Halifax Partnership Will Lead City Region Through COVID-19 Economic Crisis
HALIFAX — The Halifax Regional Council has put the Halifax Partnership in charge of leading the city’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery.
Council made the decision at a virtual council meeting on April 2 after hearing a presentation from the organization’s president and CEO Wendy Luther.
The Halifax Partnership is a public/private partnership created to foster economic development in the city.
During her presentation, Luther explained that the partnership has put its normal planning activities on hold and pivoted to developing a plan to get the city’s businesses healthy again once the COVID-19 crisis passes.
The good news, she said, is that Halifax “came into this crisis in an incredibly strong economic position.”
The city’s population had been increasing at a good clip and last year the city’s GDP grew by 2.9 percent, which Luther pointed out was “the largest growth we have seen in our city in years, if not decades.”
Luther also pointed out that there are encouraging signs right now that some key parts of the city’s economy continue to operate.
She said that export and supply chains are “still running well,” with the Port of Halifax reporting normal container dwell and truck wait times, and CN Rail operating with limited to no interruptions.
She also said the Halifax Partnership’s investment interaction team is still having “daily conversations with prospects interested in opening operations in Halifax,” and hearing that COVID-19 hasn’t changed their plans.
Even once the crisis passes, she says, the city could be in a better place than other jurisdictions. Halifax’s tourism industry, which has been hit very hard by the pandemic, could recover quickly.
“One important thing to note is that the majority of our tourist visits in HRM are from people who drive here. So, from a resiliency standpoint, we are anticipating that our tourism sector will recover faster than tourism industries elsewhere in the world,” Luther said.
However, there is still lots of work that will need to be done before any major economic recovery happens.
“We’re desperately looking to get back to that place [of strong economic growth],” Luther said. “But what is needed now are guiding principles to help the Halifax economy and community.”
Those principles are laid out in the Halifax Partnership’s three-phase recovery plan for the city, which Luther presented to the council.
Phase 1 is the “current and urgent health crisis” happening right now.
Luther said the partnership is helping businesses get through it by sharing best practices, helping them navigate funding programs, helping fix acute labour and supply-chain gaps, and raising awareness.
Phase 2, she said, will be “stabilization,” where some restrictions are lifted things begin to open again.
The partnership will help businesses prepare to reopen, and answering questions about their returning workers and customers, supply chains, facilities, and financing.
“We’re already retooling our teams at the Halifax Partnership to address these concerns,” Luther said.
Finally, Phase 3 will be “recovery,” where the city is once again open for business.
This will be when the Halifax Partnership beings assessing the city’s overall position and looking back at how leaders handled the crisis.
“We came into the crisis from an incredibly strong economic place; however, we’re not perfect and there’s always room for improvement,” Luther said. “So, which pre-pandemic strengths and challenges remain? What new problems and strengths must be addressed? Have we gained new relative advantage… and how do we seize these opportunities, and how do we solidify the recovery of our local businesses?”
Council voted April 2 to officially give the Halifax Partnership permission to lead that discovery process, and asked city staff to suggest a budget and timeline to help make that happen.