Podcast: Patrick Sullivan On Why Halifax Needs To Loosen Up And Get The Economy Going again
Huddle editor Mark Leger has chatted with many business leaders on “Home Office” bullish about their views to safely open up the economy as the Covid-19 caseloads have dropped across the region. On our first podcast, Marcel LeBrun and David Alston presented a plan of their own, a week before New Brunswick rolled out the official one. Next, we talked to business leader and columnist Don Mills, who didn’t want to see Nova Scotia left behind and was an early advocate for the “Atlantic Bubble.”
This week Mark chats with Halifax Chamber of Commerce CEO Patrick Sullivan, who says Atlantic Canadian cities are hurting, particularly the downtown cores where restrictions need to loosened so the workers can repopulate the largely empty office buildings and eat at area restaurants again.
Patrick says we have successfully prevented community spread and caseloads are low across the Atlantic region, so we should leverage that success to further r-boot a still-struggling economy.
“We have to be careful, we have to be cautious,” says Sullivan, who supports policies mandating wearing masks in public. “But is there something we can do to help those businesses recover after they were closed for months on end, or have suffered because customers have not [yet] come back?”
Patrick suggests relaxing the physical distancing rules for offices and eating establishments. He says be safe, but be realistic about the low incidence rate of Covid-19 in the region.
Listen to the interview with Patrick in the player above or one of many podcast platforms.
The Huddle “Home Office” podcast, available on Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher and Apple podcast platforms, features conversations with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia community leaders, entrepreneurs, analysts and Huddle reporters about the issues and events that accelerate and enrich the growth of the region’s economy and culture.
Related podcasts:
- David Alston And Marcel LeBrun Talk About ‘The Dance’ On Huddle’s New Podcast
- Don Mills Says It’s Time To Start Reopening Nova Scotia Economy