nova Scotia. Like Alexander and Mabel Bell, these entrepreneurs are creating and growing companies, products, technologies and works of art that continue to serve and change the world.
After decades of being defined by decline and despair, Cape Breton-Unama'ki is reinventing itself and is poised to become one of Canada's good-news stories and serve as a model for how small, out o the way places can become well-connected incubators and launch pads for world-changing ideas. Cape Breton-Unama'ki is “creative island”. It's potential is unlimited.
To fully realize Cape Breton-Unama'ki's immense potential and the potential of other regions like ours across the country to contribute to our collective and ongoing prosperity, we invite our federal partners to work with us and others to, first, continue to address connectivity infrastructure gaps like broadband Internet and cellular service, as well as rail, road and sea transportation. These service gaps limit businesses' ability to connect with the rest of the world, and rural communities' ability to attract and retain much-needed new residents.
Second, we invite our federal partners to work with organizations like ours, the provinces and others to better coordinate and communicate business support programs and services directly to the private sector through initiatives like program navigators or concierge services. Cape Breton Partnership's export growth service pilot program is one such example, as well as the Atlantic immigration pilot initiative, on which we've been working with the Nova Scotia office of immigration as well as our partners at ACOA.
Third, we invite our federal partners to work with organizations like ours, the provinces and other innovation ecosystem stakeholders to foster greater regional and subregional collaboration among businesses and partners to allow the small innovative businesses, like those working to lead the modernization of the fishery in We'koqma'q, New Haven or Louisbourg, for instance, to contribute to greater national and international efforts. This includes reducing barriers in policy and programs that limit small rural businesses participating in federal programs like the Atlantic fisheries fund and others.
Last, we invite our federal partners to join us and those like our 150 private sector investors, who are putting their own hard-earned money into building a better future for Cape Breton-Unama'ki and all of Canada, in taking bold, coordinated and long-term looking action, action that is looking 10 years into the future and beyond and is focused on supporting entrepreneurs, innovators and small and medium-sized businesses where they live, and on helping them start strong, reach the world more easily and build a better country for us all, from the grassroots up.
I would like to thank you very much for your time, and I would be happy to answer any questions.