Greater Halifax Partnership

The Greater Halifax Partnership leads economic growth for Greater Halifax through focusing on growing business, attracting new investment and strengthening the community. The Partnership brings together municipal, provincial, and federal government, along with more than 150 private sector investors and community groups to drive the exonomic growth for the Halifax Region.

The Greater Halifax Partnership is committed to innovation, shifting attitudes, partnership, and aliging the many interests involved throughout Greater Halifax. In this way, the partnership can more effectively create jobs and high-quality employment opportunities for citizens, to create one vision for us all that will actively support the development of local business, residents and communities.

The Greater Halifax Partnership has firmly established itself as the champion for economic development involving all the people, reaching all the communities and businesses in Greater Halifax - be it the priorities of urban, suburban, or rural communities of the interests of large or small businesses. We also realize that our businesses and communities compete with the world.

Accessing the latent power of partnerships and creating innovative approaches to drive economic growth is what we're about. The partnership has demonstrated that the strength of a single partnership far exceeds that of its individual partners.

With the investors and all three levels of government, the Greater Halifax Partnership works to create a competitive business climate in Greater Halifax. Most of the focus is on strengthening core skills to keep and grow existing businesses. The focus is also on initiatives to attract or get new investment into Greater Halifax, through encouraging the hiring of immigrants and to find ways to retain young workers. And working to build capacity in communities by aligning different community interests. The bottom line - bringing business, people and community together to grow the economy. HistoryThe Greater Halifax Partnership was established in 1996 to drive economic growth in the newly amalgamated Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). During the time of the Partnership's inception business and consumer confidence were very low; unemployment ranked as a primary exonomic concern; and there was growing frustration in the business community with approaches to exonomic development. A handful of visionary business leaders recognized the remarkable potential of Greater Halifax and that if properly guided, Greater Halifax could grow and prosper by building on its inherent strenghts, including:

Size- Halifax is the largest city east of Quebec City and north of BostonAccess- our port and airport offer superior accessibility by air and seaWorkforce- highly educated and productivePopulation- young and growingQuality of Life- a mix of big city and small town feel, offering a quality of life that is unsurpassed

Halifax needed leadership and momentum. Working with teh Halifax Regional Municipality, and led by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, a group of business leaders devised a new model for economic development. A public-private model, led by the private sector, for supporting and accelerating economic growth - a partnership.

Business and government would share the:ResponsibilityAccountability, and Cost of economic development for Halifax.

As a result, the Greater Halifax Partnership was born. A partnership that brought together all three levels of government together with the private sector to drive the economic growth of our region. Within 18 months, the Partnership had successfully brought the private sector and key government agencies together to generate economic growth for our bigger, better community. Core funding from the public sector, along with private sector investment, helped stimulate, and continues to stimulate, growth within Greater Halifax. Recognized as a leader and innovator in community exonomic growth, the Partnership has emerged as a national model of private and public sector cooperation. Now the Partnership is even stronger. In 2006, the Greater Halifax Partnership and the Halifax Regional Development Agency (HRDA) merged into one organization.

The HRDA, established in 1995 to serve the residents of Halifax County, was one of 14 regional development agencies established throughout the province by the Nova Scotia government to increase coordination of community-based and locally driven development strategies. It has done just that. Today, one board, one mission, and one goal define the Greater Halifax Partnership: to develop and deliver economic growth initiatives that serve Greater Halifax.

"'References

1. Greater Halifax Partnership website

External Links

* [http://www.greaterhalifax.com/ Greater Halifax Partnership]
* [http://www.halifax.ca/ Halifax Regional Municipality]
* [http://www.acoa.ca/ Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]