Port of Halifax Summer 2019

SU MME R 20 1 9

port OF HALIFAX MAGAZINE

Icelandic invasion With a new office in Halifax, Eimskip looks to continue growing its cargo volumes in the Port

STEADY COURSE Halifax’s busiest-ever cruise season includes a visit from the Disney Magic

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Table of Contents

port

Portside Notes

OF HALIFAX MAGAZINE

The latest on cargo and ship movements, key stakeholders, and new development­­s Bringing the Maine Beer Box to Halifax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Public consultations on infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Family ties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Around the Port Steady course STEADY CARGO TRAFFIC AND ONGOING INFRASTRUCTURE WORK—THE PORT OF HALIFAX REMAINS AN IMPORTANT ECONOMIC ENGINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Carrier Spotlight Icelandic invasion WITH A NEW OFFICE IN HALIFAX, EIMSKIP LOOKS TO CONTINUE GROWING ITS CARGO VOLUMES IN THE PORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Sailing Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Feature

For more information on the Port of Halifax and its stakeholders, please contact: Halifax Port Authority, Business Development & Operations P.O. Box 336 Ocean Terminals, 1215 Marginal Road Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2P6 Canada Tel: 902-426-2620 • Fax: 902-426-7335 Email: info@portofhalifax.ca Website: portofhalifax.ca or Halifax Shipping Association P.O. Box 1146, Station M Halifax, NS B3J 2X1 Email: info@hfxshippingassn.com Website: halifaxshippingassociation.com

Printed in Canada Copyright © Summer 2019 Port of Halifax Magazine

Building blocks THE PORT OF HALIFAX EMBRACES DIGITAL INDUSTRY INNOVATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . .

Port of Halifax magazine is distributed free to maritime, industrial, and transportation stakeholders around the world. Metro Guide Publishing produces Port of Halifax magazine independently. For permission to reproduce original material, editorial inquiries, advertising, or subscription information, contact the publisher. While every effort is made to ensure factual accuracy, Metro Guide Publishing and its partners and stakeholders cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions.

Produced by Metro Guide Publishing

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Publisher Senior Editor Production Coordinator Production & Creative Director Graphic Designer Printing

Patty Baxter Trevor J. Adams Paige Sawler Shawn Dalton Graham Whiteman Advocate Printing & Publishing

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902-420-9943 publishers@metroguide.ca

ON OUR COVER:

Eimskip’s Canadian operation is growing steadily, prompting management to open a new Halifax office.

INSET: With some 190 ship visits expected, Halifax will welcome about 320,000 passengers during the 2019 cruise season.

2882 Gottingen Street Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 3E2 Tel: 902-420-9943 Fax: 902-429-9058 Email: publishers@metroguide.ca

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SUMMER 2019 ||

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PORTSIDE NOTES

Bringing the Maine Beer Box to Halifax

A unique partnership between the Maine Brewers’ Guilde and Eimskip USA visits the Port of Halifax in August.

By Kim Hart Macneill

This summer the Maine Beer Box, a

40-foot reefer container featuring 78 taps of fresh craft beer, lands in the Port of Halifax to pour at Halifax Seaport Cider & Beerfest at the Cunard Centre on Aug. 9 and 10.

It started over a beer.

David Carlson, owner of Marshall Wharf Brewing Co. in Bangor, Me.; Sean Sullivan, executive director of the Maine Brewers’ Guild; and Andrew Haines, Eimskip USA executive vice-president, met at the celebration for Eimskip USA’s Portland, Me. headquarters. Carlson said the owner of the shipyard neighbouring his brewery built a floating home from containers.

“We started talking about all of the crazy things we could do with containers,” says Sullivan. “Someone said, let’s put a bunch of beer taps on a container and ship it around the world.”

Iceland-based Eimskip donated the 4

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Port of Halifax

container and partners with the Guild for shipping. Since 2017, the box visited Leeds, U.K. and Reykjavik, Iceland.

Eimskip started a short-sea feedershipping service between Halifax and Portland in 2017. The Green Line rotation offers weekly departures from European ports and weekly calls at Canadian ports and Portland, with connections to Southern Europe, Russia, and the Baltics.

