Halifax has led the country in the recovery of the center of the pandemic years, and experts say that the secret of success has been the diverse economy of the area.
The numbers of the Halifax Center Business Commission show about 10.22 million unique visitors in the area from mid -June to December 29 of last year. They include tourists, as well as people living or working in the center.
In 2019, these numbers were 10.26 million people for the same period. With a difference of approximately 46,000 and the eve of the New Year after that period of time, it is likely that the Halifax center has already reached that pre-pandemic level.
“Halifax has constantly led Canadian cities, from the beginning, which is much better than the others,” said Karen capple, director of the School of Cities and professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto.
The business commission numbers come from Environics, a data analysis company that collects information based on cell phone location.
Capple said that Halifax recovered quite quickly and has maintained that ascending trajectory, unlike some cities that were convinced after early success. The School of Cities also tracks visitors numbers using cell phone data.
When comparing in October 2024 with October 2023, the data of the capple team found that Halifax visits increased by 11.7 percent, the largest percentage change in the country. Calgary was second with 10.5 percent and Edmonton Third with 7.9 percent.
Capple said that Halifax in particular benefits from a diverse economy of the center, including bars and restaurants, shops, universities, arts and culture, a tourism sector, services such as government offices and hospitals and residential buildings.
“All that is really helping to boost the activity in the center and really turn it into the main city of Retroo Canadiense,” said capple.
Looking more closely at Halifax numbers, Champple said that people from all over the municipality come to the center and include long -term residents, immigrants and people from various ethnic origins to create a “really wonderful” combination of residents and visitors.
Capple said that the diversity of Canadian cities in general has helped them recover from pandemic faster than US cities, because many had turned their center into financial districts full of office buildings.
“I think we sometimes forget the jewel we have here,” said Paul Mackinnon, CEO of the Halifax Business Commission.
“We are far from being a perfect city, but we have a lot to offer here.”
A commission report found that the city’s employment base was 22,374 people in 2023, a 24 percent jump over 2022. Of these, about 4,200 people work in the food and drinking, stores and housing sectors , with the remaining thousands in real estate, banks or government offices.
“There are more people employed by organizations in the city center than before CO-Covid,” Mackinnon said.
A recent CBC analysis showed that, although many Halifax residents still work from home at least sometimes, the rapid growth of the city population has also meant that congestion levels are worse than in 2019 and concentrated in the middle of the middle of week.
The Halifax center has probably benefited especially from the policies to return to government work. Federal public servants returned three days a week from September, while the employees of the Nueva Scotia Non -Unionized government had the mandate to return full time in October.
To address the congestion, Mackinnon echoed the call of traffic researchers to obtain better traffic options, and encouraged people to go to the office on Mondays and Fridays, which are less busy.
He also said that the city should use the port of “much more interesting ways”, how to make free ferries and take private operators online to manage boat taxis.
“We just need to improve our transport systems to make people come to the center whenever they want,” Mackinnon said.
The city of Quebec, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are the other main cities that approach the levels of pre-pondemic visitors, said capple.
