Jevon MacDonald’s tremendous speech to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday night was the third reminder I had seen in a week that Atlantic Canada needs to develop the technology community.

MacDonald, the chief executive officer and co-founder of GoInstant and a Salesforce vice-president, delivered a keynote speech that outlined his own career, the development of the Halifax tech community and the need to develop that community.

As I listened to it, I couldn’t help think about two new reports that came across my computer monitor in the last week. The first was a Statistics Canada report showing that Nova Scotia’s gross domestic product had grown 0.2 per cent last year after a 0.6 per cent increase in 2011. Over two years, Nova Scotia’s GDP had grown less than one per cent, while there was negative growth in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. During that same period, the Canadian economy grew by about 4.4 per cent.

This is a horrifying story because of factors I outlined in my 2009 book, Backwater: Nova Scotia’s Economic Decline (which Jevon was kind enough to review on Amazon years ago). The province has the oldest population in the country and is ill-prepared for the demographic crunch. I have often told people that nothing has changed since the book came out, but the Statistics Canada report shows things are worse.

The Atlantic Canadian premiers, representing all three mainstream parties, met last weekend to discuss economic development and surely must have had these figures on their mind. The result was a statement that they opposed the federal government’s recent employment insurance reforms that have already taken effect. It beggars belief that anyone thinks the region’s governments should make EI reform a priority in our economic strategy.

MacDonald certainly doesn’t think so. His speech detailed the success he and other entrepreneurs have had in creating technology companies, building them quickly, and selling them. The important thing to note is almost all the companies that have been sold have remained in the region, creating employment and wealth and driving up exports.

MacDonald said he was initially reluctant to establish a company in Halifax because he worried he wouldn’t be able to find the specialized talent a tech startup needs. It turns out the programmers he has hired here are the best he has worked with, and he has worked all over the continent.

He also said tech entrepreneurs who have sold companies in Atlantic Canada are achieving exits more quickly and at higher prices than anywhere else in the country.

Consider that for a second: Atlantic Canadians are beginning to gain the reputation in technology formerly held by our forebears who built ships.

MacDonald, 30, asked his audience to appreciate the dynamism and potential of the tech community, and to encourage one reform to help expand the sector. He asked that the government change its public school curriculum so students are taught programing at an earlier age. In Nova Scotia, students are now given the option of taking programing in Grade 12, according to the official curriculum. By starving teenagers of the chance to learn coding for so long, we are depriving the workforce of talent and our children of a career.

 “There are kids who are building $100-million companies in your own backyard and you’re not teaching programing to them until 12th grade?” he asked. “We have to start teaching kids what they need for the next 20 years, not the next two years.”