Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and ladies and gentlemen. My name is Patrick Sullivan. I'm the present CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. The Halifax Chamber of Commerce is a best-practice business advocacy organization that continuously strives to make Halifax an even mo

Finance committee  As you've correctly stated, Nova Scotia is expecting a decline of about 10,000 people between the ages of 18 and 65 over the next five years or so. It's a significant decline. People are going to age out of the workforce. We definitely need more people. We have had the increase o

Finance committee  I will quickly echo much of what the other two gentlemen stated. I would say that 83% of our members are small businesses. They pay corporate taxes in Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, Nova Scotia's proportion of those taxes is extremely high, at 15%, versus another area such as Ontari

Finance committee  That's a very difficult question. My quick answer will be we already have trade deals with large trading partners like the United States and Mexico with NAFTA. Contrary to what Donald Trump may think, I believe that was a net benefit to Canada. There were certainly losses, but

Finance committee  What I alluded to was more about consultation that took place before some of these decisions were made. Obviously, there's not a final decision, because nothing has happened in Parliament to date, as I understand it, on the two particular issues I spoke about: CPP and the carbon

Finance committee  I could start, and perhaps Finn would like to add some numbers to that. This is a facility that is going to generate income and jobs in the thousands for 20 to 25 years in this region. It is a significant establishment. It is not any old shipbuilding facility. They built it, lit

Finance committee  Good morning. My name is Patrick Sullivan. I am the president and CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. The Halifax Chamber of Commerce is a best-practice business advocacy organization that continuously strives to make Halifax an even more attractive city in which to live, wor

Finance committee  We are working closely with the post-secondary institutions, particularly the community colleges, at this point. Our strategic plan has experience, so experiential learning, as a key component for our building the skilled workforce and the new economy. We have a task force that i

Finance committee  I think there are a few things. Number one, rationalize the number of programs that are available to make it easier for both students and employers to find those programs. That would go a long way. Make those programs more visible through co-operative efforts with organizations l

Finance committee  I spent last week with Adam Legge, by the way—

Finance committee  Our members started speaking to us quite loudly in July. It took a little while, I think, for them to figure out what was going on, but they started speaking quite loudly. Since yesterday we've had some communication with our members. Obviously the announcement only happened yest

Finance committee  There is no certainty at this point. I'll give you two specific examples, very quickly, of a business that is not being sold right now because of that uncertainty. In one example, the purchaser had planned to purchase and given the current tax criteria had planned to fund the lo

Finance committee  I think we have some—I don't know if I'd call them natural advantages—advantages. We have the education facilities. We have a large number of post-secondary institutions. I actually think it's close to.... Well, it's a lot. There a lot of universities in Halifax and across Nova S

Finance committee  We were a beneficiary of the Syrian refugees, and that certainly helped to bump us up. We did have the largest increase in population growth in Halifax since World War II, so it was significant growth. Halifax is a bubble in Nova Scotia. In Nova Scotia, we are experiencing popu

Finance committee  You've heard it.