Saint Mary’s scientists enter into five-year partnership with Atlantic Gold to research remediation of historic gold mine tailings in wetlands

Dr. Linda Campbell and Dr. Emily Chapman in their research lab at Saint Mary’s University.

Saint Mary’s University’s research into environmentally sustainable and cost-effective remediation of historic gold mine sites across Nova Scotia is receiving a boost in the form of a five-year partnership with Atlantic Gold, a wholly owned subsidiary of St Barbara Ltd, based in Australia.

 “St Barbara is a global gold company and is proud to own and operate the Atlantic Gold Operations in Nova Scotia,” says St Barbara Managing Director and CEO, Craig Jetson. “As we operate our business and care for our people, we are guided by our company commitments – including respecting the environment and stronger communities.

“At St Barbara doing the right thing is important to all of us. Saint Mary’s University’s research into environmentally sustainable and cost-effective remediation of historic gold mines across Nova Scotia is aligned with our commitments, including growing sustainably,” says Jetson.  “We believe in learning from the past to secure our future and look forward to seeing this philosophy applied in the important work being done by Saint Mary’s University.”

“This is a significant investment by St Barbara, reflecting the importance we place on finding solutions to actively manage and neutralise the impact of our mining operations, because we care about the environment and the planet,” says Jetson. “We have recently committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and are pleased to see our Atlantic Gold operations leading to deliver on this promise by 2025.We look forward to updates on the important work being done by the Saint Mary’s University team and thank them for their commitment to this project.”

The funding is part of a new five-year partnership between Saint Mary’s University and Atlantic Gold with the first payment of $200,000 being delivered late in 2020.

Tailings runoff in Montague.

There is a long history of gold mining in Nova Scotia, and methods used 100 years ago are now known to be damaging to the environment. The goal of the Saint Mary’s University research team, led by Dr. Linda Campbell, is to use its proven expertise from previous studies of former mine sites to develop a low-cost remediation strategy. This new strategy is designed to support the natural recovery of wetlands and shallow water environments impacted by 100-year-old contaminated tailings.

“I want to thank Atlantic Gold for their strategic partnership and financial investment in advancing world-leading research that benefits both our local and global communities,” says Saint Mary’s University President Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray. “This partnership is an exemplar of innovation with a community-centred approach. It addresses a challenge with an immediate local connection but with far-reaching national and international implications.”

The scope of the damage to the environment from abandoned gold mines is wide, encompassing 300 abandoned mines across the province in both remote areas and backyards. Contamination from the arsenic and mercury used in historic gold mining can adversely affect human health and present severe environmental contamination risks.

Dr. Linda Campbell

“Saint Mary’s University is proud to be a part of the solution when it comes to remediating the damage done by historic gold mining practices across the province,” says Saint Mary’s University Vice-President, Academic and Research, Dr. Malcolm Butler. “Dr. Linda Campbell and her team are employing innovative research to create remediation techniques that minimize the impact on the environment, wildlife and humans. This research has the potential for significant applications in Nova Scotia, the rest of Canada and the world.”

Mining in Nova Scotia began well before most environmental legislation, and untreated tailings were placed in wetlands and shallow-water areas. Over the subsequent decades, abandoned tailings were left in place, with limited natural recovery taking place. Research at Saint Mary’s completed in 2015-2019 shows that sediment samples from legacy gold-mine tailings in N.S. wetlands remain contaminated and are still severely toxic to aquatic invertebrates.

“We are currently wrangling with the consequences of decisions and actions made a long time ago,” says Dr. Linda Campbell. “Our goal is to ensure legacy arsenic and mercury contaminants will not continue to be a problem for Nova Scotians for another hundred years. We are looking forward to working with Atlantic Gold and our other collaborators to undertake the necessary research and development to help restore ecological vitality of impacted wetlands.”

Dr. Campbell is joined by Senior Project Research Manager Dr. Emily Chapman and a team of researchers that will look at new ways to remediate sites using more effective and less invasive techniques than traditional remediation methods. Those traditional methods can be destructive to the areas that need to be protected. A proof-of-concept study of a new method, which will use a thin layer of a reactive material, is promising in its ability to limit risks of legacy gold mine tailings without compromising wetland function. It is this approach that is being investigated by the research team.

Dr. Emily Chapman

“Wetlands are incredibly important ecosystems, and these sites need help to recover. It is about finding the right blend of ingredients that will reduce the mobility and toxicity of contaminants in the sediment, without adding so much material that wetlands are infilled and destroyed,” says Dr. Chapman. “Having worked on the development of innovative approaches for dealing with these risks for several years, I am pleased to see that this issue is getting some recognition.”

