Economic Strategy Scorecard
The economic strategy scorecard for this year is out from the chamber of commerce. There have been improvements, particularly in population growth, employment and the commercial tax base. but reading through the report, theres a lot that can be improved on:
http://www.halifaxchamber.com/images...cardReport.pdf |
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The "brand-recognition" one makes me chuckle though. It has been a long-standing beef of mine that "Halifax" does not seem to be able get past its parochial view with this whole HRM deal. I understand that internally it makes sense to use Dartmouth/Bedford/Sackville etc etc (especially given that there are multiple Queen Streets and so, so one has to delineate somehow), but to the outside world "HRM" is a laughingstock. People all the time from other places mention to me how silly the whole HRM thing seems. It really is time for people to just grow up and get over it, and brand this place to the rest of the world as Halifax. It reinforces the "backwater" image of the city otherwise! It is not like we are reinventing the wheel here... many many other cities have gone through similar amalgamations and didn't have an apparent "city" of X Regional Municipality! When you visit NYC you may be staying in Manhattan, but you are visiting NYC. :-) (and now I sit back and wait for the angry responses :haha: ) |
i dont think it was that bad but it wasnt that great either, the yellow light overall reflects that.
there were alot more red lights than i would have wanted like unemployment and wage which i kind of expected but still sucks. some of the buisnes ones were pretty good like actracting and such, but the overall economic score kinda sucked. the crime rate going down is good, unexpected but good, plus the tax base is commercialy stronger. and i guess were not satisfied as a commuinity, aha. |
Regional municipality does sound horrible - it sounds like some collection of shacks up north somewhere.
The sad thing is Halifax isn't even a real polycentric city like, say, Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge (and note that even Halifax-Dartmouth sounds better than "HRM"). It's just one city that's big enough that some of its parts need different names. Also, the report has some weird statistics. For example, they list provincial income, not income for the city. The two are very different. |
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i think it should be just Halifax, but shorten the borders to make it from tantallon to sackville to fall river to poters lake and back to tantallon
ecum secum musquodoboit sheet harbour hubbards ect, isnt really halifax for some reason its everywhere metro transit goes, ahah |
I agree with Beyeas. People need to just let go of this community identity crap a bit and just accept that their a part of Halifax. I live in Dartmouth and I still consider myself a Haligonian.
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I was born in Halifax and I've been able to see it everyday of my life so while for the purpose of this forum I might consider myself Bedfordian a lot I defenitely prioritize being Haligonian more. Heck to me the three important things about my identity is I'm Haligonian, I'm a Maritimer, and I'm Canadian! :cool: |
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How abought when the Municipality is communicating with the outside world we just say the Halifax Region or Greater Halifax? It's accurate, we're a region centred around Halifax, and much less of a mess than Halifax Regional Municipality. Ideally we could change the name of the Municipalty (and in a dream-world we could change the boundaries as Harlington suggests) but until an official name change happens just shorten it a bit. |
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I wasn't sure where to post this. The cargo at the Halifax Port is up substantially this year over last year. However, the cargo was down substantially in the past few years . It looks like it might be starting to rebound. (source: Bill Power - Chronicle Herald - http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1175010.html )
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The Conference Board of Canada is predicting strong growth in Halifax over the next 4 years: (source: http://www.vancouversun.com/business...378/story.html)
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That was before yesterday's provincial budget disaster. |
The increase in the HST certainly seems to goes against one part of their political election platform (removal of the HST on home heating oil - as I remember). However, the fact that the NDP is spending a significant amount on road construction might help cancel the effect of the additional HST (just as the Olympic Games will add to Vancouver's GDP).
I just hope that once the books are balanced that the HST will be reduced again. (Maybe next election it will be the platform of one of the opposing parties). As is often the case, politics is enough to make me shake my head. |
This article surprised me. The number of births in the HRM seems to have increased significantly. I was starting to believe all the dire forecasts about the population shrinking in the future. Now if the Halifax area can just do more to provide jobs and quality of life in order to keep the younger generation in the Halifax area.
(Just as a note, I am all for responsible population growth. I don't want to see the world become over-populated; to achieve a stable population, the birth rate should only equal the death rate. Unfortunately over-population has become a problem in developing poorer countries as opposed to the major industrialized countries. I would much rather see a sustainable birth rate in Nova Scotia and see Halifax grow by attracting ex-Nova Scotians and immigrants from other countries. Such a policy doesn't go against sustainable population growth. Instead people are just moving from one location to another.) Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia...lifax-iwk.html Quote:
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^ Yeah I can believe that from first hand experience. It seems like tons of women at my work are getting pregnant lately. The article just confirms what I believed to be true. I actually read a few months ago that the IWK-Grace had been reaching overcapacity and didnt have enough room for all the children being born.
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Regarding the increase in births in the Halifax area, could it be that as people become more financially secure, they feel that they can have more children (for example, women need to take time off from work)? So increased prosperity could result in a higher birth rate. The other factor, with increased prosperity, young families can stay in the Halifax area.
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This is the latest version of the Statscan report on Labour: http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/lfss03a-eng.htm The data is only for people in the labour force and therefore is only people age 15 and older. The population went up by 4.1 thousand between March 2009 and March 2010 for people age 15 and over.
On top of this there is reportedly a baby boom in the Halifax area: (source http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia...lifax-iwk.html ). PS: (edited) It is tempting just to add the births in one year to the increase in the over 15 age group (labour statistics population number), but I have a feeling that this might not be correct for one reason or another - I think because in the one year period 14 year olds move to the over 15 year group. Also, the 5000 births are only for IWK. Nevertheless, this indicates a significant population growth in the Halifax area. Statistics indicating estimated overall population increase come out in July of each year. Quote:
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Halifax is one of the best places in the country to raise kids. Housing is relatively affordable, the schools are good, the economy is strong, and the natural setting is second only to parts of BC. I could imagine lots of people moving there from Toronto in the future - when I was a kid there were already lots of families who were moving in from Ontario.
Something else to look at is the employment rate. In Toronto and Vancouver, 61-62% of people work. In Calgary it's 70% and in Halifax it's 67% (Windsor is down to 55%). High employment means that the economy is healthy and there is more money available to take care of children and the elderly. |
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