HRM turning corner to recovery, council told
Officials at Halifax Regional Municipality look back longingly at the halcyon days of 2019 while looking ahead to an uncertain future.
“This rebound will begin from a position of strength,” said Wendy Luther, president of Halifax Partnership, the organization that brings business and government together to promote investment and growth in HRM.
Delivering a recovery update to regional council Tuesday, Luther began with the tale of two cities presented by the Halifax Index, created online this year.
“2019 was a banner year for Halifax, with robust economic and population growth,” Luther said. “We welcomed record numbers of immigrants and international students and our labour market was strong and businesses and residents reported high levels of confidence and satisfaction with our city.
“2020 is obviously a different story. Following growth of 2.6 per cent in 2019, our GDP is projected to shrink by 3.4 per cent in 2020.”
Luther said that more than one-third of the Halifax labour force was underutilized in May. Statscan is scheduled to release June labour force numbers on Friday.
“Sales at retail and food and drinking establishments fell off a cliff,” she said. “There will be no cruise ships visiting Halifax in 2020 and air traffic is miniscule. Halifax Stanfield served fewer people in all of April than it did on an average single day in 2019.”
Luther said COVID-19 has had a drastic impact on immigration. Despite high demand to come to Nova Scotia, insurmountable barriers to physically arrive in Canada exist at this time, she said.
The partnership is hopeful that sharp decreases in arrivals of newcomers “will be an example of demand delayed, not demand destroyed, that we will see a strong rebound in newcomers to Halifax as soon as travel conditions and immigration processes allow,” she said.
Luther said the municipality is starting to turn a corner, with the relaxation of public health restrictions.
“People are returning to stores, restaurants and workplaces. As of last Friday, people can move freely among the Atlantic provinces, and this should provide a tremendous boost to our tourism operators.”
Luther said Halifax business confidence was at an all-time high before COVID-19 set in.
“As businesses and spaces reopen, Halifax once again has so much to offer,” Luther said, adding that Halifax Partnership is working with a number of partners to encourage “consumers to vacation here, buy here and enjoy being here all summer long.”
The partnership connects businesses with the resources they need.
“Since April 1, in partnership with our colleagues at Nova Scotia Business Inc, we have three wins,” Luther said. “Three companies have made the decision to locate or expand in Halifax.”
The companies — Shopify, North Bay Solutions and Arcurve — project to create 385 jobs. Luther said from April 1 to June 28, the partnership has active leads on 55 companies and 15 new prospects.
Dube offered a piece of cautious optimism.
“The past four months have certainly been a difficult time for all of us,” the chief administrative officer said.
“The easing of public health directives in recent weeks is certainly encouraging but we must not become complacent. In public places, including retail outlets and our buses, please wear a mask.”
Dube listed off a number of necessary municipal initiatives that cut into revenues, including the waiving of parking fees, the suspension of transit fare collection and moving the deadline for the interim property tax collection for residents and businesses from April 30 to June 1.
Dube said HRM'S operating budget was reduced by $45 million for a total operating budget of $955 million to go along with a $100-million decrease in the capital budget. He said the average tax bill will increase by 1.4 per cent, precisely in line with council's goal prior to the pandemic.
Halifax Transit is increasing service levels in a phased approach, Dube said.
“We hope to begin fare collection in early August," he said.
“We need stimulus funding now and federal and provincial funds to help offset our $45-million in revenue losses,” Dube said, giving the Federation of Canadian Municipalities a nod for its strong work on that file.
Dube said the municipality is not slowing its efforts to bring “game-changing projects to reality,” such as the Windsor Street exchange, the Cogswell District, electrification of the transit fleet, the bus rapid transit program, the cycling network, bringing ferry services to Bedford and other important potential projects on the Dartmouth and Halifax waterfronts.