This fall, Eimskip returns the box to Maine full of Nova Scotian and New Brunswick craft beer. Ocean-based transport makes the project affordable for Maine and Maritime brewers of all sizes, says Sullivan.

“The vast majority of brewers in Maine never export beyond their state,” says Brian Titus, owner of Garrison Brewing and co-organizer of the Halifax Seaport Cider & Beerfest. “Like here, we have a bunch of small guys making interesting, great

tasting beer but exporting internationally isn’t on their radar. Ultimately, this is about promoting each other’s locations … and learning from each other.”

The Port of Halifax manages 105 hectares of federal land. That includes two long-term lease container terminals, a non-container terminal, and the Seaport business district, featuring the Seaport Farmers’ Market, Garrison Brewing Company, NSCAD University, the Cunard Centre (which hosts the festival.), plus galleries, artisan and retail shops, and restaurants.

“Over time we’ve been able to lease enough of the buildings that a district is starting to emerge on the real-estate side of the Port’s operations,” says Halifax Port Authority spokesman Lane Farguson. “To be able to marry that with our shipping operations to bring [the Maine Beer Box] here is one of those neat opportunities.” Q

Public consultations on infrastructure The Halifax Port Authority (HPA)

recently undertook an important online consultation to determine the future of the Port of Halifax as Canada’s Ultra Atlantic Gateway.

According to a press release, the HPA began a comprehensive infrastructure planning process in 2016 to determine the best way for the Port of Halifax to capitalize on the significant transformation underway in the containerized cargo business. Every level of government, members of the public, customers, stakeholders, and portplanning experts have all been involved in assessing the available options.

Through this interactive online engagement tool, participants got to learn about the ongoing infrastructure planning process and share views on the Port’s

future, expansion options, decision-making priorities, and initiatives that contribute to a more vibrant, livable city.

The online platform was open until April 18. The Halifax Port Authority will incorporate the public feedback from this

process to inform planning and in-person engagements later in 2019.

For additional information about the Port’s infrastructure plans and to participate in the consultation, visit portcityhfx.ca. Q

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PORTSIDE NOTES

Family ties families, but aboard the Halifax-based frigate HMCS Toronto, a mother and daughter recently came together to deploy on Operation Reassurance.

Leading Seaman Melanie Shering, a Naval Combat Information Operator who’s been with Toronto for nearly three years, was recently joined on board by the ship’s new Imagery Technician, Master Corporal Manuela Berger, who is also her mother. The pair departed Halifax, along with the rest of the ship’s company on January 19, for a sixmonth mission to the Mediterranean Sea. “I know there are going to be other people crying and missing their family, and I’ll have a piece of mine here with me, so I’m very lucky that way,” Berger says in a story

by Ryan Melanson on the navy’s website.

While the family is originally from Ontario, Berger recently joined Formation Imaging in Halifax after previously spending six years posted in Alberta. She arrived in Halifax in the late fall, and they’ve had some time to catch up.

“I’m so proud. Just seeing the way Melanie handles herself so professionally on the ship, and the things I’ve heard from people who work with her, it’s been awesome,” Berger says. “She’s also been instrumental in helping me get settled into the navy way, meet people on the ship and learn little trips and tricks.”

Berger has served off and on since 1982 in both reserve and regular Force roles, while Shering joined in 2013. They say that aside from a bit of friendly teasing, their

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Port of Halifax

PHOTO: MONA GHIZ/DND-MDN

Normally naval deployments separate

Manuela Berger (left) and daughter Melanie Shering.

“I know there are going to be other people crying and missing their family [but] I’ll have a piece of mine here with me” —Manuela Berger

shipmates have been fully supportive since Berger joined the crew. It’s unclear if they’re the first mother/daughter duo to deploy on a Canadian warship, but it’s an uncommon situation.

While they’re certainly looking forward to port visits and other chances to spend time together, they both stress the mission comes first. “We’re going to be working with a lot of different navies, and I always enjoy that,” Shering says. “It’s fun to see how they do things, where the

differences are, and find ways that we learn from each other.”

And the family’s contribution to the Forces may get bigger. Shering’s twin sister is also hoping to soon complete her basic training and is eyeing the air force.

