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“This region for too long has focused on this idea that the competition is the guy next door. We win at the expense of Newfoundland, or Newfoundland wins at the expense of Nova Scotia — all this sort of nonsense,” he said. “We’re never going to become an important globally competitive area with that kind of myopic vision.”

Megan Bailey, a professor and Canada Research Chair in integrated ocean and coastal governance at Dalhousie University in Halifax, agrees that more collaboration is needed and neighbours must be seen as allies, not competitors, especially in the very competitive fishing industry. She also welcomed the potential for greater partnerships between industry and academia.

Despite the potential upside of the ocean supercluster, Bailey said she struggles to understand exactly what it will do, whether that’s because of the technospeak and entrepreneurship buzzwords that permeate the initiative, or just a lack of clarity from organizers.

“I don’t know what it is,” she said. “But I also find it very amorphous: you don’t really know who it is, what they’re doing.”

Bailey’s confusion is not surprising considering how many key details are still unknown. There isn’t a list of confirmed supercluster members, and it’s unclear how their submissions will be judged or by who. Furthermore, the project selection committee is not yet formed and it’s not known when the first project will be approved.

Risley said the board would be entirely comprised of people from the private sector and there will be no government involvement. “The decisions will be made primarily by the private sector, so the mistakes will be owned by the private sector,” he said.