In celebration of Saltscapes magazine’s 25th anniversary, we asked our team and several contributors to share their top picks for the most intriguing people, places, and things to watch across Atlantic Canada in 2025. It was hard narrowing down the many contenders to a list of 25. From innovative artists and entrepreneurs to vibrant cultural hotspots and areas that need extra attention, this list highlights the people and landscapes making waves in the region. Whether it’s a hidden gem on the coast or a rising star in the arts, these 25 people and places are shaping the future of Atlantic Canada. Join us as we celebrate the forces of nature that define our remarkable region. — Crystal Murray
1. In 2014, the Canadian fishing vessel Jill Marie struck a rock near Chandler Bay, Me., and began taking on water. The U.S. Coast Guard responded swiftly, boarding the vessel, controlling the flooding, and escorting it safely back to port. The crew was saved, and disaster averted. The bond between Canadian and American mariners runs as deep as Davy Jones’s locker.
Yet as political tensions rise, that spirit is being tested. The Gulf of Maine, a shared resource between Canada and the U.S., faces mounting challenges — warming waters, shifting marine life, and fisheries under strain. Lobster and other species don’t recognize borders, but regulations do, creating conflicts over conservation and industry survival. Without coordination, overexploitation and ecological collapse are real threats.
The stakes are high, not just for the environment, but for the economies that depend on the gulf’s bounty. Maine’s seafood sector supports more than 33,300 workers and contributes more than US$3.2 billion in gross domestic product to the state’s economy. Nova Scotia’s fish and seafood sector employs 20,000; its exports, mostly to the U.S., are worth C$2.3 billion. A failure to collaborate could upend all this and endanger food security.
Still, there’s hope. Cross-border research initiatives, like those led by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, push forward despite political roadblocks. Its Climate Decision Theater brings together stakeholders from both Canada and the U.S. to strategize around climate impacts on the ecosystem. Meanwhile, the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, established in 1989 as a regional partnership uniting representatives from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, continues to work on cross-border ecosystem conditions and water quality.
Perhaps local and regional partnerships will bridge divides where national policies falter. Economic necessity may yet force unity where diplomacy cannot. The Gulf of Maine may be famous for its storms, but its people on both sides of the border are just as famous for weathering them. — Alec Bruce
2. Anybody who’s ever had to buy a $6 litre of milk in Happy Valley-Goose Bay knows intimately the meaning of the words “food security.” Fortunately, in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador, where reliance on imported goods leads to exorbitant prices and limited access to fresh produce, the Pye Centre for Northern Boreal Food Systems is cultivating a new agricultural revolution.
By integrating Indigenous knowledge with scientific research, they’ve figured out how to extend the growing season with protective plant covers and clever sowing schedules. They’ve introduced non-chemical methods to manage pests, like netting to deter diamondback moths in rutabaga. They’ve enhanced soil fertility and structure, which in turn improves crop yields.
In fact, this division of Memorial University is developing new cold-climate farming techniques that could transform food production in just about every chilly, remote region of the world. And they know it. According to their website, their community of engaged farmers, community growers, and researchers work together to “co-create knowledge and evidence-based resources” that strengthening food security, food systems, and food sovereignty.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, that means empowering communities and preserving cultural practices, while growing food and creating economic opportunities.
Nowadays, that’s a priority, or so says United Nations UN Secretary-General António Guterres: “Our only chance of lifting millions of people out of hunger is to act together, urgently and with solidarity.”
By reducing dependency on costly imports and fostering local food production, the Pye Centre is not just addressing food security in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, they’re cultivating resilience, independence, and hope for a sustainable future everywhere. — A.B.
3. Fawn Parker is a novelist and poet and writes to make sense of the grief she felt from the loss of her mother and the changing world of women’s rights. She’s currently the poet laureate of Fredericton, until 2026, and hopes her words brings people together.
“Writing has been the main focus of my life since I was a child,” wrote Parker in an email. “I was shy and quite lonely growing up and fiction provided me this space where I felt safe and free.
Parker authored novels What We Both Know, long listed for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Set-Point, Dumb-Show, and Hi, It’s Me, along with several short stories and works of poetry. She’s also written for the Walrus magazine and co-founded Bad Nudes magazine.
Parker says her next novel will talk about a dysfunctional family grappling with the current state of the world with themes of political corruption and quickly evolving tech.
“When I’m struggling, I feel so desperate for the truth, to see what life actually looks like, I try to give that back, knowing what it means to me,” says Parker. — Oscar Baker III
4. With apologies to Canadian children’s entertainer Fred Penner, it’s the bat, not that cat, that came back. And, yes, we did think he was a goner.
After their devastating decline due to the invasive White-nose Syndrome, Nova Scotian bat populations are showing promising signs of recovery. The fungal disease, first detected in North America in the mid-2000s, pushed some hibernating bat species to the brink of extinction, as mortality rates skyrocketed to 90 per cent or higher.
