Good evening.....Heads of Mission, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Nova Scotia! We are honoured that you have chosen to visit our beautiful province, and we promise to make very good use of your time while you are here.

It is appropriate that we hold this welcoming event at Pier 21. Last century this was the entry point for one point five million immigrants. Individuals who had the courage and the vision to seize the emerging opportunities a new world was offering.

We have much in common with those early immigrants. Today, we face a world of changes as well. We are in an era of globalization. Global trading patterns are shifting and emerging opportunities are plentiful.

Nova Scotia is poised to take advantage of them. We are focused on trade and investment. We are creating a new Nova Scotia where our products and services are in demand around the globe. We are building on our strengths–and we have many of them–as you will come to know in the next few days.

Nova Scotia is one of the best places in which to invest, live, work and raise a family. During your visit, we will be demonstrating exactly why that is the case. Let me begin with just a few examples.

We are the closest mainland entry point to Europe and to Asia via the Suez Canal. Our workforce has the highest level of post-secondary education in the country.

We are home to more than one thousand and four hundred information and communications technology companies; and more than five hundred firms offering products and services related to the environmental industry.

We have more than twenty three hundred researchers in life sciences. In fact, the Scientist Magazine has just ranked Dalhousie University here in Halifax as the best place to work in the international category. The University of Nottingham and the University of Helsinki were ranked second and third, respectively. This is the second time Dalhousie has received this honour.

We have one of the most widely-deployed and reliable digital broadband networks on the continent.

We have eleven universities, several that consistently rank within the best ten in the country, as well as a province-wide network of state-of-the-art community colleges.

A recent KPMG study placed four Nova Scotia communities on the top ten list of best locations in Canada to do business–three in the top four.

These examples, and many more, speak for themselves.

Tonight, you will learn more about our innovative spirit, our competitiveness, our highly educated workers and strategic links to world markets which set us apart from others.

The right infrastructure is in place. The right people are in place. We are ready to lead.... and succeed.

Atlantic Gateway

Nova Scotia is thinking big. The province is in the race for the growing container traffic coming through the Suez Canal to North America. We’re well positioned to be Canada’s gateway on the Atlantic.

Research has shown us that changing trade patterns and the global supply trends bode well for this region.

Growth in global trade is being driven by Asian countries, and this growth is largely through container traffic. Asia is the world’s number one trading region. Business from Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent have been increasing exponentially.

The vast majority of world trade–about 90 per cent–moves in containers, much of it carried on oceangoing container ships..and we want to capitalize on our natural advantages. Nova Scotia’s geographic position makes us a first in and last out port on the Suez route.

What you should also know is that our deep, ice free ports, specifically the Port of Halifax and the Strait of Canso SuperPort, have the capacity to handle the biggest ships in the world. In fact, the Port of Halifax is the only North American East Coast container port deep enough to handle post-Panamax ships.

We have the land, manpower and infrastructure to handle cargo shipments from booming Asian economies that are currently tying up traffic on the west coast and slowing the flow of goods to markets around the world. As Luke Rich, Chairman of the Asian Development Group Corporation said, “Halifax is in a good position to capitalize on the trends taking place in global trade.”

We have developed and are implementing an aggressive gateway marketing strategy that will work to maximize the province’s full potential as a strategic international transportation gateway.

While the west coast and other ports along the eastern seaboard struggle to find capacity, Halifax is all set to double its container traffic now.

I am also very proud of Halifax International Airport, Canada’s latest airport to receive US pre-clearance. This is one of the several initiatives that resulted from the Smart Border Action Plan. It also includes placing U.S. Customs personnel in Nova Scotia ports to help in the pre-screening of cargo that arrives in our country and is headed to another.

The private sector is also active in promoting and capitalizing on Nova Scotia’s natural advantages. They are investing in vital infrastructure. Melford International Terminal Incorporated plans to build a 325-million dollar container facility in the Strait of Canso.

