An anecdotal overview of various sectors of the Eastern HRM economy

An anecdotal overview of various sectors of the Eastern HRM economy

1. Reliability of the information

This overview is based on brief discussions with a few key people knowledgeable about various aspects of the local economy and as such is anecdotal and thus should not be viewed as definitive and more of an order of magnitude assessment. On the other hand, there does not seem to be any significant difference between what these informants had to say and what people in general perceive to be the case.

2. Overall employment pattern

The largest single employer of residents of the area is probably Metro. It is difficult to assess the actual number but given traffic count statistics probably at least 5,000 people work in Metro.

In 2002, the annual average daily traffic (AADT) was 15,710 vehicles implying that about 7,500 vehicles went west and about 7,500 went east every day. Assuming two thirds of these vehicles were going to work and 15% had a passenger, there are about 5-6,000 people from eastern HRM working in Metro every day. However, this figure is for 2002 whereas the figure for 2009 is 14,710, suggesting less vehicles per day. However, this does not necessarily mean less people working because there could be more people car-pooling.

One fact that can be gleaned from the traffic count statistics is that the catchment area likely extends to Lake Charlotte because the AADT was 3240 vehicles in 2002 and 3620 vehicles in 2009 (at East Jeddore on the #7 Highway). This information seems to mesh with the data collected as a result of the location study for the new K-9 school at Oyster Pond that found population growth east of Musquodoboit Harbour. Note that this is a 12% increase in the daily vehicle tally whereas the count at Murphy Cove shows an AADT of 1300 vehicles in 2003 and 1080 in 2009, a 17% decline.

The second largest employer in the area is the public sector, primarily education and health. No easily accessible numbers for eastern HRM could be found.

3. Other economic sectors

• Forestry: There are probably less than 100 people in HRM actively working in the forestry sector. The closure of the mill in Port Hawkesbury has negatively impacted the industry, no just because the mill was closed but because the supply of fresh wood fibre needed to keep the mill in a state of hot idle created and oversupply of wood fibre. This resulted in the price of wood fibre dropping from $51/ton to $35/ton with the result that many operators stopped work. There are a couple of bright spots, wood chips continue to be shipped from Sheet Harbour using mostly raw material from elsewhere in the Province and small firewood operations seem to be surviving.

• Fishing: Harvesters seen to be doing well with lobster catches good, and of good quality with prices as good or better than other areas of the Province. Harvesters of other species seems to be doing OK as well. The possibility of fleet separation appears to have been dropped, at least for now. This is seen as positive for harvesters. Processors do not seem to be doing as well because an overall increase of about 40% in the landing of lobsters on the Atlantic seaboard has depressed prices while the higher Canadian dollar has effectively raised operating costs by about a third. Lobster industry starting to focus on branding lobster as a high-end wild product from pristine northern waters etc. Small aquaculture operations such as the Ship Harbour mussel farm and the new Sheet Harbour oysters (both wild farming operations) seem to be doing OK. The planned expansion of open-pen salmon farming continues to be a major local issue.

• Real Estate: Generally, the real estate market has been depressed since the economic downturn which has lowered both prices and volume. However, the area from Lawrencetown to Ecum Secum is really three different markets, the outer suburbs, say to Porters Lake, the semi-rural, from Porters Lake to Lake Charlotte, and the truly rural, east of Lake Charlotte. In the rural area people purchasing second homes and recreational properties were driving the market and that area is now very slow. A lot of the interest in the semi-rural area was driven by young families attracted to a rural lifestyle and lower home prices. This trend has now slowed a lot and people are selling because of high fuel prices which impact on driving to a job in Metro but also taking kids to a variety of sport and cultural activities on a frequent basis. In the outer suburbs prices need to be under $300,000 to sell quickly. New home construction seems to be down

• Public Transportation: Basically non-existent east of Porters Lake except for Musgo Rider, which is pre-booked transportation which does not serve east of Jeddore.

• Retail: Webbers Store has closed after 83 years. Gas in the area now available only at Musquodoboit Harbour, Head Jeddore, Sheet Harbour and Sherbrooke.

• Tourism: See accompanying overall stats. More specifically, Salmon River House remains closed, Webbers Motel is closed, Sea Rover Marine is for sale, various B&Bs have closed. Traditional travel seems to be lower while special events may be up (Sea Rover and Memory Lane).

• Other businesses: Rosborough Boats has ceased operation. There are now no active boatbuilding operations within the area?

• Vital Signs: This document provides a comprehensive overview of HRM but is of limited use in trying to glean facts about the eastern end of HRM. However, what can be gleaned, such as housing prices (both the lowest price and lowest number of units sold) and the top priority items for the use of municipal resources (44%-transportation, economic development-31%) seem to mesh with the above. All VICs are now closed and many museums barely surviving.

4. Bright spots

There are some private sector bright spots which all seem to have a certain similarity in that they are small operations, sometimes very small, serving the local market but also the Metro market. These include small cafes/bakeries, property maintenance and services, vehicle maintenance etc. The common characteristics seems to be less than ten employees with a primarily local market.