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A former New Brunswick premier says a newly proposed single economy for Atlantic Canada is needed to save a region he described as a “burning platform.”
Frank McKenna, who served as Liberal premier from 1987 to 1997, made the comment as a panel of business leaders said the four Atlantic provinces should work together on economic transformation.
The Atlantic Economic Panel in a detailed report released Friday said it could become one of the country’s most prosperous regions if it leverages its workforce and resources as one economy.
The seven panellists warned, however, that the report would be worthless unless the provincial governments, businesses and residents of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island take action.
McKenna, who is also a former ambassador to the United States, said the premiers should indeed be motivated for change due to ongoing provincial budget deficits and damage from the Canada-U.S. trade war.
“We have a burning platform that will ensure there’s broad-based public support for really ambitious initiatives,” McKenna told The Canadian Press on the sidelines of the economic report’s release in Riverview, N.B.
The panel’s report says the region’s economy is now suffering from low productivity, labour shortages and complex regulations and trade barriers that prevent businesses from being nimble.
As a result, the Atlantic region is not growing as quickly as other parts of the Canada, and it has the country’s most rapidly aging workforce.
David Dingwall, president of Cape Breton University, said that population growth is the single most important issue facing the region amid labour shortages.
“We have an aging population, more deaths than births, and nearly twice as many seniors as children,” Dingwall, also the vice-chancellor, said in a statement.
Dingwall criticized the federal government’s move to limit the number of international students let into Canada over the past two years, saying they’re needed if the economy is to grow.
“They become health care professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, engineers, and technology leaders who strengthen our communities and help meet critical workforce needs,” he said.
“When they choose to build their lives here after graduation, our communities become stronger, our workforce grows, and our economy benefits.”
Among the many recommendations listed in a 181-page report, the Atlantic Economic Panel says the goal is to bring the provinces together to function as one economy for its 2.7 million residents, while maintaining their own governments.
Each Atlantic province would be required to remove all trade and labour mobility barriers, a process that has already started, and present every major investment opportunity through a single, regional investment platform.
The panel’s one-economy strategy calls for delivering at least half of all major infrastructure projects through regional partnerships, and a workforce strategy is needed to ensure workers’ credentials are recognized across the region, the report says.
It also recommends creating a regional independent operator to run an integrated electricity system, doubling the number of businesses exporting to global markets, and doubling exports to Europe — among others.
McKenna said it’s “doable” but also urgent — adding that he’ll be pushing for political and business leaders to see the recommendations through.
“They’ve got a bit of a gift here, and it’s up to them to accept the baton that’s been passed to them and finish the race.”
Sean Fraser, the federal minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency who commissioned the report in November 2025, agrees the time is now for the change the panellists call for.
“Our ambition can’t be limited by our provincial borders. We have an opportunity to transform our enormous potential — at a time when the world is changing — into prosperity,” Fraser, a Nova Scotia member of Parliament, told reporters Friday.
“We have a choice to make: Do we want to try to cling to some version of the past that perhaps we remember more fondly than it existed at the time, or do we want to recognize that it’s not up to us as to whether or not the world changes?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2026.
Eli Ridder, The Canadian Press