Macquarie Infrastructure Partners has purchased the Halterm container terminal and cargo facility at the Port of Halifax. And Cerescop–the international operator of the Fairview Cove terminal at the Port of Halifax–has just installed two, multi-million dollar post-Panamax cranes.

Consolidated Fastfrate is expanding its distribution warehouse in Halifax. They are working with our national retailer, Canadian Tire, helping them to balance their supply chain via the ports of Vancouver and Halifax.

I hope by the end of your visit, you’ll see why Nova Scotia is Canada’s Atlantic Gateway to a wider world.

Connected

Nova Scotia is the most connected province in the country. Currently, almost eighty per cent of the province has access to broadband.

Already, government departments have become model users of technology in order to deliver programs and services, and our healthcare sector is implementing a standard clinical system.

In our schools, a child can learn about the world as never before. Students at Halifax West High School are using interactive video links with the Canadian Space Agency’s offices in Ottawa to tap into the minds and experience of the scientists and experts at the space agency.

Connected communities are competitive communities. Expanding our broadband Internet access is as important to our society in 2007 as electrification was in 1936. For this reason, I have committed to ensuring that by the end of 2009 all of Nova Scotians, no matter where they live, will have 100 per cent coverage.

Our goal is to be the most connected jurisdiction in North America. This, along with other targeted measures, will position Nova Scotia as a leading information technology jurisdiction.

Being an IT leader will ensure that we are well-positioned to compete in a global economy. IT enhances productivity and provides access to the best information possible at unparalleled speeds. IT is a true form on innovation that touches every corner of our province, people’s quality of life and their businesses–no matter what business sector.

Nova Scotia’s Clean and Green Economy

More and more, governments and businesses around the globe realize they share the responsibility for sustainable growth. Growth cannot come at the expense of the planet or its people.

Nova Scotia’s Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act recognizes that a healthy environment contributes to a healthy economy. The Act includes twenty targets that ensure we have one of the cleanest and most sustainable environments in the world by the year twenty-twenty.

We are one of the first jurisdictions in the country to set our environmental targets in legislation. It is ambitious. It is progressive. And, it is attainable. To prove it, we will provide mandatory annual reports on the progress we make in attaining our targets.

The objective of our legislation is to ensure future generations have access to clean air, lakes, rivers and streams. The Act establishes a protected areas goal of 12 per cent of our total land mass. By 2009 there will be no net loss of wetlands. There will be new standards for municipal drinking water and waste water treatment.

Our legislation has set an eighteen point five per cent goal for renewable energy production; and it will set goals for reduction in mercury emissions, greenhouse gases, as well as adopting California-style emission standards for new automobiles. Businesses, governments and citizens around the world need to understand that the bar is being raised for all of us–and there is no opting out.

Our environment is not the enemy of our economy. The opposite is true. And if we accept the principles of good capital management, we accept that preserving the environment is also vital to our economy.

The New Nova Scotia will balance economic development, social development and environmental protection. There are some who believe that protecting the environment is bad for business. But we know well that the health of the environment, the economy and the people are all interconnected.

For example, our solid-waste management is an international success, and a model being emulated around the globe. The Province of Nova Scotia has become a world leader at diverting valuable materials from disposal. Seizing the opportunity to turn waste into resources, the Province has created hundreds of jobs while protecting the natural beauty of Nova Scotia. We are investing in our people and our newest natural resource: solid waste.

To drive these economic and environmental benefits, the Province legislated to divert fifty per cent of waste from disposal. The steps required to reach this goal are detailed in the Province’s Solid Waste-Resource Management Strategy.

Our solid waste management system replaces dumps which were blights on the landscape–with state-of-the-art landfills and a recycling system to match.

This environmental stewardship saves our economy thirty million dollars a year. We regularly have visitors from around the world who want to see how we do it.

Our initiative on waste management helped develop an environmental industries sector that employs five thousand people and is worth three hundred and sixty million dollars to our economy. Our private sector is now supporting our waste management approach in places as distant as the Middle East and Africa.

