This year I, like so many other young people in Nova Scotia, packed up in search of a better future elsewhere (In my case to Toronto for university). It was hard for me to go, seeing as I was leaving all of my friends and family in Halifax, the city where I’ve lived my entire life. There just wasn’t enough opportunity in Halifax to stay. I miss home very much, and I still watch the Halifax local news every night. There was a story tonight that caught my attention; where the development of two buildings downtown was scrapped because of their scale. A city opposed economic and structural development of its downtown core, is a clear example of this cities reluctance to give a prosperous to future to its young people. This seems mostly due to its ageing demographics’ ideology. Not everyone wants to spend the rest of their life building boats. I’m not coming home. —Craig
This article appears in Nov 22-28, 2012.
I hear you OB.
One of my kid’s & her family have left here & moved to Ontario, opened a business & in less than 2 years have had to expand it twice & have just finished purchasing their own property & building, to expand the second time. They were barely making it here in the Maritmes … up there they can’t keep up & while I’m really glad they are successful. They’re so far away, I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like & I sure do miss them .
Good luck to you
Don’t blame you. I think all that shipbuilding hype was just that. Hype. I don’t see any more jobs as a result of it all anyhow.
son?
Wog, you do realise it takes time to get huge projects off the ground.
It makes no sense to hire hundreds of workers & then have to shut down & or do temporary layoffs , due to designs unfinished, materials unavailable etc.
After all you can’t just pop into the local building supply place & pick up thousands of square feet of 1 inch steel plate, another couple hundred I beams (for example) But it sure does seem to be nonexistant as far as the eyeball shows, when looking over at that site !
Agree with OP.
No opportunities around here. Even for business owners it’s very hard.
So many shops and places I notice close after a year or 2 because there’s no support. People don’t have the money here to spend it and there’s no money here for them to have.
I know so many people who just had to leave to most never came back.
I’ve said this from the day that they announced that Halifax would be getting the shipbuilding contract….NOTHING is carved in stone. As far as I know, as it stands right now, it’s only an agreement in principle. Nothing has been signed yet. Nothing is official. At anytime, this whole agreement could go pear-shaped, (i.e. change in government and then change of priorities before the projected start up date of 2014-15. Can you say cancelled helicopter contracts?) We’re putting too many of our eggs into one basket.
More, are they hiring?
Can I send you a resume?
I don’t much care what work it is…
I just wanna get the hell outta here.
I may not be a very profitable stripper… or a very good wood-worker…
but other than that, I should be good.
zZz , sorry dude I don’t believe they need anyone else at this time…& it ain’t a woodworking /caprentry shop or strip club (thanks for the chuckle I had when I read that )
They initially opened a Barbershop, with an Esthetics shop beside it , they took over the space next door less than a year later & went with 3 Barber chairs, a 2 chair Hairstylist shop combined with the esthetics …. Now they have purchased & refurbished a place they bought twice as big as their rented space, 6 & 6 with 4 esthetic employes as well …so they are really doing well.
I just wish it was in Halisux…or Truro instead of Southern Ontario !
I don’t think I should be influential in any degree in other people’s appearance anyways…
it’s for the best.
http://funnyloveblog.files.wordpress.com/2…
Ahhh the step side mullet. That kid is a mere pair of acid wash jeans and a Levi’s Storm Rider jacket away from being almost every douche I went to school with in the late 80’s.
*sigh* The memories.
i fucking don’t blame you for not wanting to be here o.p., i had a good chance to head out west a couple of years back, and make a shitload of cash. did i go, nope, and look at me now. i do okay, but not like the job that i could have had in alberta in the oilfields. there is still a lot of cash out there o.p., just look around a bit, you will find it.
Learn french.
Seriously it has saved my ass big time. Without I’d be gone for sure. Most people have to leave their hometown to find success, it’s not just here, although I certainly agree with the bitch 100%. Build the freakin skyscrapers. By the time they’re up and running most of the people complaining about them will be dead anyway.
right on thomas, the big empty pit is soooo progressive^^
So is that it? Are they totally abandoning the project now? The pit is now here to stay? I read the headline the other day in the Herald but didn’t really have time to get into the story.
not sure, but if i was a developer i’d head for them there hills
well things got even better in TO …the fat righty mayor is dead..yay for lefty hate missions
So why do we need skyscrapers? I understand to perhaps curtail the effects of urban sprawl but smaller buildings can achieve that as well.
I’m not trying to be facetious but I really don’t understand mega-projects. I do concede that it seems to be in human DNA. From the megalithic circles in Europe 6 to 7 thousand years ago to Pyramids of Gisa built a couple of thousand years later.
Mega-projects are energy intensive and the jobs they create are short term. Are we supposed to look at them and say “wow look at what we built!” It’s about prestige?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Haligonian and could care less about the view from Citadel Hill. I just don’ tget the attraction.
TF, it’s something i have been mulling over lately. humans like to make an impact, whether it’s huge freeways. buildings, monster ships or tagging a wall or fence. “look at me! i exist!”
ozymandias the mighty, in every human on 2 legs.
it drives the explorers, the visionaries, the scientists, the architects, the artists. but our ‘enough’ button is faulty.
I think these proposals are just that, proposals. The site down near bishops landing on the water has had about 20 proposals in as many years, most approved. Even if they’re approved I think there’s a 90% chance they’re abandoned as unfeasible by the developers at a later date. Don’t weep for the twin towers, they were probably just a pipe dream or lame attempt to set a precedence of having the rules broken and never would have been built.
Marty – even us Righties were embarrassed by that clown. Sometimes you have to render unto Caesar…even if it means granting the commie pinko windmills on bicycles brigade, an easy win. >; )
Avast, not sure how much information you have or you can dig up, or anyone for that matter, but I work with a firm that’s doing some work for Irving.
The work we’re doing is connected to the ship-building contract indirectly.
From what I heard from sources on our project is that Irving got an forgivable loan of $250,000 from NDP to do some upgrades to the facilities so they can accommodate the ship-building contract. If nothing has been signed, why would they get it?
Any input on this?
If memory serves I.M.P. group , among others had received a fair bit of capital from both Federal and Provincial governemnts to gear up for the EH-101 purchase, and post acquisition maintenance contracts. All that ended when Jean Poutine got his majority and said “Dat it – no more ‘elecopter”. It’s a safe bet that the final package will resemble neither the projected naval requirements nor what the Conservatives announced.
See I didn’t think much would come from this to be honest.
Yes I remember the whole Helicopter fiasco and how it disappeared.
@formosus
I’m sorry but your kind is the type that is hampering progress in this city. Using big words & acting snobbish while not even understanding what “energy intensive” means. It is about maximising the usage of the infrastructure that is already in place in downtown. It is about mixing historical sites with modern living. It is about bringing people to live and work in downtown not using their cars to go to work, to shop and to use public transit in stead, reducing traffic and pollution. It is about supporting downtown businesses which would translate into more tax revenues and more investment by the Government. Did you know for instance that the developer of Sky Halifax was the first developer to incorporate geo-thermal into one of his buildings? Of course not and he was going to do the same thing with Sky Halifax. Your kind complain and choose to be difficult not because you have a case but because it’s a habit & old habits die hard.