Moving Provincial Offices Out of Halifax
So, the Bolsheviks who run this province announced today they intend to move certain as-yet unnamed government offices out of Halifax to rural parts of the province. What a dumb idea. A field office operation is one thing, but offices with senior staff need to be near the legislature and near other departments. This cannot be good.
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Time for new offices in Liverpool to go along with their recently subsidized mill?
I don't know what will be moved, but historically I think this kind of stuff has been a big part of poor NS economic performance. It has limited industry to begin with and the problem is made worse by taxing and spending to fight economic trends. Ultimately that strategy doesn't work, as we saw with Sydney Steel. NS doubles down on failing industries and declining towns while other provinces grow new industries that produce real economic benefit without the need for constant life support. |
I really hope no one votes for the commies next time...
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Along with federal job cuts this won't be good for Halifax.
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The federal cuts are suppose to be mostly in Ottawa. |
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I heard there was something like 100 people at ACOA in Halifax who lost job this week. |
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Over the past 15 years or so Halifax has had good private sector job creation. The number of federal jobs in Halifax has remained about the same since the early-90's cutbacks while overall employment has increased by perhaps 25% or more. As a result the local economy is in far better shape now. Not sure what the story is for provincial jobs, but according to an ANS article tonight only about half of NS provincial jobs are actually located in Halifax, and Halifax has nearly half of the province's population.
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Well considering government occupies close to 50% of the downtown office market it could be very interesting....
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With its close proximity to museums, theatre, universities and restaurants, I think there will be a strong demand for downtown residential development. |
This is Dexter pandering for votes.
Are there absolutely any advantages to moving these government jobs out of Nova Scotia's economic engine -- which is what HALIFAX is -- to dying rural areas of the province that shall continue to decline even after the installment of these jobs?! :hell: I really wish the province would grow a pair and get serious about dealing with rural Nova Scotia, which cannot at all sustain itself without Haligonian help. To hell with rural Nova Scotians wailing about the rural vs. urban political divide; Halifax is Nova Scotia's financial reason for existing. These small town subsidies are permanent economic hemorrhages. The province should force them to urbanise. |
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This government assistance to the emotional villagers is a form of municipal welfare and it harms the entire province because we are never going to a see a return on any of these subsidies. History is meaningless if there is no future. How would Port Hawkesbury have it? -- allow Nova Scotia to devolve into the sad state of Cape Breton? Ultimately this is only bleeding Halifax unnecessarily when we could be more beneficially using our tax revenue for ALL Nova Scotians by permitting our towns and cities, which actually have profitable industries, to urbanise their developments and more quickly build upon those profitable industries instead of sprawling ourselves into debt. I can imagine places like Yarmouth, Truro, Amherst, New Glasgow, and even Sydney experiencing a turnaround if allowed to densify. This would be further aided if the province would amalgamate the satellite communities to these towns in order to provide more of an economic lever for these towns to focus development and actually establish urban cores that can provide a return of tax revenue. And who knows, maybe some of these towns would prosper into small cities. It would be thrilling if Nova Scotia had more cities!! Despite Halifax's history, if it made more business sense to invest in and grow Sydney, instead -- then so be it. Halifax would have to go bye-bye. ;) I guess that means the citadel views would be saved. |
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Well, the deed is done. Fast Frankie Corbett got 25 poor saps relocated to his riding in New Waterford, for God's sake - wonder what they did to deserve that. Only upside for them is that if they own a house here, they can sell it and buy something in Waterford for about 10% of the value. Stumblin' Sterling Belliveau got the same done for his riding of Shelburne. Lovable but Loopy Lenore Zann was the big winner, with a bunch of Agriculture folks getting shanghaied to Truro. Maybe they can commute. The most bizarre one is Fisheries going to Digby. Not that there aren't fisheries there. But the head office operation? WTH are they going to do being 4 hours away from the capitol? Does the Minister have to leave for Cabinet meetings at 4AM? It is absolutely insane. This will cost a lot of money in travel, relocation, severance, lease-busting... just lunacy. |
I don't know much about what these departments really do, but the argument that the move puts them closer in touch with farmers or fishermen seems questionable. Halifax is the transportation hub of the province, so on average it is probably about as close to any given farm or fishing village as Truro or Digby. On top of this of course the legislature and other offices are in Halifax and the people are already there. It seems unlikely that this move could be anything but pork barrel politics.
That argument reminds me a lot of some arguments I've heard to put things out in the suburbs around Halifax. Most people live in the suburbs, people say, so new infrastructure should go out in the suburbs by Bayers Lake or maybe the airport. That logic is wrong because, while most people do live in suburban areas, they do not all live in the same suburban area. Neither Bayers Lake nor the airport are central locations for the whole municipality -- if you live in Cole Harbour you don't want to have to get to Bayers Lake, for example. The Moncton hub city is yet another variant based on false premises. The number of people living within X kilometres of a given location is not actually that important. What's important is how many people can get to a given location easily. |
one of the dumbest politically motivated moves I have seen in a long time.
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