[HALIFAX, NS] - Amidst a week of controversy, one positive thing should come out of Halifax Regional Council this evening.
The Greater Halifax Partnership will be at the meeting to present its final draft of the “2011-16 Economic Strategy for Halifax”.
This next five-year plan is setting out positive goals to get Halifax back on track and growing following a global economic recession.
“3,000 hours of volunteer time went into this plan,” said Paul Kent president and CEO of the GHP. “It’s the culmination of all of the aspiration and thoughts over many, many meetings.”
The strategy outlines five areas where they think Halifax should look to grow: the regional centre, business climate, talent, international brand and maximizing growth opportunities.
With the development of a regional centre, GHP has set a bar of $1.5 billion in investments and 8,000 more residents in the urban core of Halifax.
Kent said there was a great deal of concern among those who worked on this plan about Halifax’s urban core or downtown.
“Without a strong regional centre, it’s very hard to succeed,” said Kent. He pointed to examples of cities where an urban core has deteriorated into unfriendly and unattractive neighbourhoods. “They all felt that improving our regional centre was a high, high priority.”
To this they have proposed a number of initiatives to bring people to the downtown area and more investment and private development. One of the heaviest hitters on that list is a proposed five-year, $50-million, multi-level government investment in infrastructure improvements or an “improvement campaign to repair and enhance the public realm in the urban core.”
Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Halifax Downtown Business Commission is happy to see many of the regional centre initiatives make the final draft.
“The deck is stacked against us to develop the downtown,” he said.
While the initiative in the strategy are very positive and the commission helped consult on much of it, he says that the economic strategy alone is not enough and the Regional Plan which is set to be renewed in the coming year will need to be revised to reflect the values of improving the regional centre and local politicians should keep the economic strategy handy over the next five years to make sure the decisions they make can line up with the goals they set up for themselves.
To implement these initiatives, a new organization is going to be created. GHP and everyone who participated with the plan have spearheaded the creation of the Strategic Urban Partnership (SUP).
“There’s a lot of excitement around that idea,” MacKinnon said.
MacKinnon was extremely pleased to see the SUP among the many other ideas make the final draft of the plan. He hopes to see the three levels of government and community stakeholders take part in the SUP. The partnership will be a decision making body and initiator of development in Halifax’s urban core.
For one HRM councillor, that kind of government cooperation is the most critical element to come out of this five-year plan.
“We need to align all levels of government and various stakeholders,” said Lorelei Nicoll, councillor for district four and chair of the economic development committee. “We’re a large region in a small province.”
Nicoll said that the region needs all parties working together toward a common goal and that by putting Halifax’s growth first, the rest should follow.
“When something goes awry it’s usually a lack of cooperation to blame,” she said.
The final draft will be presented to council this evening and the economic development committee will be recommending that council accept the plan and move forward with it.
Points from the final draft
Since 2005:
- Halifax’s population is estimated to have increased by 5.6% or 21,000 people (Source: Statistics Canada, 2010.)
- 19,000 more jobs have been created (Source: Statistics Canada, 2010)
- 11,000 new immigrants have come to call Halifax home (Source: CIC Facts and Figures 2010; 2010 numbers are preliminary)
- Nearly 14,000 new homes have been built (Source: CMHC. Housing Now Halifax. 2010)
- Building permits have increased 34% in Halifax (Source: Statistics Canada, 2010.)
We need new ideas, new goals and new ways to align ourselves for success. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, this strategy focuses on the following goal areas:
- Regional Centre – Build a vibrant and attractive regional centre that attracts $1.5 billion of private investment and 8,000 more residents by 2016;
- Business Climate – Promote a business climate that drives and sustains growth by improving competitiveness and by leveraging our natural strengths;
- Talent – Create a welcoming community where the world’s talent can find great opportunities, engaged employers and resources for career advancement;
- International Brand – Create a unique, international city brand for Halifax;
- Maximize Growth Opportunities – Capitalize on our best opportunities for economic growth.