Remediation is a very expensive undertaking, with a 2019 estimate of $48 million to clean up the Crown land portion of two Nova Scotia legacy tailing sites. If proven effective, the new method proposed by Dr. Campbell and her team will have an immediate economic benefit as a more cost-effective, non-intrusive ecological and human health option for impacted wetlands across Nova Scotia and similar sites around the world.

Dr. Campbell is a professor in the School of the Environment at Saint Mary’s. In her research, she uses multi-disciplinary approaches to improve our understanding of anthropogenic and natural impacts in the environment, with a focus on aquatic ecosystems.

Atlantic Gold, a wholly owned subsidiary of St Barbara Ltd, operates the Moose River Gold Mine near Middle Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia, and is permitting three more mines along Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore. The Company is investing in a research partnership with Saint Mary’s University to explore the remediation of historic gold mine tailings in freshwater ecosystems.

Dr. Evangelia Tastsoglou recognized for research excellence

The 2020 recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Research is Dr. Evie Tastsoglou, Professor of Sociology.

Dr. Evangelia (Evie) Tastsoglou is the recipient of the 2020 President’s Award for Excellence in Research at Saint Mary’s, to be recognized during the virtual Winter Convocation ceremony on February 13.

A highly regarded leader in Sociology research, Dr. Tastsoglou has legal training and expertise spanning other fields such as Women and Gender Studies and International Development Studies. Much of her current research focuses on the urgent issue of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in migration.

Dr. Tastsoglou currently leads as principal investigator the Canadian research team of a major international research program that is analyzing causes and impacts of violence against women migrants and refugees, with a view to shaping effective policy to address it. Working “remotely yet at full speed,” her Canadian team of scholars at four institutions is supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The program was developed in response to a call from GENDER-NET Plus, a consortium of 16 organizations from 13 countries, aiming to strengthen transnational research while promoting gender equality through institutional change.

With a team of academics in Canada and Greece, Dr. Tastsoglou is also the principal investigator of a SSHRC-funded project, with preliminary results now in review for publication. This research seeks to understand gender-based violence and precarity “in the forced migration journeys of asylum-seeking women toward the EU through what is known as the Eastern Mediterranean route, in the tumultuous, second decade of the 21st century,” she says. “Our findings locate five points in this forced migration journey where precarity interweaves with violence, reinforcing one another, as well as show their gendered forms: border crossing, the asylum determination process, living conditions, services, and state response to GVB.”

Additionally, she is co-investigator in a project on the impacts of the pandemic on Canadians’ mental health, as analyzed through social media. Funded by NSERC Alliance COVID-19, the project includes industry partner Diversio and research teams from Dalhousie’s Faculty of Computer Science and Department of Psychiatry.

“This is a truly rewarding collaboration not only in terms of building substantive knowledge but also in pioneering interdisciplinary methodology that combines, with sociological input, machine learning methods applied to text mining, followed by qualitative analysis. Team members learn how to negotiate a common ‘language’ across very different disciplines,” says Dr. Tastsoglou.

Interdisciplinary approaches have always been vital to her research but the NSERC Alliance COVID-19 project is further expanding those horizons, she says. “My educational background is in law and sociology and although I appreciate the distinct lenses of the two disciplines, I consider them complementary in approaching complex social phenomena. This project takes me one step further in the direction of addressing research questions in the social sciences by using artificial intelligence methodologies to assist in coping with large amounts of text.”

Since arriving at Saint Mary’s in 1993, Professor Tastsoglou has served as a mentor for many undergraduate and graduate students. She was Chair of the former Department of Sociology and Criminology from 2006-2012. Cross-appointed since 2017 to the International Development Studies Program, she serves as its undergraduate coordinator.

“It has been a privilege to have spent most of my academic career working at Saint Mary’s University,” she says, adding she is deeply honoured to receive the research excellence award. “I have learnt and continue to learn a great deal from my colleagues and students. Working out of a smaller university has some unique advantages in terms of having less pressure to produce and more freedom to engage your passions, which can ultimately enrich both your work and life. I am very grateful to the Saint Mary’s community, which I have experienced as personable, caring and supportive throughout my career.”

Currently president of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association, Dr. Tastsoglou was proclaimed “Sociologist of the Month” by the international Current Sociology journal in July 2018, and received a Fulbright / Niarchos Fellowship in 2017. She was an elected member of the Research Council and Executive of the International Sociological Association (2014-2018), and former President of the ISA’s RC 32 (Research Committee on Women in Society (2006-2014). She is the single author, co-author, editor and co-editor of numerous publications, including 11 peer-reviewed volumes, in national and international venues.