For now, they’ll enjoy the experience of deploying together in support of the NATO mission in the Mediterranean, and any extra family time will be an added bonus.

“This is pretty special, and I’m looking forward to every aspect of it,” Berger says. Q

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AROUND THE PORT

STEADY COURSE STEADY CARGO TRAFFIC AND ONGOING INFRASTRUCTURE WORK— THE PORT OF HALIFAX REMAINS AN IMPORTANT ECONOMIC ENGINE

By Tom Peters

The Port of Halifax continues to

help power the Nova Scotian economy, according to the latest economic-impact report.

Combining Port operations and the value of Nova Scotia container exports, the total impact of the Port of Halifax on Nova Scotia’s gross output is $4.55 billion annually with the direct portion being $2.5 billion. Port operations generated $1.97 billion in 2017–18, up 15% from 2015–16 values. Container exports contributed $2.58 billion to the province’s growth output, up 32% from the previous two years.

According to the report, compiled by Chris Lowe Planning and Management Group, Nova Scotia self-identified businesses in 2017 exported 107,664 TEU 8

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Port of Halifax

through the Port, an increase of 40% from 2015. On average, each TEU exported is worth $24,000 to the provincial economy in terms of direct and spinoff (indirect and induced) economic output. An export TEU of Nova Scotia seafood is worth an estimated $107,050 in direct and spinoff economic output, up 45% over 2015.

“This reflects the incredible hard work and dedication of the many organizations that make up the Port of Halifax,” says Karen Oldfield, president and CEO of Halifax Port Authority. “Terminal operators, ocean carriers, CN Rail, the ILA workforce, marine pilots, and tug operators are certainly important, but so are the tour operators, the vendors who sell at the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market, the trucking companies that handle cargo,

the marine service companies keeping those vessels moving and of course, the men and women working across Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada involved in manufacturing, processing, and logistics.”

Other significant findings of the report indicate that the Port contributed $997 million in GDP (up 23% over 2015–16), Port operations generate 14,965 full-time equivalent jobs (an increase of 20%), 23,968 jobs derive from Nova Scotia container exporters, 38,932 total jobs (up 5%) and $715 million in wages (up 22%) and salaries result from Port activity, and the Halifax Seaport Market attracts over 1.3 million visitors annually.

SOUTH END PIER EXTENSION UPDATE The Halifax Port Authority (HPA) is moving forward with its temporary 135metre extension of its South End container terminal operated by Halterm. Dredging is heading into its final stages and the construction of the caissons that will support the pier is underway.

“The caisson forms are being built at the shed at Richmond Terminals,” said the HPA’s Lane Farguson. When complete, the caissons will be transported by barge to the site for placement. That phase of the project is expected to take place possibly in mid-June.

HPA officials say the extension is needed because container ships are getting bigger

Below: Zim Antwerp at the South End Container Terminal.

and for the port to remain competitive in the container cargo business, the terminal must be able to handle two of these ultraclass ships (10,000+ TEU) simultaneously.

The terminal already handles vessels over 11,000 TEU. HPA estimates the expansion will cost $30 million–$35 million and be complete in 2020.

The caissons used for the temporary extension are reusable when the HPA

builds a permanent terminal. In its efforts to support the new extension, Halterm announced it has ordered a Super PostPanamax ship-to-shore container gantry crane and associated lifting equipment, together with an extensive order for container yard equipment, including two rubber-tired gantry cranes and nine terminal tractors and trailers, with an option to buy a second ship-to-shore crane in 2019.

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SUMMER 2019 ||

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AROUND THE PORT

An ability to minimize dwell times is a key advantage for the Port of Halifax.

TALLYING TRAFFIC Containerized cargo volume over the Halifax Port’s two container terminals in the first quarter of this year was consistent with the same period in 2018.

“There were no surprises. We were down slightly but in keeping with the year prior which was one of our busiest first quarters ever,” says HPA spokesman Lane Farguson.

“When you look at the overall numbers, we

are still very strong. We always, of course, want to see continued increases but the fact is we are in line with very solid years [past] of cargo. All indications are it is going to be a very solid year.”

