Business Innovation Summit in Rural Nova Scotia
Business and community leaders from across the province will gather in Truro today, May 7, to celebrate new and better ways of doing things.
About 150 Nova Scotians will attend the Planting Seeds Innovation Summit at Nova Scotia Community College's (NSCC) Truro campus, showcasing business innovation in key sectors like agriculture and food.
TruLeaf is one of the businesses that will share its entrepreneurial story. Founder Gregg Curwin, of Halifax, and team started growing vegetables indoors in 2011. Now the company has two high-tech farms, in Bible Hill, Colchester Co. and Guelph, Ont., supplying millions of pounds of fresh produce to grocery stores each year.
TruLeaf, and spinoff company GoodLeaf, also have a strategic partnership with McCain. That partnership is helping both businesses push further into Atlantic Canada and Ontario while continuing to grow in Bible Hill.
“Planting seeds in rural Nova Scotia has really worked for us,” said Jeff McKinnon, vice-president and chief financial officer of TruLeaf and GoodLeaf. “Our story, our growth, our sales and our connection to McCain demonstrate what’s possible when you see a problem, identify a solution and relentlessly pursue it.”
“It is great to see companies like TruLeaf pushing forward and doing it from Colchester County,” said Brennan Gillis, CEO of the Truro and Colchester Partnership for Economic Prosperity. “We need to keep working together to drive innovation in new and traditional sectors and support the people that are taking risks.”
Government continues to work with NSCC, Cape Breton University, Cape Breton Partnership, Halifax Partnership, Dalhousie University and others to drive innovation, increase the number of high-growth companies and build stronger networks of support for entrepreneurs across the province.
Government also continues to create the conditions for more businesses to start and grow by reducing the cost of incorporating a new company to the lowest level in the country, investing in business competitions for new and emerging ideas and encouraging individuals, corporations and registered venture capital funds to invest in homegrown companies through new tax incentives.
"Nova Scotia has great economic potential and we need to keep working together to grow our economy, increase the number of high-growth companies and create jobs," said Business Minister Geoff MacLellan. "By working together, we can build a stronger economic foundation for people to live, work and do business here, for the benefit all Nova Scotians."