Established in 1989, the annual President’s Award honours outstanding research conducted by a full-time faculty member at Saint Mary’s. Recipients must have a record of continued and exceptional contribution to research and scholarship, as well as national or international recognition as an authority in a major field of knowledge.

History graduate receives prestigious SSHRC scholarship

Alex Myrick

It’s an interesting time of transition for Alex Myrick, whose master’s level research is now evolving to the doctoral level.  

Myrick will graduate from Saint Mary’s with a Master of Arts degree in History on February 13. The M.A. program in the History department gave him a great foundation for his next steps: he’s already working on his PhD at the University of Ottawa – remotely from his current home in Halifax – and recently received a prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).  

In October, Myrick successfully defended his master’s thesis, titled ‘From Isolated Asylums to the Medical Mainstream: Psychiatry's Journey Towards Normalization within Somatic Medicine, 1900-1970’. His research focuses on the once isolated practice of psychiatry and how it became more integrated into medical schools and general hospitals. Psychiatry had been separated from general medicine and was mainly practised in overcrowded asylums up until the mid-twentieth century.

Myrick first became intrigued by the topic in 2017, during a journalism project in his undergraduate years at the University of King’s College. “I wanted to know how, as a society, we got to the point of a quiet crisis in mental health care, with an overburdened system,” he shares. “What intellectual ideas have created the system we live in today? I hope to at least understand how psychiatry and mental health care have developed over the century.” 

He concentrated his master’s research on the prominent  20th century psychiatrist Adolf Meyer, whose theory of psychobiology specified that the mind and body are indivisible aspects of the whole human organism. Through psychobiology, an individual’s health could be based on the premise that the body’s anatomical and physiological nervous apparatus work in conjunction with its mental activities and behaviours, and all are part of the human organism’s adaptive response to stimuli in their environment.

Meyer’s influence also extended to Nova Scotia’s medical history, which provided a case study in Myrick’s thesis. Dr. Robert O. Jones, a student of Meyer’s at John Hopkins University, developed a curriculum and post-graduate program for psychiatry at Dalhousie Medical School. Jones became an advocate for Meyerian ideas in the province while teaching the specifics of Meyer’s approaches to psychiatry and medicine. Through Jones and his work, psychiatry was established as a discipline on par with other medical specialties in Nova Scotia.

Myrick is expanding the scope of analysis for his doctoral research to include other Canadian cities that saw psychiatry integrated into their health care systems between 1900 and 1970. He will also further examine the debates among psychiatrists and “the rest of medicine” over psychiatric treatment in hospitals.  

He is delighted to be the recipient of a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. This will provide federal funding of $35,000 annually for three years of his PhD program.

“The funding frees up so much financial stress,” says Myrick. “The nature of the scholarships means that I can focus entirely on my research. With this funding I also hope to travel to the United States or England to visit the institutions where Meyer’s students worked.”

Saint Mary's science researcher part of global soil biodiversity network

Dr. Erin Cameron

Dr. Erin Cameron, Saint Mary’s researcher and professor in the Department of Environmental Science, is a co-author of a just-published paper in Science Magazine titled “Tracking, Targeting, and Conserving Soil Biodiversity.”  

This international project follows a paper Cameron authored in Conservation Biology last year, which determined that there are mismatches between aboveground and soil biodiversity globally, and thus protecting aboveground diversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity.

“We are working on building a global biodiversity network focusing specifically on soil,” says Cameron. “Tracking the biodiversity of soil is an important part of global environmental conservation work, and this is a long-term project that’s just beginning.” 

“There is still a lot to discover about soil biodiversity and how human activities are impacting it. Organisms that live in the soil are a vital part of a functioning ecosystem.”  

Cameron also had a paper published as the cover story in Science Magazine last year, in which she explained her work studying the global diversity and biogeography of earthworms. 

CFI funded CANREB project for rare isotopes rolls to success

The EBIS in the TRIUMF clean room. From left to right: Rituparna Kanungo; Christopher Charles; Paige Harford; Saint Mary’s Vice President Academic and Research, Malcolm Butler; Brad Schultz, and Mathieu Cavenaile.

A partnership between Saint Mary's University, TRIUMF, and the University of Manitoba for the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) project CANREB, has borne significant fruit when it comes to radioactive isotope research.