HPA statistics confirm efficient container movement. Farguson says the data indicates the Port is enjoying some of the “lowest [container] dwell times we have ever seen through Halifax.” Moving cargo

through quickly is a selling point for the Port. “To be competitive we have to ensure efficiencies so cargo owners and shipping lines have reason to go through Halifax,” adds Farguson.

In the first three months of 2019 the Port handled 130,551 TEU (down 3.1% compared to 134,672 TEU in the first three months of 2018). Import tonnage dropped 7.6% compared to the first quarter of 2018 and export tonnage was down 10.1%.

Non-containerized tonnage at HPA facilities had imports at 46,572 tonnes, an increase of 7.3% over the first quarter of 2018 and export tonnage grew to 28,901 tonnes, up 24.2% over the first quarter of 2018. Non-containerized at non-HPA facilities had import tonnage up 6% and export tonnage up 22.3% over the first three months of 2018.

Total port-wide tonnage in the first three months of 2019 had imports at 1,113,641 tonnes, down 0.1% and exports at 963,396 tonnes, up 1.2% over the first quarter of 2018.

Total tonnage Port-wide for the first quarter of 2019 stood at 2,077,037 tonnes.

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Port of Halifax

ANOTHER BUSY CRUISE YEAR After a record year in 2018 for both passenger visits and cruise ship calls, the Port of Halifax is looking forward to another record-breaking season. Last year the port welcomed 198 cruise ship calls and 316,869 passengers.

The 2019 Halifax cruise season officially started April 8 with the arrival of Marina, an Oceania Cruises vessel. It was the first of 190 scheduled cruise ship calls which will bring approximately 320,000 passengers, a new high for the port.

“There has been solid growth in the Halifax cruise industry over the last few years. Nova Scotia has an excellent tourism offering and that is certainly a big part of the increase. People enjoy visiting Halifax and Nova Scotia, and they tend to come back, which is good not just for cruise but for tourism overall,” says Catherine McGrail, HPA associate vice-president, strategy and cruise.

“The economic impact associated with cruise is significant,” she adds. “The most recent economic impact study on the Port of Halifax found the total economic output

With some 190 ship visits expected, Halifax will welcome about 320,000 passengers during the 2019 cruise season.

for Halifax cruise in 2018 was $171.8 million. This is an increase of 40% from the study released two years ago. The number of cruise passengers and vessel calls have increased substantially in recent years and so has the economic benefit associated with the cruise industry.”

This season, Halifax entertains 27 cruise lines and some of the largest cruise ships such as MSC’s Meraviglia (with 4,415 passengers), Norwegian Escape (4,265), Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas

(4,180), and the Adventure of the Seas and Caribbean Princess (3,100 each).

Some of the highlights of this year’s cruise season include eight scheduled inaugural calls starting with the arrival of Zaandam (a Holland America Line vessel) on April 29, summer visits from Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 (the first of four visits), and a visit from Disney Magic on Sept. 23. Oct. 2 is expected to be the busiest passenger day with over 10,000 cruise guests on five vessels. Q

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CARRIER SPOTLIGHT

Icelandic invasion WITH A NEW OFFICE IN HALIFAX, EIMSKIP LOOKS TO CONTINUE GROWING ITS CARGO VOLUMES IN THE PORT

By Tom Peters

Icelandic shipping line Eimskip has

opened an office in Halifax to build cargo growth opportunities through the port.

Jeff Simms, Eimskip’s managing director (Canada) says Shawn Doyle has joined Eimskip as operations and sales lead in Halifax. “Shawn is going to carry on with the momentum we have currently and will build the business in Halifax,” Simms says. “He will also act as the ships’ agent for the [Eimskip] vessels,” says Simms. The new office is at the port’s South End Container Terminal.

Eimskip operates a weekly Green Line service which started in 2017. The service operates with three vessels on the route between Reykjavik, Iceland, Argentia, 12

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Port of Halifax

N.L., Halifax, and Portland, Me. It also seasonally serves St. Anthony, N.L. International cargo on this service heading to Northern Europe and Baltic ports or imported from European ports to Canada or the U.S. is transhipped through the port of Reykjavik. The line also acts as a connecting carrier (between Halifax and Portland) for the major French container line CMA CGM. Eimskip’s cargo fortunes have been growing since it started calling Portland in 2013 with a twice- monthly service and later expanding to the weekly Green Line service.