Even better, biologists observe increased activity in regions where bats had vanished altogether. Acoustic monitoring reveals a rise in echolocation calls, suggesting not only survival but potential population growth. “We’re actually seeing some of the colonies we monitor... the numbers are a lot higher,” Nova Scotia’s Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute wildlife biologist Lori Phinney told a CBC interviewer when the trend appeared a couple of years ago.
She and other scientists say several factors may contribute to the rebound. Some bats appear to have developed behavioural adaptations, such as selecting colder hibernation sites less conducive to fungal growth. Ongoing conservation efforts, including habitat protection and public awareness campaigns, have also helped.
Still, experts emphasize the need for ongoing vigilance. “We’re not going to see this rebound really quickly,” Phinney says. “Although it’s been about 10 years since the population dropped off, they only have one pup per year.”
One pup who, as the song goes, “just couldn’t stay away.” — A.B.
5. Jud Gunning’s passion for music has been a lifelong journey.
The son of Pictou County, N.S., folk singer and songwriter Dave Gunning began fine-tuning his guitar skills and providing an outlet for his unique flavour of storytelling at a young age.
Throughout his life, Gunning has taken inspiration from heavyweights including Buddy Holly, Hank Snow, Chet Atkins, and Stompin’ Tom Connors.
It was just a matter of time before he followed in his award-winning father’s footsteps. But Gunning is forging his own folk and roots-inspired path, creating a stir in the East Coast music scene.
The 21-year-old’s passion for storytelling through classic songs and instrumentals has mesmerized audiences at performances like the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, East Coast Music Association (ECMA) Week, New Glasgow Jubilee, and Pictou Lobster Carnival.
Fellow artists are also taking notice of this extraordinary talent. Gunning contributed guitar and vocal accompaniment to Ashley MacIsaac’s 2024 Christmas album, and there are further collaborations planned. Last summer, he collaborated with Cameron Nickerson to release “Summertime in the Maritimes,” a love song about home, recorded in Dave Gunning’s studio.
He also continues collaborating with his father. Gunning’s authenticity and deep-rooted connection to Nova Scotia’s rich cultural heritage shine through his work. He is scratching the surface, and the future looks bright for the younger Gunning. — Ameeta Vohra
6. At press time, St. John’s, N.L., was putting together its final touches to welcome athletes this summer for the 2025 Canada Games. The impact of the games is estimated to be $100 million, boosting tourism, creating jobs, and stimulating the local economy.
The city has injected $75 million towards recreational infrastructure, including the new Fortis Canada Games Complex — a $40 million track and field complex, upgrades to the Aquarena and tennis facility. Organizers hope to build a lasting legacy for future sports events and programming.
The games aim to inspire people to participate in sports at an elite and grassroots level now and in future years. — A.V.
7. The ocean-tech sector isn’t just about ships and sonar, it’s a multi-billion-dollar force driving innovation, security, and sustainability. That’s why NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) has tapped the Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship (COVE) in Dartmouth, N.S., as a key player.
Think of an accelerator as a turbo-boost for cutting-edge business startups, providing expertise, resources, and connections to fast-track breakthroughs. COVE will help develop technologies that fuel both military and civilian industries. This isn’t just about jobs, research, and the future of the blue economy, it’s recognition that Atlantic Canada can swim with the sharks in the deep end of the global economy. — A.B.
8. An advocate for sustainability in Atlantic Canada, Kate Pepler created the Tare Shop, the first zero-waste shops in Halifax, plus a website sharing environmental success stories.
With the uptick in climate disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding, people feel more anxious about their environmental impacts, so Pepler continues to work to inspire action in our communities to cope with the effects of a changing climate and eco-anxiety.
Fearing for the Earth’s future since her university years, Pepler is sharing her experiences with others through teaching courses and presenting about coping mechanisms. One of those coping strategies is inspiring others to do their part by making small but environmentally significant changes in their lives. — A.V.
9. “I’m just an 11-year-old who has nothing to do, and I am super bored,” says Dominic Gallant of Summerside, P.E.I., on his YouTube channel, Hamster Studios. But the budding multimedia phenom seems to have plenty to do and is super interesting to boot.
In 2023, he received the Entrepreneur of the Year from the provincial Young Millionaires Program. Last year, he won Summerside’s Heritage & Culture Publication of the Year Award for writing, illustrating, and publishing his comic book, Unicorn, about an average guy who discovers he has special powers. Dominic earned $1,000 just by peddling his comics around P.E.I.
He recently told an interviewer, “My lifelong goal is to become a millionaire so I can expand my Lego and video-game collections.” — A.B.
10. Liam Watson is the drum keeper of Sipu Boys, a powwow drum group from Metepenagiag Mi’kmaq Nation. He’s been singing since he was a kid, but at the time there weren’t many opportunities to drum or learn different powwow styles.