Cleaner Energy

Driven by climate change and depleting fossil fuels, the world is quickly coming to think of the environment in new ways. In Nova Scotia, we will not see ourselves as victims of change and buy technology and resources produced elsewhere in the world.

Instead, we know we are innovators and environmental entrepreneurs. We have developed a Green Energy Strategy to help guide us through this process.

Nova Scotia has one of Canada’s best wind regimes and some of the highest tides in the world. These present opportunities for Nova Scotia to become a leading producer of green renewable resources.

We plan to not only harness a Made-in-Nova Scotia green energy source, but we can also become experts in how to do it – and one day export that knowledge around the world. Right now, we want to expand our use of tidal power. We are calling for proposals that we hope will bring the world’s most robust, ocean-ready demonstration devices into one of the world’s best sites – our own Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world. Tidal power has been used there since 1984 in Annapolis Royal. It’s a model unique to North America.

Natural gas is another significant source of renewable energy that we are delivering to North America. The Sable Offshore Energy Project is producing about 450 million cubic feet per day... carried by international pipelines to Canada and U.S. markets. Further discoveries such as the Deep Panuke natural gas field and the Annapolis Deep Water Well offer continued production potential – as much as forty trillion cubic feet in deep water alone.

And our natural gas advantages are attracting international investment. Houston-based McDermott International recently invested two hundred and sixty million dollars in Secunda Marine Services, a local company that provides services to the oil and gas industry.

Finding solutions

In the same way Nova Scotia met aggressive targets for solid waste management, we are now setting ambitious standards for renewable energy in Canada.

New regulations under Nova Scotia’s Electricity Act will ensure our electricity generating system will dramatically increase its use of renewable energy and more efficient, cleaner generation technology.

By twenty thirteen almost twenty per cent of our electricity will be generated by renewable sources such as wind, biomass, solar and hydro. That’s roughly four hundred megawatts–enough to meet the needs of more than one hundred thousand households.

Innovation & Research and Development

Innovation is a requirement in the new global economy–and Nova Scotia is poised to lead – and succeed in this area as well.

There are more than fourteen hundred information and technology companies operating in rural and urban areas of the province.

We have more than fifty core life sciences firms currently involved in research and development. Dalhousie University, here in Halifax, has attracted more than one hundred million dollars annually in total research dollars.

We have many world-class examples of organizations which demonstrate....everyday...an innovative spirit. The Brain Repair Centre in Halifax is one of them. Over the next two decades, brain disorders will surpass cancer and heart disease as the leading cause of death and disability. The Brain Repair Centre is leading the way in developing ground breaking treatments and technologies in this field. Its team is one of an elite few around the globe developing deep brain stimulation technologies and performing these types of operations.

In September 2002 the centre performed the first telementoring robotic neurosurgery at a distance of four hundred kilometres. This long distance procedure between Halifax and Saint John, New Brunswick was a world’s first. The Centre is currently exploring the application of these techniques in other countries as far away as Bolivia.

Doctor Mendez is a pioneer and innovator in the field of deep brain stimulation. I am pleased to say that you’ll have an opportunity to spend time with Dr. Mendez during your visit.

Many other successful and innovative companies have discovered Nova Scotia has the winning combination of human and natural resources to help them build upon their success, because they know Nova Scotia has all that they need to succeed in the local economy: location to market, access to high-speed internet service, a smart, loyal dependable work force, a favourable business climate and so much more.

But there is another reason, an important reason, why Nova Scotia is attracting more and more attention from more and more business. It is that balance between old and new. That balance that give us our quality of life. Successful business leaders know their company’s future growth and prosperity depends on the quality and stability of their workforce.

And more and more of the highly skilled professionals that businesses need to recruit and retain want more out of life than a big title and a healthy pay cheque. They want balance. They want to balance the demands of their job with time with their family and friends, and when it comes to balance, Nova Scotia has it in spades.