“On the Canadian side we are looking at a 20% to 25% growth year-over-year and we are way ahead of that for 2019 year-over-

year,” says Simms. Volumes to and from Europe and Iceland are up over the same period last year.

“On the short sea trade to and from Portland [from Halifax], we are well over 200%,” he adds. “This is mainly due to the increase of cargo from CMA CGM but also from customers in the Nova Scotia area choosing to ship via ocean as opposed to trucking. This is where we see huge potential for Nova Scotian seafood producers in getting their product to U.S. markets and avoiding the ongoing concerns that face trucking to the U.S.” In Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, import cargo is “quite project driven,” says Simms, however, Eimskip is seeing

Eimskip’s Canadian operation is growing steadily, prompting management to open a new Halifax office.

a constant increase in commodities and temperature-controlled cargo.

Four years ago, Eimskip had 13 calls to Halifax annually and this year expects a minimum of 69 calls, says Simms.

On the U.S. side of Eimskip’s service, “We are looking at 25% growth year-overyear,” says Andrew Haines, Eimskip’s executive vice-president in Portland. “We have maintained that now six years straight in the U.S.” Eimskip’s growth on its Green Line service is due to the work done in Argentia, Halifax, and Portland, says Simms.

The weekly service produced volume increases of approximately 30% in 2018 and

“we are looking to see an increase of nearly 40% for 2019 on transatlantic service” from the U.S. to Europe, says Haines.

The short-sea business established with the carrier connection agreement with CMA CGM has also been a boost. It connects cargo coming from Southeast Asia and South China between Halifax and Portland. That has seen tremendous growth, says Haines. Eimskip doesn’t have any other connecting agreements with any other major carriers but other international shipping lines have come forward and expressed an interest in a similar operation to other parts of the world, he adds.

He says carriers are looking at Halifax rather than New York and Boston because the New England area offers transportation challenges especially from New York.

“There is a direct call to Boston that really only covers North China and Japan.

Anything coming out of Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent and that area, is much better suited to Halifax and then carried onward to Portland otherwise it has to go through the Panama Canal,” Haines says. If unloaded in New York, that cargo would “have a very costly and very environmentally unfriendly transport to the New England market. That would be time consuming and labour intensive with a very big carbon footprint.”

Coming through Halifax also offers a transit time benefit, he adds. Eimskip’s service with CMA CGM connects with what is called the Columbus Line JAX. That service is 21 days from Singapore to Halifax

via the Suez Canal. “They come in on a Sunday and we come in on Wednesday so you are looking at 25 days from Singapore to Portland,” Haines says, which is faster than through the Panama Canal to New York. “It is a premium product sold

by CMA CGM and we just act as the connecting carrier. Speed to market is the main reason it has been successful.”

The increased business has led Eimskip to replace one of its smaller vessels with a larger container ship. The Pictor J, which started service in April and has a capacity of 925 TEU (which includes nearly 200 reefer plugs), has replaced the vessel Lomur, which had a capacity of less than 600 TEU. Lomur “couldn’t handle the volumes or the perils of the North Atlantic, which often caused delays so we needed the vessel replaced,” says Simms.

Eimskip plans to build cargo volumes both out of Canada and the U.S. In Halifax the company aims to help increase volumes by building awareness of Eimskip’s service offerings. “Shawn [Doyle]’s role will be to solicit companies in the province and let them know the service is available to Portland and also the advantages of this when it comes to the carbon footprint, consistent with the company’s environmental policies,” says Simms.

Local support has been important to Eimskip’s success in Halifax. “The Port of Halifax and Halterm have been extremely supportive of us with our expansion,” Simms says. “We certainly wouldn’t have been able to do these things without their co-operation.” Q

Eimskip’s weekly Green Line connects Halifax to Iceland, Newfoundland, and Maine.

