Good morning. Thank you. Welcome to Halifax, all of you who don't reside here.
My name is Norman Nahas. I'm an engineer by profession. I'm involved in the food and beverage industry and also in the construction industry. As well, I head up the Lebanese Chamber of Commerce in Nova Scotia. It's quite interesting to be sitting beside Mr. Jack Beaton, who heads up the Syria-Antigonish Families Embrace association at the other end of the province.
As an association, we believe in entrepreneurialism and removing roadblocks to enable business to thrive, because that in itself will allow for employment and the additional tax base to help fund many of the great things that are being proposed here today and across the country.
When it comes down to development in Halifax, we have a housing crisis, which is similar to those across the country. We aren't immune to any of these things that are happening. We've been big advocates for removing roadblocks, enabling development to happen and supporting those who are willing to take the risk to build—especially in uncertain times, with interest rate creep and the lack of tradespeople, which is a big problem here. I know there's a big announcement coming in 11 minutes, which we're all looking forward to hearing, but we still need to continue to incentivize and promote entrepreneurialism and development. At the end of the day, that is the only way the housing issue is going to be taken care of, because I don't believe we can rely on government to take it upon itself to fix every issue that's in front of us, especially the housing one.
I was born and raised here. My father came to Pier 21 on a boat in 1967 and married a local lady, my mother. I'm the product of a Canadian and Lebanese put together. I'm a proud Canadian. I'm also proud of my heritage and lineage, but I believe we need to continue to promote an entrepreneurial spirit and enable that to thrive so that employment can get more in check and the other issues we need to fund will be helped along the way as well.
That's it for opening statements. Thank you.