Saint Mary's University leads this national CFI project for rare isotope research at Canada's particle accelerator centre, TRIUMF in Vancouver, British Columbia. On December 6, 2020, the CANREB (CANadian Rare isotope facility with Electron Beam ion source) team of scientists and engineers achieved a major milestone accelerating for the first time a radioactive isotope beam through the CANREB facility and delivered to the IRIS experiment in the ISAC-II experimental hall. The IRIS facility is also a SMU-led CFI project that unveils the secrets of the rare isotopes with nuclear reactions.

"CANREB opens an exciting new era for exploring the rare isotopes in nature. It enables the capacity to accelerate, with high-purity, high-mass isotopes," says Rituparna Kanungo, Principal Investigator for the CANREB project, Professor of Physics at Saint Mary's University and a TRIUMF Affiliate Scientist. "CANREB unlocks new opportunities for research and the training of students and postdocs from across Canada and around the world. The project has been a strong team effort from its conception to its realization. I am thankful to everyone in the team for making CANREB a success story."

The first beam – copper-59, at a charge state of +19 – was manoeuvred through a multifaceted sequence of several complex state-of-the-art, custom built components that were all designed by the CANREB team.

The Radio Frequency Quadrupole at the CANREB beamline.
From left to right: Rituparna Kanungo, Paige Harford, Brad Schultz, Friendhelm Ames, and Mathieu Cavenaile.

A key element of the successful beam delivery and the final piece to be commissioned in the CANREB puzzle was the electron beam ion source (EBIS) – a special device for enhancing the electrical charge ("charge-breeding") of isotopes.  It was developed in collaboration with researchers at the Max Planck Institute für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany.

“I am proud to be a part of this exciting project,” says Saint Mary’s University Ph.D. student Mathieu Cavenaile who is working at TRIUMF on studying charge breeding of rare isotopes with the EBIS. “It is a tremendous opportunity to be working at TRIUMF with the highly skilled team.”

"We were particularly happy to record the successful function of the EBIS in terms of charge-breeding a high-purity radioactive isotope beam," said Friedhelm Ames, CANREB project coordinator, TRIUMF Scientist and Adjunct Faculty of Saint Mary’s University. "This was the first real test of the full system using a radioactive beam similar to those that we expect to be soon delivering to ISAC science experiments: a charge-bred, intense beam with very low levels of impurities. CANREB's beam delivery system functioned as expected, which is a tremendous achievement for the many hard-working teams that have contributed to its deployment."

“The CANREB project recognizes that the universities are integral partners to TRIUMF,” says Malcolm Butler, Vice President Academic and Research, Saint Mary’s University. “It has showcased TRIUMF’s role as a national laboratory in supporting opportunities for researchers from universities with good ideas to lead and bring exciting discoveries out from the lab.”

The High Resolution Separator (HRS) and part of the CANREB team.
Photo Credit : Stuart Shepherd, TRIUMF

“This success is a testament to the people in the team and the broader TRIUMF community,” says Jonathan Bagger, Director of TRIUMF. “Completion of the CANREB facility represents an essential step towards building the TRIUMF of the future.”

“It is a fantastic to see the CANREB infrastructure come together, a great achievement of the whole team,” says Reiner Kruecken, Deputy Director of Research at TRIUMF. “We can now really start exploiting this innovative infrastructure for exciting science and I am happy to be a part of that myself.”

The inaugural beam of copper-59, originated in TRIUMF's ISAC target station and was the first radioactive beam to undergo charge breeding with CANREB and be post accelerated through to ISAC-II. At the IRIS experiment a snapshot of the beam was seen through the lens of energy deposited in a gas-filled detector.  In nature, copper-59 is among the many radioactive isotopes whose reactions power astrophysical phenomena like X-ray bursts and could potentially contribute to the creation of some heavy elements. Using such beams at TRIUMF, researchers directly or indirectly such processes in the laboratory to gain insight on nature’s working.

This has been a remarkable achievement, especially during this globally challenging year with the pandemic, further showcasing the well-coordinated capacity of the CANREB team. As a tough year ended with a happy note of success, the team is looking forward to gearing up on further advancement of the project.

The CANREB project is thankful for research funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust, the Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund. It was also supported by TRIUMF's commercialization arm, TRIUMF Innovations and TRIUMF.  

A screenshot of the CANREB virtual celebration on December 11. Credit: Stu Shepherd/Rituparna Kanungo

SMU researchers look at impact of COVID-19 on communities in Nova Scotia

A glimpse at the report’s title page.

