CULTURE TOPS WISH LISTS

by James Keller

Mobility and culture are the two major issues the Halifax Regional Municipality needs to work on in the coming year, says Tom Traves, the president of Dalhousie University .

“I'd like to see an improved city transportation policy, which is becoming a major issue in this city,” says Traves.

“Second, I'd like to see HRM develop a much more active and supportive cultural policy. I think HRM does an extremely modest job in terms of supporting cultural activities, and it's something that has the potential to put Halifax in a much more metropolitan mode.”

Traves' hopes for Halifax relate back to his role at Dalhousie University . With improvements to the city's transportation infrastructure, and with a stronger sense of culture, he says the university can convince the brightest students and researchers to move to Halifax .

Traves isn't the only one with high hopes for the coming year. Some of the city's institutions are already drafting their wish lists for 2005 – and, like on Traves' list, culture is front and centre.

Jeffrey Spalding, director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, says the city, its culture and its institutions, need to catch up to its size.

“ Halifax isn't a small town anymore,” he says. “It's about time the city realized that.

“We're in between in terms of our population and growth,” says Spalding, pointing out that the Halifax Regional Municipality 's population is just over 375,000.

In the coming year, Spalding wants to see this change. He says until now the people and culture of Halifax haven't grown into the city's size fast enough.

“It's an evolutionary process, and it hasn't been overnight,” he says. “But it seems like we've woken up and realized that we're just too big.”

Once the city realizes this, Spalding says, Halifax can work to become a world-class city – something he hopes to help through his work at the Nova Scotia Art Gallery .

“As people travel around the world or look in newspapers or magazines, they come across really interesting exhibitions around the world, and it's always fair to muse, ‘why not us?'” he says.

Cultural development spills over onto the business world, as well.

Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, thinks cultural preservation will boost business in the city's downtown.

His organization wants the city to establish a heritage conservation district along Barrington Street , stretching from City Hall to Government House.

“It would be the first heritage district in Halifax , which is pretty amazing given the city's focus on historical preservation,” says MacKinnon. “It's a way to conserve some of the heritage buildings we have and to revitalize the economic prosperity of the area.”

MacKinnon hopes the city will officially designate the area a heritage district this spring, bringing Halifax into the company of Saint John , N.B., Vancouver 's Gas Town and Toronto 's Distillery District.

The designation would create new building and demolition regulations, as well as provide funding for building restoration. All of this, MacKinnon says, would draw consumers back into the downtown and encourage tourism.

“We want to sustain tourism, and you can do that by creating and maintaining a really authentic city,” MacKinnon says.

Culture and business also operate in tandem for Nova Scotia 's film industry, which has recently hosted productions like Stone Cold starring Tom Selleck, and television programs like Made in Canada and the Trailer Park Boys.

“On the top of our wish list are enhancements to the Nova Scotia Film Industry Tax Credit,” says Ann MacKenzie, CEO of the Nova Scotia film development corporation.

MacKenzie says Nova Scotia 's tax credit program, which was one of the first in the country, isn't competitive with other provinces. Local productions currently receive a refundable credit on 30 per cent of their labour costs. MacKenzie wants to see that raised to 35 per cent, and give filmmakers who make multiple productions here even more concessions.

Increasing the credit and encouraging production in Nova Scotia and Halifax , she says, would boost the economy in other areas.

MacKenzie also points out that a vibrant film industry is good for Nova Scotia 's image outside of the province and the country.