No Free Trips to Halifax

I know my aunt Gretchen will crucify me when I confess here on my blog that I was recently in Halifax and didn't have even 5 minutes to call.

We took a serious look at buying a container terminal in Halifax, and I swooped into town to tour the site. In my defence, all my schedule allowed was to fly in from Montreal, see the facility, and then race back to the airport to catch a flight to New York. I was literally only there for a few hours. That sucks. Over the course of the last 15 years since I left Nova Scotia, I seem to have had no luck whatsoever in ever getting an all expense paid trip to Halifax where I could combine business with pleasure.

Although the container terminal is in excellent condition and obviously has a first rate management team running it, our analysis shows very little long term potential for container traffic in Halifax. While virtually every other port in North America has shown 5% to 8% growth (until 2009 which is another story), Halifax has been pretty much flat for the last 20 years, with a few upward and downward spikes here and there. Our view is that the expansion of the Panama Canal and deepening of water at the Port of New York are two events that will likely have a major negative impact on Halifax's container business. It is a real shame, as I would have loved to have been involved in shaping the future of Halifax's waterfront.

C'est la vie. No free trips home for me!