most of the time I love free trade

By: Brian Rose, Vice President

The recent and ongoing debate around the selection of the Spanish e-voting company Scytlover home-grown Intelivote got me thinking again about the importance of buying local and supporting our own entrepreneurs. But this time I was hit with a new argument against that support – free trade!
 
Most of the time I love free trade. Sure, it has some downsides in the short run but in the bigger picture it reduces consumer prices, supports developing economies and creates competitive, productive businesses. The biggest downside is that if you are not competitive and cannot become competitive, you are doomed.
 
Where I don’t like free trade is when agreements cause us to ignore other strategic priorities like food security, energy security and supporting local business. At some level we need to remember that we are not the government and our primary objective is not to save the world’s economy, but to support our members and help them succeed.
 
Where free trade enters into the intelivote situation is with regard to the near-completed European Free Trade agreement, more formally known as the CETA – Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement. In this arrangement, purchases by municipal governments are opened up and subject to the restrictions of free trade. Specifically, no special consideration can be given to one group over another, for example local companies over foreign ones. Thus if a local company won a competitive bid over a foreign company who had a better bid, then that foreign entity would have a cause to claim a violation of the free trade agreement. So obviously nothing could ever be engrained in policy to protect or support local business. This makes the job of local economic development very hard.

Ships Start Here was money well spent

Ships Start Here was without a doubt the most unifying and inspiring campaign that Nova Scotia has ever seen. Even the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, an organization that for 260 years has pursued the provincial government with the message of not wasting money, has to agree that this was money well spent.

The Chamber was part of the Ships Start Here Partnership, a community based effort that was the strategic backbone of the whole project since day one. The Ships Start Here Partnership, was created to help bring the community together in support, confident in Halifax’s ability to secure this bid, confident that Nova Scotia had the right skilled people, technology and ongoing investment in infrastructure, and best practices to provide Canada the best value for money and world-class ships that would make Canada proud.

The appropriately aggressive and media-based Ships Start Here marketing campaign was an urgent reaction to two things: the perceived need to demonstrate the widespread community support for the bid on a national level; and the stepped up effort by our competition in BC to prove their superior community engagement. It was not a pre-planned part of the bid or even the Ships Start Here partnership efforts.

The ongoing debate seems to be that government reacted too quickly, seemingly without following proper protocols or procedures. If a business was faced with the same situation, where a competitor entered the market with a high profile advertising campaign during a sensitive time in the sales process, the first and proper response is to hit back and hit back hard. This is exactly what the province did.

I would further say that in this circumstance, had the private sector CEO insisted on doing an RFP and running the proponents through a government level evaluation process, the company would soon be out of business and the CEO out of a job.
The Chamber feels it is easy to make headlines by taking information garnered through aFreedom of Information request out of context when you don’t look at the full story and the big picture.

The key fact in this case is that Ships Start Here needed to respond to our competitor’s strategy and that there was no time to waste. We commend the Province for taking a calculated risk - one that if not taken, could have, with the information that was available at the time, resulted in the loss of a contract that had the potential to change the future of this province.

Chamber's New Year's Message

Chamber's New Year's Message
By Brian M Rose
Vice President, Membership, Marketing & Business Development

 I am convinced that historians will look back to 2011 as a watershed moment in Nova Scotia’s history.  It was a time when the harsh realities of changing economic, social and demographic challenges led some to believe our small, have-not province had finally met its match. Oh ye of little faith. 

As a seemingly endless series of doors closed over the past number of years, 2011 saw a new group of doors beckoning us to open them to find our way to the future. 

NewPage and Bowater are large employers, (by Nova Scotia standards) in troubled industries, made obsolete by the technologies that are supposed to make our lives better. Scanwood was a reminder that even being part of a global value chain is a function of global competitiveness. Newfoundland and Labrador’s recent success as an energy and natural resource powerhouse only serves as a reminder of our own lost opportunity to assume the same title. 

Where does the future of our province lie?

Here we sit jutting out into the cold, North Atlantic ocean, connected to the mainland by only a tiny sliver of land that given a high tide would all but disappear. We are people of the sea, surrounded on all sides by water - and salt water at that - not fit to drink, too cold for swimming, and too brine to freeze.  Would it not be better to be surrounded by fields of wheat or mounds of minerals? Is this predicament the fore-teller of our fate?

In any economic strategy we look for a competitive advantage on which to successfully compete.  The emphasis has for the last number of years been on our people and particularly our smart people.  We talk about our wealth of post secondary institutions, the home of some of the smartest people and the source of many of the others. But as the new doors presented to us in 2011 stand before us waiting to be opened it is important to also remember one other great competitive advantage -  we are home to Canada’s navy and the significant resources that are needed to support it. The role of the ocean itself is coincidental, most often referred to as a transportation route or of a thing of wondrous beauty. But as our ancestors knew when they came here and turned Halifax into one of the world's leading centres of its day, the ocean has a great role to play not just in the history of Nova Scotia's economy, but in the future as well.  There is a plaque in the trophy room at City Hall inscribed with an early motto: “From the sea, wealth” and never more truer words have been spoken.

If there is one thing that 2011 should be known for it's the rallying cry of "Ships Start Here!". The expression came to mean so much more than just winning a bidding process; it was about solidifying a future for Nova Scotia, one based on our long history of marine expertise; of working together to make Nova Scotia a better place; and showing everyone how proud and loyal we are to our home, each other and to the sea.

