By Wendy Elliott
welliott@kingscountynews.ca
NovaNewsNow.com
Acadia University president Ray Ivany says the ebb and flow of the academic year on the Wolfville campus will allow him to lead the Nova Scotia Commission on Building our New Economy over the next 18 months.
“I’ll find a way to make it work,” Ivany responded when asked about the dual challenge.
“It’s a great group,” he said of his fellow commission members. “We have good staff too. They’re public servants who’ve been seconded.”
Overall, “it’s hugely important for the questions to be asked,” he stated, and the informal conversations around the provincial economy have already started.
Ivany expects a round of public consultations will take place around the province in February and March. With sufficient research, he is targeting an interim report for some time in April.
“There’s a lot of interest,” he said of the newly minted commission. “It resonates. Nova Scotians are smart people.”
Pointing to the example of a world-class ambulance business, Yarmouth’s Tri-Star Industries, Ivany said entrepreneurs see opportunities and seize on them.
“We’re not going to rest until we do get more (economic) activity.”
A Sydney native, Ivany became the 15th president of Acadia University in 2009. Previously chair of the Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, he has been a consultant and for seven years he ran the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC). Ivany has also been inducted into the Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO’s Hall of Fame.