A new study from a Saint Mary’s University-based research team into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nova Scotia’s communities was released today, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. 

“What this research shows is communities coming together to help each other during a time of need,” says Dr. Tony Charles, a professor at Saint Mary’s University and the director of the Community Conservation Research Network. “The study reinforces what we already know about our communities, that they are resilient and can find community-based solutions to many problems. And for larger problems, they know the solutions needed but may need outside assistance to enact them.” 

When the pandemic came to Nova Scotia, Dr. Charles and his team were already looking at Nova Scotian communities, the issues they are facing, and their plans for the future. For each of 50 communities, they spoke to individuals in the community as well as elected municipal officials. When the pandemic appeared in 2020, the team decided to try to learn more about COVID-19 impacts and responses in communities.  

“We heard from people how very fortunate they felt to live in places that nourished them in so many ways – communities that rallied by reaching out and checking on one another, and supporting those who were more vulnerable,” adds Libby Dean, one of the researchers on the team.  

The study showed that all communities felt at least some impacts of the pandemic on their economic activities and social well-being. Sixty-seven percent of communities said they faced at least some moderate economic implications. Seventy-seven percent said there were social impacts, with 42 percent of communities feeling extremely affected by social and economic impacts. Environmental impacts of the pandemic ranged widely, with about a third of communities seeing little or no impact, a third noticing a low or modest impact, and one-third feeling environmental impacts were moderate to extreme.  

Of social impacts, the top ones identified were employment (listed by 58 percent of respondents), social and recreational activities (54 percent) and schools/schooling (50 percent). Of the top three impacts of the pandemic on economic sectors, most affected was the tourism industry (61 percent of respondents), followed by education/research (48 percent) and retail activities (39 percent). 

“The work of Dr. Charles and his team exemplifies one of the key pillars of research at Saint Mary’s University—working with our local communities to provide expert advice to address regional and global challenges,” says Dr. Adam J. Sarty, associate vice-president, Research and dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. 

“One thing that was clear from the survey was the importance of community-based groups to facilitate community solutions and responses,” says Dr. Charles. “Some of the themes noted in responses include access to services, financial aid, social connections, food security and volunteerism. In many cases, these responses were recognized as already an inherent part of the way of life in their community.”  

The community-based responses included supporting various services no longer as easily accessible, such as groceries and water, and dealing with concerns around food security and access, specifically for children and seniors. Communities also took action to address the need for social connections, such as through virtual religious services, take-out community dinners, and support for regional food banks and local community halls.  

Among the highlighted needs that communities require support to address was access to technology and, specifically, the internet. Much of what is being done now regarding education, recreation, arts, and even food services require robust and consistent internet access, which is a challenge in many -communities across the province.  

“Despite the uncertainty and the challenges, that sense of community is a strength for Nova Scotia,” says Dr. Charles. “While the forecast is not clear, strong communities help to weather all storms.”  

The research survey summary, Nova Scotian Communities & COVID-19: Challenges and resilience, was prepared by Dr. Tony Charles, Larissa Sweeney, Libby Dean, and Rebecca Zimmerman. For more information about the survey or to read the summary report, click here.

Saint Mary’s students benefiting from Mitacs Accelerate Program experience

Dr. Hugo Medeiros, postdoctoral fellow

Graduate student Tabatha Thibault

Graduate student Daniel Meagher

The Mitacs Accelerate program allows Saint Mary’s University students to test their skills in a professional environment and earn the experience they need to thrive. Four Saint Mary’s student who participating share how they benefited from their Mitacs sponsored internships.

Graduate student Tabatha Thibault gained the confidence to assert herself as an expert in her field.

“I was applying exactly what I’ve been taught for four years,” says Thibault, who recentlyrecently started a second internship with Air Institutes. “It's helped me realize that I do have valuable skills and knowledge--that I have something to bring to the table.

Dr. Hugo Medeiros’s internship at Port Hawkesbury Paper helped him as a professional and as a newcomer, as he was able to practice his skills and improve his English.

“I now have work experience in Canada, which is important for a new immigrant, and a network outside of the academic setting. I have an opportunity to get a job that I don't know I would have without this internship,” says Dr. Dediros, postdoctoral fellow.

Even though his studies are focused on geology, graduate student Daniel Meagher jumped on the opportunity to challenge himself at an internship outside of his field at Dillon Consulting.

“It was a good opportunity to get something that was out of my comfort zone and expand my options. I could look into environmental jobs now as well as mining and exploration,” says Meagher.