Now, he’s changing that by teaching drumming and singing in the surrounding schools.
“I want to be able to make it a normal thing, not just on occasion. It means more than the world to be able to pass down knowledge and teachings,” says Watson, 21.
“It helps teach the kids respect, responsibility, courage and to be humble.”
He spends one to two hours a week teaching drumming and singing to children in the Miramichi area and has taught students from Elsipogtog First Nation, Sisansisk (St. Mary’s First Nation), Bilijk (Kingsclear First Nation), Tjipotogtotig (Bouctouche First Nation), Natoaganeg (Eel Ground First Nation), and Metepenagiag (Red Bank First Nation.)
Watson also offers singing lessons to adults. He’s teaching lessons about the Mi’kmaw traditional dance called the ko’jua and crafts the traditional instrument the ji’kmaqan, made from ash wood. He plans to travel the powwow trail with his drum group and eventually become a full-time cultural teacher.
“My next step is actually taking a teaching course at UNB to become an official language teacher for my community,” says Watson. — O.B.III
11. She’s not planning a Ghostbusters sequel, but Memorial University’s Karin Murray-Bergquist ain’t afraid of no ghosts. She’s mapping out tales of ghost ships in Newfoundland and Labrador for her doctoral thesis in folklore, This Spectred Isle: Ghost Ship Legends of the Island of Newfoundland. As part of her research, she’s creating an interactive map online where she records instances of shipwrecks, sightings of ghost ships, forerunners of doom, and other spectral phenomena. She’s collecting these stories via interviews with individuals with some connection to a sighting, whether as a tale handed down or having seen a ghost themselves. — Jodi DeLong
12. Nova Scotian Maggie Andrew won an East Coast Music Award in 2024 for African Canadian Artist of the Year, leaving fans of the local music scene excited about what’s coming next. “A rising star, singer-songwriter Maggie Andrew draws together a mélange of influences in her lavish, innovative alt-pop, fusing the likes of irreverent punk, melodic rap, and fang-bearing indie rock,” gushes a CBC post. Expect to hear much more from Andrew in the coming months. Her latest album, Drop Like a Feather, rolled out in March, and she had a busy summer of live shows at home in the Maritimes, including the Area 506 Festival in Saint John, N.B., in August. — Trevor J. Adams
13. Once a village, then a town and a full-sized city since 2002, Dieppe, N.B., named in honour of those Canadian soldiers who died on the beaches of Dieppe, France, in 1942, punches well above its weight. Known as the world’s largest francophone city, Dieppe is chockablock with reasons to live and move there. Home to the Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport (YQM), Dieppe features one of the largest farmers markets in the province, a thriving cultural life from theatre to tribute and contemporary bands, festivals, and proximity to natural attractions including Fundy National Park, Parlee Beach, and La Pays de la Sagouine. — J.D.
14. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a means to benefit consumer and farmer by pre-purchasing a regular supply of produce before the season starts. This gives farmers an influx of cash to prepare their crops and help bridge them to harvest time, and consumers get fresh local products every week or month, depending on the farm program. Soleil Hutchison is a certified organic farmer tending 2.5 hectares of veggies in Melville, P.E.I. Her produce is in high demand from customers, including restaurants and retail stores, so much so that in 2015, she spearheaded a collective with five other farmers to produce year-round CSA food baskets. Watch for opportunities to sign up for CSA offerings from local farmers. — J.D.
15. Adam Young’s colourful, playful, and often moody paintings of life in Newfoundland and Labrador are easily recognizable. The Nova Scotia-born painter has made his home in Joe Batts Arm on Fogo Island, the largest of the offshore islands on the province’s East Coast, since 2008. He works in acrylics and inks to create stunning images of fish stages and flowers, icebergs and wildlife, rainbow-hued houses and shanties, making on average 15 new paintings a year, plus affordable prints of his work. Be sure to visit his gallery when in Fogo and explore the magic of his work and the community for yourself. “It’s my muse,” he says. — J.D.
16. Businessman Ron Lovett founded Vida in 2018 with one 12-unit apartment building in Halifax. Today, the affordable-housing provider has grown to 2,250 units across 150+ buildings in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Manitoba. The goal is to make affordable communities into places where people are proud to live, providing safety, security, cleanliness, opportunity, and community. Lovett is a lifelong entrepreneur, described on Vida’s website as “on a constant quest for opportunities to do things smarter, better, and with more purpose.” As the affordable-housing crisis continues, his work is more important than ever. — T.J.A.
