Honourable senators, what comes to mind when you hear the word Nova Scotia? If you have visited or dreamed of visiting our province you might conjure up images of beautiful beaches, Peggy’s Cove, the Bluenose, lobster, talented musicians and artists, friendly people, rich cultures.

You may also think of our workers travelling west in search of a livelihood, our aging population, our own local struggles of adjusting to a changing regional, national and global economy and to a coastal environment under serious threat. You might be excused if you didn’t immediately think about innovation and success happening right next to those bucolic beaches of the Northumberland Strait.

Today I would like to sing the praises of Thomas Steinhart, a German immigrant to Antigonish County, and Kulbir Singh, an Indian immigrant who came to our community as a postdoc researcher at St. Francis Xavier University.

A tall man with an impressive handlebar mustache, Thomas Steinhart has proven his entrepreneurial chops by winning the prize for the best classic gin in Canada at the 2019 world gin awards in London, England. He also took home gold for his haskap gin and silver for his wild blueberry. His maple and habanero vodkas have also won international acclaim.

Of the win, he says, “I hope it will translate into more sales. More sales mean more products sold, more money, more people employed.”

Thomas Steinhart has brought his family’s 300-year-old craft tradition to the Arisaig shore, successfully attracting people to his distillery, restaurant and chalets and contributing significantly to our local economy.

Dr. Kulbir Singh is a chemical wizard of a different stripe. Together with doctors Gerry Marangoni and Mike McAlduff, Dr. Singh is a founder of Sona Nanotech. Sona means “gold” in Hindi. Now listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange, this life sciences company, which was born in a chemistry lab at StFX, is distributing its products around the world. Among the products are different colours of gold nanorod solutions used in diagnostic tests with one stick able to indicate multiple biomarkers such as pregnancy, AIDS and cortisol levels. Using one stick in this way can eliminate millions of single-use plastics.

Sona’s scientific breakthrough was to create gold nano-rods and nano-particles without a toxic chemical so they can then be used inside the human body. This makes them useful for medical applications such as drug delivery and cancer treatments. The tabla playing Dr. Singh’s dream is to have his technology used extensively in cancer treatment, especially in the developing world.

Whether producing world-class gin or new photo thermal cancer treatment technology, these two Antigonish immigrant innovators, Kulbir Singh and Thomas Steinhart, are creating jobs and wealth in our province. We are very proud of them. Wellalioq.