After his internship at Clinical Logistics, Sree Babu Nukarapu, an M.Sc. in Computing & Data Analytics grad, says his profile became more appealing to recruiters.

“It has helped me gain expertise in the Canadian market, made me a much more confident person, and it has helped me prove my passion for analytics. I was able to secure a job at an MNC in Halifax,” says Sree.

For more information about the Mitacs Accelerate program, click here.

SMU named among top 50 Research Universities in Canada: Research Impact and Funding Rises

The impact of Saint Mary’s University’s research continues to rise, according to a new report released this week detailing Canada’s top 50 research universities.  

“Saint Mary’s continues to maintain a strong position among Canada’s top 50 research universities,” says Dr. Adam J. Sarty, associate vice-president, Research and Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. “The university shows continued excellent performance and growth in obtaining external research funding with an 18 percent growth in external research income compared to the year prior. It brings the university up to $10 million in external research funding, to rank 8th among other Canadian undergraduate universities.” 

The report comes from Research Infosource Inc., which releases a yearly list titled Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities. This year, Saint Mary’s ranked 48th overall and saw its ranking under ‘publication impact’ rise from 41st to 20th overall. 

“This strong growth in external research funding, coupled with the powerful impact of our research publications, continues to tell the story of Saint Mary’s University professors who are conducting top-level research,” says Dr. Sarty. “They are achieving research success while balancing a mission that is also dedicated to excellence in undergraduate education and support of select graduate programming.” 

Eight universities in Atlantic Canada were featured on the list, posting a combined research income of $408.9 million in Fiscal 2019. It marks a growth of 19.7 percent for Atlantic Canada in 2019, far surpassing the national increase of 5.7 percent. Saint Mary’s had the third-highest gain of all Atlantic universities. In Fiscal 2019, Atlantic universities accounted for 5% of the national research income total, up from 4% in Fiscal 2018. 

For more information on Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities list, visit https://researchinfosource.com/top-50-research-universities/2020. 

Supporting resilience and recovery focus of two new initiatives from the SMU Entrepreneurship Centre

960 Tower Road: Home of the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre (SMUEC) and the SMU Language Centre.

The Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre (SMUEC) is expanding its investment in the economic recovery and resilience of Nova Scotia with two new initiatives to support businesses and entrepreneurs amidst the pandemic.

“Saint Mary’s is known for our positive impact on the Atlantic economy through education, research, successful alumni, and our entrepreneurship centre helping people grow their businesses,” says Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray, President of Saint Mary’s University.  “As businesses closed due to COVID-19 to protect the health of our community, people’s livelihoods were in jeopardy. As a result, our entrepreneurship centre expanded its services. Now they are doing so again to help those directly impacted by the pandemic and to gather the information needed to build new programs and data-driven policy.”

The two new initiatives from SMUEC are an entrepreneurship certificate and research survey, which focus on the impacts of COVID-19 on business and entrepreneurship.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset Success Certification - COVID-19 Career Resilience Edition is a certificate made up of eight online workshops. It supports individuals who have found themselves unemployed or unable to find employment due to COVID-19. The certificate takes a customized approach to provide relevant skills training and exposure to entrepreneurship to help individuals feel prepared to re-enter a new and changed job market, return to work, or start their own business. Seven career experts from Job Junction, ISANS and the Career Service Centre of Sobey Business School act as mentors for the participants and deliver the workshops.  Registration is now open, and the workshops will run from Jan. 15 to Feb. 5, 2021.

The centre is also is studying the impacts of COVID-19 on Atlantic Canadian business through the COVID-19 Business Impact Survey. This longitudinal survey will collect quantitative and qualitative data using phone interviews and online surveys until the end of 2021. The main areas of interest are the use of government support, main challenge areas, and the tactics that businesses employ to respond to the specific challenges faced by their industries.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the centre has focused on two questions: how can they support businesses and entrepreneurs to be resilient enough to weather this storm? And how can they help them recover?

The centre’s first step was to expand their free business coaching sessions with the help of their new entrepreneur-in-residence, prominent alumna and successful serial entrepreneur Shannon Byrne Susko BComm’89 BSc’92. A series of presentations and workshops on various topics supplemented those sessions. Then came the launch of the Sobey School of Business’s Sobey Community Revitalization & Prosperity Network, of which SMUEC was an active participant. Now the centre's focus is on collecting the data needed to inform future pandemic business policy and a new initiative working with those who have found themselves unemployed due to COVID-19.