Nova Scotia teaches the world

One of Nova Scotia’s key strengths is our network of post secondary educational institutions. Halifax has a higher concentration of universities per capita than anywhere else in Canada. In total, the province has 11 universities, several that consistently rank in the top ten in the country.

The Nova Scotia community college has campuses in every part of the province, all of which are contributing to one of the most skilled work forces in the nation.

Our post-secondary schools accept fouir thousand students from one hundred and forty nations per year, in addition to the tens of thousands of Canadian students who study here.

Climate for Business

Michelin Tire is a keystone of our economy in Nova Scotia. And every day more and more international firms are locating in our province and exporting their services and products to the world.

Our Nova Scotia Export Strategy helps local companies do the same. It helps firms convert leads into export sales–and develop the skills they need to become proficient exporters.

We’ve established ambitious goals as part of this strategy and are already implementing initiatives that will create a vibrant business environment that promotes and facilitates export success for all Nova Scotian-based businesses.

It’s no secret that governments can directly impact a business’s ability to be globally competitive through the tax burden placed on production, investment and income, an through regulation of business practices.

The Nova Scotia Government strives to reduce the burden for all taxpayers to help cultivate an economic environment that allows business to succeed and people to thrive. It’s simple economics. We have our fiscal house in order. We are paying down our debt and we’ve delivered six consecutive balanced budgets. And the world is watching us.

When we applied the first installment of our offshore gas revenues to reducing the debt, major international bond rating agencies immediately recognized and rewarded our fiscal stewardship by raising Nova Scotia’s credit rating–and that means a reduction in our cost of borrowing.

We understand that regulatory compliance is a necessity for all of us. But too often compliance results in excess regulations..or red tape. Through Nova Scotia’s Better Regulation Initiative, we are working to reduce the paperwork burden to business by twenty per cent over the next four years while still ensuring that regulations are effective and enforced.

Nova Scotia is already well established as a destination of choice for international companies seeking the best location. Attracting more investment is a priority for us.

Our economic growth strategy, Opportunities for Sustainable Prosperity, is a unique plan that matches a blueprint for economic growth with concern for sustaining the environment.

Our private sector-led business development initiative, Nova Scotia Business Inc., works to attract new companies to locate in Nova Scotia. To date, many well-known, international firms have happily accepted the invitation. Some examples include Research in Motion, Composites Atlantic, Consolidated FastFrate and others.

Since 2001, a total of eighteen thousand and six hundred jobs were created as a result of NSBI clients. These jobs account for two billion dollars in total household income and two hundred and fifteen million dollars in total provincial tax recoveries.

Immigration / Diversity

Nova Scotia has been welcoming people from around the world for centuries. Immigrants have helped make Nova Scotia a vibrant, dynamic society in which everyone can build their dreams. They are a significant element in our innovative, highly educated and skilled workforce.

Did you know that Arabic and Mandarin are the most widely spoken languages in Halifax after English and French? So far, there are about 944,000 people who call Nova Scotia home, in an area of 55,000 square kilometres, so there is room to breathe and room to grow.

As a province of Canada, we are a tolerant society where everyone is encouraged to build a good life for themselves and become a part of their communities. Our Immigration Strategy is already succeeding in adding new highly skilled new Nova Scotians to our historical cultural diversity.

Let me wrap up with this. At your places tonight, you have a copy of our international framework strategy which shows how Nova Scotia will continue to modernize our economy in a way that protects all that we value about our past.
We are determined to be known as the greenest, most connected, most innovative, most balanced province in Canada–a province that uses all of its advantages to become self-sufficient and to contribute to a strong Canada–and a strong global economy.

We will do this, and more, without sacrificing any of the things that set us apart from the competition. We will stay innovative. We will keep our balance. Protect our environment and hold true to our values.

We are ready to lead and succeed. But don’t just take my word for it...I want you to hear from others who are leading the way to a global Nova Scotia.

Thank you for your attention and enjoy your visit!