Our guest on this episode of the Insights Podcast is Marie Mullally, the CEO of CUA. CUA is one of the largest credit unions in Atlantic Canada. There are more than 300,000 credit union members in Atlantic Canada. Credit unions have their roots in small communities. In the case of CUA, it started as a credit union for dockyard workers in Halifax, growing to $1.2 billion in assets under management and offering most, if not all, of the services of the major banks in Canada. Credit unions are cooperatives, owned by their members and serving those members as customers. Mullally provides an excellent overview of the advantages and limitations of being much smaller than banks while still offering the same suite of services. It is an interesting look at a unique segment of Canada's financial services market and is highly educational.

Our guest on this week’s episode of the Insights Podcast is Dallas McCready, President & CEO of Atlantic Lottery Corporation. Atlantic Lottery is a collaboration between the four Atlantic Provinces that provides gaming services across the region. Dallas discusses the organization’s mandate and economic impact as it celebrates 50 years in operation. He also discusses the lottery’s expansion into online gaming and sports betting, and how to ensure responsible gaming is maintained in the virtual world.

Our podcast this week features an educational conversation with Dr. Moez Rajwani, the Executive Officer for the Aga Khan Council in Canada representing the interests of the Ismalili community across the country. There are between 100 and 125,000 Ismailis living in Canada. They are part of the Shia Muslim community that follow the Aga Khan as their Iman, the hereditary leader of the Ismailis,and their spiritual leader. There are between 12-15 million Ismailis in the world. The Ismaili community has had a focus on Atlantic Canada in recent years and has held two Atlantic Canada Trade Mission Forums with their communities in Toronto and Vancouver in the last six months or so to highlight the investment opportunities in our region. These forums were well attended and generated significant interest in Atlantic Canada. The alignment of the values of Atlantic Canada to those of the Ismaili community is well recognized by the Aga Khan Council and one of the key reasons for interest in our region.. The Council is also focussed on developing a bigger community of Ismailis in the region and is currently working to bring refugee families to our region and has a well developed strategy to support those resettlement efforts by ensuring access to affordable housing, healthcare, language training as well as assisting in the integration into the local community. These efforts contribute to higher retention rates.