Through the end of June, the Port of Halifax reported a 19.6 percent decline in business from the same period last year. But today, citing unnamed sources, allnovascotia.com reports that figures from July show that port business is down still more– 20.2 percent, compared to the same period last year. And:
More alarming is that on a pro-rated basis, the port could end the year with the lowest containerized cargo tonnage in a decade.
This is bad news indeed for port workers, and also for the grandiose plans for Halifax becoming a megaport. How much lower do shipping figures have to drop before the business and political class acknowledges that the dream of Halifax becoming the “Atlantic Gateway” is just that— a dream?
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.