Labour Market Update - Southern Nova Scotia

*This report is an analysis of three month moving average data from Statistics Canada’s monthly Labour Force Survey.  The reader should be cautioned that because of relatively small sample sizes in subprovincial regions, data reliability may be an issue.

Best Western will open a new 63-room hotel in the growing commercial district north of Bridgewater in Cookville, next to the Boston Pizza restaurant. The three-story hotel is expected to open in spring 2010 and create 20 to 30 new jobs. It will feature a pool equipped with a waterslide and a 360-square-metre convention centre.

 

The federal government announced in early October that they had set aside funding for approximately one-third of the total cost of the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre (LCLC), up to a maximum contribution of $10.35 million. The facility is expected to be completed by 2012 within the business park area on York Street in Bridgewater. The goal is for the LCLC to contain two ice surfaces with seating, a pool, a public library, and community and cultural spaces.

 

The number of tourists in Liverpool was comparable to last season according to local museums and the tourist bureau. However, last year’s numbers were low because of the economy, the price of fuel, passport legislation and an election. The Liverpool VIC has averaged 9,000 to 11,000 visitors annually in the last two years. Five years ago that number was approximately 18,000.   Liverpool Advance - 13 October 2009

 

Four local jobs will be lost when Bridgewater’s Bell Aliant call centre closes next year. Eleven call centres in Atlantic Canada will close by next April. Bell is attempting to cut costs and improve efficiency by centralizing work in larger centres.   Bridgewater Bulletin - 20 October 2009

 

The federal government announced $500,000 in funding, through the ACOA Innovative Communities Fund, to the Yarmouth Mariners Centre in mid-October. The funding will be used to purchase new floor coverings for the facility’s two ice surfaces, upgrades to the kitchen facilities and the addition of a generator.

 

Université Sainte-Anne received $2.5 million in federal and provincial funding to incorporate renewable energy technologies into the campus. Solar hot water installations will provide domestic hot water and heat to campus buildings, a 50kW wind turbine will reduce reliance on purchased electricity, and a woodchip fuelled hot water boiler will replace the existing fuel oil-fired heating plant. The projects are expected to reduce the university’s operating costs substantially, allowing more money to be targeted for new programs and student services.

 

Wastewater treatment plants in Digby and Annapolis counties received a total of $4.5 million in federal funding. Digby’s plant upgrade will see a regional facility developed at Smith’s Cove and the current town treatment plant become an aeration and pumping facility. In Annapolis County, the Deep Brook plant will be upgraded and sewer lines extended.  Digby Courier - 1 October 2009