Days after leaving his job with Salesforce.com, Jevon MacDonald wanted to discuss the prominent place the tech community holds in the recently released One Nova Scotia Coalition report rather than his own plans.

MacDonald is best known as the co-founder of GoInstant, the Halifax startup that San Francisco cloud computing giant Salesforce.com bought for a reported $70 million in 2012. Since then, MacDonald has headed the Salesforce office in Halifax (which he left last month), co-founded the Volta startup house and been a member of the coalition.

He was enthusiastic during an interview last week about the prominence technology and technological education was given in the 10-year plan, which was released Friday.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a policy document that put our business front and centre like this one does,” MacDonald said.

The lengthy report highlights seven key areas on which the province must focus to increase prosperity. Woven into the fabric of its recommendations are several policy statements on tech and technological education:

•Teaching coding in public schools

•Greater support for IT startups, such as enhancements in the equity tax credit, venture capital and other support such as accelerators and incubators.

•More information technology education at the post-secondary level

It’s similar to the actions MacDonald called for two years ago when he addressed the Halifax Chamber of Commerce and called for a greater emphasis on tech in economic development and education.

NS Gives $400K to Brilliant Labs

One surprising thing about this shopping list is that the most noticeable gain has been the recent announcement by Education Minister Karen Casey that the province would accelerate the adoption of universal coding education. It builds on the work by Brilliant Labs, a New Brunswick-Nova Scotia initiative that provides resources to teachers who want to teach more technology and related subjects.

“This one, to me, has a tangible benefit,” said MacDonald.

“We did this stuff with Brilliant Labs to prove that there was a strong demand for it, but what happened here was the minister decided to make a bold move and it got done.”

MacDonald said more needs to be done in community colleges and universities. That means Nova Scotia universities need larger computer science faculties. Even though computer science enrolment has been rising by about 15 per cent annually, more students need to enter these faculties, and tech training has to move beyond computer science to all parts of universities.

MacDonald said the time has come for the province to respond to repeated calls from the tech community to improve the equity tax credit. It gives Nova Scotian investors back 35 per cent of their investment when they invest up to $50,000 in a company based in the province.

The tech community wants greater flexibility and a higher investment ceiling. MacDonald noted that the coalition believes improvements are needed, and the premier and both opposition leaders are members of the group.

As for criticisms that the report represents more talk than action, MacDonald said he can understand that, but the report summarizes actions that have been and will be taken.

As for his own plans, MacDonald said that for the time being he’s enjoying spending time with his two young daughters.