“We know the importance of evidence-based decision making. That is why we are gathering the information needed for policymakers and program developers like ourselves to best support the business sector during the pandemic,” says Michael Sanderson, Director of the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre. "On the opposite end of that sector-wide view is the immediate impact the pandemic has had on employment. By adapting our existing Entrepreneurial Mindset Success Certification, we can help directly with the immediate recovery while keeping an eye on data-informed methods to increase resiliency for the long-term." 

For more information about the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre and its initiatives, visit https://smuec.ca/.

Dr. Skye Stephens receives New Health Investigator Grant from Research Nova Scotia

Dr. Skye Stephens

Saint Mary’s University researcher Dr. Skye Stephens is receiving a New Health Investigator Grant from Research Nova Scotia. Dr. Stephens is one of 21 recipients across Nova Scotia receiving funding for new health research.

The New Health Investigator Grant supports new health researchers engaged in work that aligns with Nova Scotia’s health research priorities. The grant aims to provide two years of support of up to $100,000 for researchers who are within the first five years of their academic appointment in Nova Scotia or who are new to the field of health research. For the 2020-21 academic year, funding for this grant comes from the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness.

“There has never been a greater need to support new health researchers in Nova Scotia to help inform practice, policy and decision making,” says Stefan Leslie, CEO of Research Nova Scotia. “Today, we’re pleased to announce funding for these researchers and are confident their work will positively impact the health of Nova Scotians.”

Funding provided will support the establishment of independent research programs, support and expand the research productivity necessary for obtaining long-term funding from national and external agencies and expand the potential for early-career investigators to make significant contributions in their field.

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Project title: The Feasibility of a Program for the Prevention of Childhood Sexual Abuse.

Project description: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a universal public health problem impacting 18% of girls and 8% of boys worldwide. Children are overrepresented as victims of sexual abuse, as 56% of police-reported sexual assaults in Nova Scotia involved victims under 18. Rates of sexual abuse in Nova Scotia are above the national Canadian average. CSA contributes to a significant disease burden, as it connects to a wide range of adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Effective prevention programs could stop CSA from occurring in the first place and prevent adverse health outcomes. In Nova Scotia, a significant gap in prevention programming is delivering comprehensive mental health services to individuals who may be at risk of CSA perpetration. Previous research has suggested that there are individuals who have not offended but struggle to stay offence free and experience mental health challenges. Through her research, Dr. Skye Stephens and the team aim to enhance capacity to provide CSA prevention programming in Nova Scotia by exploring development barriers. Knowledge gained during this study will lay the groundwork for developing and evaluating a prevention program that could reduce the occurrence of CSA and associated adverse health outcomes. Overall, the project could increase the health and safety of Nova Scotians by proactively addressing risk factors for CSA perpetration.

Team members: Etta Brodersen, Loren Klein, Angela Connors, Christina Shaffer, Amy Ornstein, Ray MacNeil, Ian McPhail, Jamie Livingston & Ainslie Heasman

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Research projects span a broad range of topics, including diabetes, cancer and dementia care, pre-term infant gut health, and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a complete list of recipients and projects, visit https://researchns.ca/new-health-investigator-grant-recipients/.

Stayers and leavers: new SMU research looks closely at immigration in Nova Scotia

Dr. Ather Akbari

Who immigrates to Nova Scotia, who stays, leaves, and why is the focus of a recently released report from Dr. Ather Akbari, a professor with Saint Mary’s University’s Sobey School of Business. 

The report, Immigration in Nova Scotia: Who Comes, Who Stays, Who Leaves and Why?, was prepared for the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration. Its main purpose was to investigate why immigrants choose Nova Scotia as their destination in Canada and why some stay in the province while others leave.   

“Evidence-based research is important for policymakers to make the best decisions for Nova Scotians. They need to have a clear picture of what attracts immigrants to this province and what is their experience,” says Dr. Akbari. “My research helps to form a picture of the Nova Scotian immigrant experience, the successes and the areas that may need some changes.”  

This report marks the third report in a series of research reports. The first project report used 2016 Canadian Census data to study general mobility patterns of Nova Scotia immigrants. The second report presented a literature review on mobility motivations of individuals and their location choice. This third and final report analyzed the results of an online survey of 2,815 immigrants, representing a total of about 28,600 who arrived in Canada during 2011-2018 with either the intention to go to Nova Scotia or who lived in Nova Scotia at some point during the eight-year period. Focus group interviews were also held in Nova Scotia, Alberta and Ontario. 

When it comes to stayers and leavers, approximately 74 percent of immigrants who had arrived during 2011-2018 were still living in the province or 21,210 in total.  