If 2011 was about igniting that spark and building confidence, then 2012 will be when we get down to work. It took a 25 billion dollar shipbuilding contract to both point out how much of our economy is still tied to ocean that surrounds us and to act as the catalyst that took our emerging cluster in ocean technologies and placed it at the forefront of this region’s economic future. Before us is an opportunity to correct decades of missteps and to adopt a new attitude toward growth, toward competition and toward the role that each of has to play in achieving  the prosperity that is at hand.

Jenn’s Journal – An Eye-Opening Experience

Jenn's Journal - An Eye-Opening Experience with the Canadian Paraplegic Association
By Jennifer Pierce
Member Services Manager

Recently the Chamber was asked by the Canadian Paraplegic Association (Nova Scotia) if one of our staff members would participate in their CHAIR-Leaders “Enabling Accessibility” event – wherein a group of community leaders agree to spend the day in a wheelchair to help raise funds and awareness. Never one to turn down an opportunity to try something new, I jumped at the chance to volunteer.

My day started with a walk up the stairs to my office – which is on the second floor, with no elevator available. Thankfully, the chair provided to me for the day was waiting for me upstairs so there was no need to try out our stair lift hidden in the back stairwell. Once I got to my desk, I moved my office chair out of the way, took a deep breath, and made the commitment to sink into the wheelchair, where I would stay for the rest of the day.

As it turned out, the wheelchair was a bit higher than I keep my desk chair, and so my knees hit the (unused) pull-out drawer under my desk. I’d been wanting to get rid of that for a while so I enlisted the office handyman to get that out of my way (not being able to do it myself from the chair).

Challenge number one was carpet – the section by my desk had recently been replaced, and while cushy carpet is great for high-heeled shoes, it’s not so great for pushing a wheelchair across! I also realized that the little rise where my wing of the office joins with the main building, well, isn’t so little! It took extra effort to push myself over what doesn’t even register to someone walking back and forth in the office every day.

Next up was getting into the kitchen to put my lunch in the fridge. I discovered that the filing cabinet we have next to the entryway into the kitchen makes for an opening BARELY big enough for a wheelchair – I had to be very careful not to whack my knuckles against the wall. Then I had to manoeuvre myself back and forth to get the bottom-drawer freezer of our staff fridge pulled out to insert my frozen dinner.

The place where I felt like I stood out the least during the day was at our morning staff meeting, since everyone else was also seated around the boardroom table, at my level, and there’s lots of space in our boardroom to place a wheelchair between the regular chairs.

Lunchtime presented more challenges: repeating the fridge feat in reverse; using the microwave on a counter without space to tuck the chair under; and reaching things in the cupboards! Glasses and plates are in upper cupboards in our kitchen, so I had to ask for assistance from my coworkers when preparing my lunch. There’s not a lot of room to manoeuvre in the kitchen between the tables and chairs so I had to ask to be given the seat with the most room, and to have people pass me things from across the room, like a spoon to eat my dessert, rather than popping up to get it myself. (Pre-planning, these sorts of things, I discovered, is essential.).

Perhaps the least wheelchair-accessible location in our office is the ladies’ washroom. A friendly coworker was happy to hold the door open for me, but once inside, there are only two stalls, neither of which is wheelchair-sized, and so here, I admit, I had to cheat. And I must admit, never have I been so happy to be able to stand and stretch my legs!

While this was a very short experience and confined just to the interior of my office building, it was still a very eye-opening experience and certainly made me more cognizant of the challenges faced by wheelchair users.

Something big is happening here

Something Bbig is happening here
By Janet Creamer
Director of Marketing and Communications

September in the international fashion world means:
• the long awaited 'September issue' hits the stands highlighting fabulous fall fashions;
• new designers showcase their Spring/ Summer look books; and
• spectators and buyers get decked out for the illustrious fashion weeks in Milan, Paris, London and New York.

It’s the time of year where the fashion industry takes the world by storm, proving once again why fashion is one of the largest and still fastest growing businesses in the world.

The fashion industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and some Canadian cities – like Halifax – are really starting to grab at a piece of the pie. As we saw in our July/August issue of Business Voice, Halifax has been a hotbed for activity in Canada’s fashion world and, in a city that has a history of craft, this should come as no surprise.

Great local designers such as Turbine, Chloe Comme Parris, LouLou Bell and Michque are making their mark on the national and international stage (or runway) showcasing their work at the Golden Globes, Cannes and the Toronto Film Festival. Atlantic Fashion Week, now in its fifth year, is growing with this past June’s event showcas- ing more than 20 local and emerging designers. The 21st Annual NSCAD Wearable Art
show in April was a huge hit and a chance for textile and fashion students to showcase their creativity and work.

At a recent photoshoot for Business Voice I had the opportunity to meet three young budding fashion students: Alyssa, Allison and Alexandra. All three are at different stages of their fashion and textiles course at NSCAD and all three are interested in different aspects of the fashion industry, but all three certain the Halifax fashion industry is on the cusp of something great.

When asked if they planned on moving to a fashion mecca such as New York for work one responded quickly with, “Maybe at first, but I know I’ll be back, something big is happening here.”

And it’s not just the students that are taking notice. In recent years Halifax has seen a flurry of local fashionistas turning out blogs on everything from hidden Halifax shopping treasures to the impact of East Coast style on the runways. Be sure to check out Ally and L-A’s thoughts on fashionablethings.com and you won’t be disappointed with Haute Halifax, which delivers style with local relevance and appeal, highlighting all things fashion in in Halifax.

As both Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Centre for Arts and Technology kick start their fall semesters for their program in fashion and textiles and fashion design with more students than ever before, and as local designers prepare their fall lines for consumption around the world, it’s increasingly obvious this really is the beginning of something big for Nova Scotia fashion.