Halifax

AT A GLANCE HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA WHAT: A municipality of 425,000 WHERE: Northeastern Canada WEBSITE: www.halifax.ca Halifax County, with a combined land area that exceeds 5,500 square kilometers. Halifax’s urban core is surrounded by rural areas; the city has the largest rural share of total population among Canadian cities with more than 250,000 people. Agriculture, fishing, mining, forestry, and natural gas extraction are major resource industries in the municipality’s rural areas. The largest em- ployment sectors in the city include wholesale and retail trade, healthcare, professional services, education, and public administration. Major eco- nomic generators include Canada’s Department of National Defense, the Port of Halifax, the $29 billion national shipbuilding contract, seven col- leges and universities, and tourism. “Halifax has traditionally been known as a great place to visit,” says Ron Hanlon, President and CEO of Halifax Partnership, the city’s eco- nomic development organization. “But what a HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA lot of people in Canada and worldwide don’t know is that we’re a very exciting, innovative, and vibrant community with all kinds of cool stuff happening.” So, in order to get the word out about the Halifax’s advantages, as both a great place to live as well as a great place to do business, Hanlon says that, last year, the Part- nership launched a new economic growth plan with some very ambitious goals. “The city is currently around 425,000 people with about an $18 billion GDP,” he reports. “And we’re going to grow that to 550,000 people and a GDP of about $30 billion by 2031. That’s a compounded annual growth of close to two percent on population and three percent on GDP. The good news is, through our first year, we’re progressing towards those goals. In the past few years, Halifax was in the top three cities in Canada in terms of GDP growth; this past year, we grew our population in the city by about two percent, which is the fastest growth on record.” Part of the Partnership’s message is that businesses should come to Halifax because of its TLC–Talent, Location, and Cost advantag- es. “We have one of the most highly educated workforce in Canada,” boasts Hanlon, speaking about the first prerequisite. “We’re blessed with