“I think the most validating find for many Nova Scotians from this report is the positive comments from both immigrants who stayed and those who left, on the quality of life in our province and community safety,” says Dr. Akbari. “Both of these areas received the top satisfaction ratings from both those who stayed and those who left. When comparing Nova Scotia with other provinces, the top two features that received better ratings for Nova Scotia were community safety and cost of accommodation. If we can leverage these with increased employment opportunities and employer involvement in the immigration process, there is a real opportunity to continue to increase the immigration retention rate.”  

The main reason respondents gave for having left the province or for their intention to leave were to seek better employment opportunities.

The survey data indicates that economic opportunity is the most pervasive factor that encourages immigrants to remain in Nova Scotia. Many immigrants who leave Nova Scotia mention economic opportunities as the main reason they left. Many also note they reluctantly decided to go as they miss the positive social interactions and other aspects of living in the province. Opportunities are mainly related to finding a job and extending to finding the right position, or one that fits their level of education, skills and experience. 

The report recommends that immigrant attraction should focus on economic immigrants who come with their families. For their settlement and integration, employer involvement such as in the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program, is an important step taken at federal and provincial levels. Initiatives to strengthen immigrants’ social connectedness by encouraging volunteering, sports and recreation activities can also help raise their and their family’s satisfaction with living in Nova Scotia. 

Dr. Akbari is the Chair of Atlantic Research Group on Economics of Immigration, Aging and Diversity (ARGEIAD). To read this report, or learn more about ARGEIAD, visit https://smu.ca/centres-and-institutes/atlantic-research-group.html.

SMU students lauded for Remembrance Day research

A Canadian diplomat has expressed appreciation for the work of a Saint Mary’s Geography class, following his participation in Remembrance Day ceremonies in West Africa.  

Sébastien Beaulieu, Ambassador-Designate to The Gambia, travelled this week to pay special tribute to 10 Royal Canadian Air Force servicemen who are buried at the Fajara Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery. The airmen died in 1942 while serving with the 200 RAF Squadron and one had a Nova Scotia connection: Warrant Officer Basil Ralph Yorke was from Cumberland County.

It’s the first time an official Canadian delegation has honoured the fallen airmen. “Attending the ceremonies in person this week was important to me,” Ambassador Beaulieu said in an email exchange with Saint Mary’s.

“I find it very moving, as Canada's representative to The Gambia, that the many personal bonds between our two countries includes the fate of these brave Canadians from B.C. to Nova Scotia who died so far away from home, in WWII,” he said. “The research and field work of the students from Saint Mary's, led by Dr. Cathy Conrad, which was conducted in 2018, has helped connect the dots and contributed to ensure that these Canadians continue to be properly honoured and remembered.”

In the fall of 2018, Dr. Conrad’s Geography International Field School class did a lot of prep work in advance of their trip to The Gambia. They planned to honour Gambian veterans in a local Remembrance Day ceremony during their stay in Banjul, not realizing at first that Canadians were also buried in the cemetery. A flurry of research here on campus and during their trip helped them piece together a largely forgotten chapter of history that took place nearly 80 years ago.

The fallen airmen had served as part of an effort to supply troops in Northern Africa, and to combat German U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean. When Conrad and her students visited the gravesite, they generated quite a lot of media attention in Banjul and Halifax. They also met Sharon Wardle, then British High Commissioner to The Gambia, who shared photos of the students that day on her Twitter site.

“This is how the Canadian Ambassador learned of us,” recalls Conrad. “He emailed me to learn more and we have remained in contact ever since. I can only hope that we will be able to meet with him in the future on West African soil.”

Beaulieu, who grew up in Moncton, shared his own Remembrance Day highlights this week on his Twitter site at @Beaulieu_CAN. “As a fellow Maritimer, I'm so pleased to witness the rich connections between The Gambia and Canada, and the ties with Nova Scotia in particular,” he said.

Conrad plans to offer the next Gambia field school next fall, if COVID-19 travel restrictions allow by then. She’s hoping to forge new connections between Saint Mary’s and the University of the Gambia, and also to assist with plans for a commemorative plaque at the site where a Canadian warplane went down.

“I’m very grateful for my students who were so vigilant in connecting the pieces of our WWII history in The Gambia, and for participating in a wreath laying ceremony two years ago,” says Dr. Conrad. “They should feel enormous pride in the fact that a Canadian Ambassador went this year, acknowledging their work. Although we wish we could have been there to attend with him this year (as was the pre-COVID plan), the fact that he reached out to us to recognize our efforts is greatly appreciated.”