17. Words speak louder for Thandiwe Jelani McCarthy. The Fredericton-based poet and writer uses his flair for words at speaking events to continue making a difference in his community. He aims to inspire people to create change in the world. It is a call to action on challenging issues, including housing, health, education, poverty, and climate change. McCarthy’s experiences as a seventh-generation Black Canadian have inspired him. Recognized by CBC as a “Black Changemaker,” he turned that opportunity into a moment to motivate others in his region to create positive change through his poem “Changemakers.” “We all have the power to brighten each other’s days.” — A.V
18. Imagine upcycling a portion of a popular food, often discarded in commercial processing, into something that improves quality, shelf life, and freshness of other foods. That’s the story behind Chinova Bioworks in Moncton, N.B. The company, led by CEO Natasha Dhayagude, extracts chitosan fibre from the stems of white button mushrooms, and markets it to other companies as Chiber. The product has applications in dairy and plant-based dairy, baked goods, sauces and spreads, beverages, and plant-based meat substitutes. Dhayagude aims to reduce food waste while also promoting sustainability in various fresh and processed foods. — J.D.
19. Billed as a celebration of music, food, and drink, the Sommo Festival in Cavendish, P.E.I., is set to return on Sept. 13 and 14 with its biggest and best edition yet, as the event becomes a marquee tourism draw for the province. This year’s lineup includes Canadian alternative-rock legend and Generation X poster child Alanis Morisette and Irish singer/songwriter Hozier. The food and drink offerings are what make Sommo distinct from an ordinary music festival. At the culinary stage, talented local chefs and vendors share local flavours aplenty, paired with Island beer, wine, cider, and soft drinks. — T.J.A.
20. The Nova Scotia-set film Little Lorraine finished shooting last year, and when it hits theatres (premiere date TBA), it’ll turn heads. It’s the first feature film from Canadian director Andy Hines, best known for his Grammy-nominated music videos. It tells the story of a tiny mining town that becomes the hub of a drug smuggling ring, taking inspiration from Hines’s work directing the video for “Lighthouse in Little Lorraine,” by Nova Scotian rocker Adam Baldwin, who is a co-writer of the movie. The cast includes Sean Astin, Stephen Amell, and, making his film debut, J Balvin, who has won a slew of Grammys and is one of the most popular South American singers of all time. — T.J.A.
21. There are no lions, tigers, or bears in today’s circuses, which focus instead on talented human performers of all types — acrobats, musicians, magicians, dancers, and more. Founded in 2018, the St. John’s International CircusFest brings together international circus artists, industry professionals, and audiences for a mix of performances, workshops, and panel discussions. Hosted at venues like St. John’s Arts & Culture Centre, the restored 100-year-old Majestic Theatre, and the LSPU Hall, the circus on the edge of the continent showcases contemporary circus acts and offers training opportunities for emerging artists. The festival’s eighth edition runs Sept. 18-21, 2025. — J.D.
22. Food-source-to-plate cooking just got even more hands on for Charlottetown, P.E.I., restaurant Cork & Cast’s head chef, Rebecca Reardon. The up-and-coming culinary creative is taking part in a program for Bell Fibe TV, Here Fishy, Fishy, scheduled to launch later this year, in which she and three other chefs from P.E.I. learn the finer points of catching a fresh fish, then turning the specimens into a meal. In the popular restaurant itself, Rebecca takes pride in sourcing as much local product as possible, (currently, around 70 per cent) and the threat of American tariffs makes her want to source everything locally. — J.D.
23. Melcom Beaulieu is a two-spirit artist and master beader. They just finished displaying a beaded portrait of their grandmother and great grandmother in the Radical Stitch showcase at the Beaverbrook Art gallery in Fredericton which ran from November 2024 till March 2025. The piece took eight months to complete, and its intricate bead work is stunningly beautiful. For Beaulieu, it’s one of their proudest works and brought them closer to their loved ones. “It kind of felt like a long visit, my grandmother passed away in 2013 when I was 18. I lived with her growing up,” says Beaulieu. “It felt like a visit to get to look at that reference photo of her for like, six months, I got to spend that time making her face.” — O.B. III.
24. Cabot Cape Breton recently got $2 million from government to build a new 23,747-square-foot resort at its Cabot Cliffs location. Plans for the site include a spa and wellness centre, fitness centre, and high-end food and drink offerings. The goal is to “help make Cabot Cliffs and the surrounding communities an even more desirable destination for individuals and families,” says a press release from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Developers are touting the project as a way to bring more national and international travellers to the area, with the jobs and economic spinoffs that accompany them. — T.J.A.
25. It’s likely most of your dealings with artificial intelligence thus far have been unproductive, if not exasperating. (What good is an information tool that requires constant fact checking?) But there are fast-growing business opportunities in many sectors, including transportation, agriculture, medicine, and finance. And Memorial University of Newfoundland is helping locals seize them, with its Centre for Artificial Intelligence, which is only getting busier since opening in 2022. The education hub provides space for 155 students in graduate programs in software engineering, artificial intelligence, and data science. — T.J.A.