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.



The Chamber Dude and the Muckety-Mucks

During our event where Minister Peter MacKay announced the federal governments funding of Halifax’s new convention centre, the Twitter-sphere was alive with commentary on everything from the room size, to the menu, to speculations about what it all means. Entertaining?  Yes.  Useful?  Not really, but it is always interesting to hear what those who have appointed themselves “opinion makers” have to say about things they are not involved in, other than to be commentators and critics. 

What I liked most was the characterizations of the audience and the hosts of the event. Ian Penney, chair of the board of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce became the “Chamber Dude”, and the balance of the audience was described as “muckety-mucks”, which I believe should be taken as at least slightly derogatory in the “capitalist running dog” sense.  A number of years ago we asked younger people to describe what they thought the average Chamber member looked like.  The composite drawing would look like the guy from the Monopoly board that we called the “old-man-with-a-bag-of-money”. Ben McRae also told me that this was what people thought of developers.  So by some mathematical law that I can no longer remember, if Chamber members are the old man with the bag of money, and if the audience are muckety-mucks, and the audience are Chamber members, then the audience must be old men with bags of money.

But I didn’t see any old men with or without bags of money.  There were no top hats and no monocles.  What I did see was 250 people who were keenly interested in the future of Halifax and of Nova Scotia and wanted to be part of the excitement of an announcement that many of them had been intimately involved in helping come to fruition.  These people are public servants, business people, young entrepreneurs, community leaders, and people who just want to be part of the effort to make us all better off.  And yes, people who were willing to pay $50 to be there.

The muckety-mucks, like the Chamber Dude, are the people who are part of the solution and who devote their time and money to helping this city and province be sustainable socially, environmental and economically.  Not everyone has to agree with their direction, tactics, or even motives, but until they are willing to do more they will be relegated to 
non-dude and non-muckety status and remain at the back of the room.  

New Convention Centre

By Brian Rose

Yesterday, at long last, we had, what I hope will be the first of a long line of good news announcements about major projects in Halifax and Nova Scotia. The federal government has made the penultimate pledge of support for a new Halifax convention centre. One of the few legitimate objections to this investment is the viability of the convention centre business. What makes us think we can compete with the giant convention centres in major cities around the world? 

The positioning of Halifax is that it is safe, clean and fun and we are certainly that. We are famous for being friendly, welcoming and being genuinely happy to help people enjoy what we have to offer. We are genuine in our hospitality and that is almost impossible to duplicate.

We are also in Nova Scotia and to people who come from large urban areas or the suburban sprawl that characterises so many cities, the placement of a city so close to the natural beauty and small town charms of this province that we take for granted makes Halifax a truly unique setting for conferences and conventions. 

But what will really make the difference is the ability to sell Halifax and Nova Scotia to the world. While a great deal of this falls on the shoulders of the convention centre staff that burden is shared by are a small group of prominent Nova Scotians who have the opportunity to influence decision makers and encourage them to bring their meetings and conventions to Halifax.  

Taking the 'no' out of Nova Scotia 

The best line of the week goes to Peter MacKay’s speechwriter who said “lets take the “no” out of Nova Scotia.” What a great line. What a great sentiment. This is an excellent compliment to our line, “start with yes!” 

I can’t even say that we are “negative” but I will say that it is a whole lot easier to just say no than to say yes and then actually have to do something. Is it that we are lazy or is it that we are just content with the life we have and not motivated to reach for something more. While I like the concept of “social capitalism” I am a firm believer that things get done, for better or worse, because of personal gain. Admittedly, this idea has gone terribly wrong of late but if we could embrace the idea that we need to work hard, take risks and be innovative in order to improve our lots individually and as a province we would have to also embrace the idea that no one gets rich by saying no.