80 | Business World Magazine |
December 2013
told, the port of Halifax generates over 11,000
jobs and $1.5-billion in economic impact each
year. Remarkably, while generating revenue
and constantly developing the waterfront, Hal-
ifax has never over expanded its port, leaving,
for example, Pier 21 - the site where over one
million émigrés entered Canada for the first
time - intact as an important historical monu-
ment and museum (which itself garners over
$2.5-million per year in revenue). This trend is
clear in Halifax’s development: forward think-
ing matched with mindful preservation.
This is, at least, what Peter Duncan, Man-
ager of Infrastructure for the Halifax Regional
Municipality (HRM) believes. While he ac-
knowledges that there are not, necessarily,
big-ticket projects and developments com-
ing out of Halifax and creating a countrywide
buzz, there are initiatives on the books that he
is proud to help from the ground up. One of
which is the procurement of funding for long-
term development, including a land use plan
that is intended to guide the physical growth
and development of the HRM for the next 25
years, which plans for 25% growth in urban
areas, 50% in the suburbs, and the remaining
25% in what Duncan calls the “exurbs,” resi-
dential areas outside the suburbs.