SUMMER 2019 ||

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SAILING SCHEDULE Line

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Service

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Port of Halifax

Ports Served (alphabetically)

Cargo Type

Frequency

Day

Terminal

Agent

SUMMER 2019 Service

Ports Served (alphabetically)

Cargo Type

Frequency

Day

Terminal

Agent

PHOTO: STEVE FARMER/HPA

Line

cc – containerized cargo

gc – general cargo

tc – temperature-controlled cargo

rr – roll-on/roll-off cargo

Sailing schedule is published for reference only. Check with the ship line directly to ensure accuracy. portofhalifax.ca/port-operations-centre

SUMMER 2019 ||

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PHOTOS: BIGSTOCK/A-IMAGE

FEATURE

HPA president Karen Oldfield (left) and spokesman Lane Farguson.

Building blocks THE PORT OF HALIFAX EMBRACES DIGITAL INDUSTRY INNOVATIONS

By Tom Peters

As the Port of Halifax continues to

drive forward in the global shipping scene, “now is not the time to take our foot off the pedal,” says Karen Oldfield, president and CEO of the Halifax Port Authority (HPA).

Oldfield made the comments in a recent speech to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce in which she chronicled the Port’s progress in the container-cargo business from the time she became head of the HPA in 2002 to the present, adding a look into the future.

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Port of Halifax

She emphasized the importance of understanding markets and trends.

“Then we must be ready to embrace opportunities,” she said.

But to embrace the opportunities the port must be ready with new, appropriate infrastructure, such as the extension at the South End Container Terminal, now under construction, required to handle ultra-class container ships.

“But physical infrastructure is only part of it, and in some ways it’s the

easy part,” she said. “The hard part is peering around the corner to see the digital transformation that is taking place worldwide.” She added that part of that transformation is block chain.

“Block chain creates a secure digital document repository for the shipping industry,” she said, meaning “no paper.

There’s just one ledger using common processes. Block chain will ensure the document is secure and verifiable. No one can change that information.”

“Digital transformation is something we have been working on for a number of years” —Lane Farguson

will enable the needed safety and security for the digital platform.

According to an HPA press release, the new collaboration will integrate global shipping and trade partners including terminals, shippers, freight forwarders, and ports. That will provide a single shared and trusted view of supply chain transactions.

The platform will reduce paperwork with a digital process for documents, offering efficiency and improved security.

This technology can reduce the need for

PHOTO: HPA

PHOTO: STEVE FARMER

The HPA is not moving into the digital world alone, she said: “We have partnered with two global leaders, IBM and Maersk, through their block chain collaboration,” which is called TradeLens.

The goal of TradeLens is to develop a highly secure digital ledger system to share information across the global shipping industry, which can reduce costs, improve productivity, increase the speed of the delivery of goods, and provide transparency. The Maersk-IBM block chain

multiple records and documents that are produced at each point in the supply chain.

The HPA is also working “with the other major shipping ports in Canada to build a system that we can all use,” said Oldfield.

“One that will streamline processes and add value to our customers. 20% of the cost of moving a container is administration,” she added.

However, the HPA’s move to the digital world isn’t something that happened overnight.

“Digital transformation is something we have been working on for a number of years,” says HPA communications advisor Lane Farguson. “Digitalization for us is taking the analogue processes and making them digital. It also involves taking that raw data and analyzing it and using that information to find efficiencies,” that reduce costs.

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Port of Halifax

PHOTO: HPA

FEATURE

PHOTO: STEVE FARMER

“If you can reduce those costs you can certainly making things more efficient” which is another good reason for shipping companies “to move into this space and embrace the technology,” he adds.

The HPA has, in its work with block chain, been collaborating with Canadian ports such as Montreal, Vancouver, and Prince Rupert, plus the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). “We are trying to find those areas where we can be collaborative and develop a system that is universal among bigger [Canadian] ports, CBSA and Transport Canada.”

“We are now at a point where we are taking all of that information and bringing it to people within the Halifax Port community as well,” Farguson explains. “It is largely cargo information at this point that we are making digital. Some of that is already placed on our website. You can find dwell numbers, [truck] turn times, and all of that data. So that’s a good example of the type of information that we can take analogue and make it digital and it is easier and more transparent.”

Port stakeholders approve of the changes. “Customers like it because it gives them some real information about their cargo as it moves through the Port, information they don’t necessarily get at other ports,” Farguson says.

Oldfield said in her speech that in addition to working on digital transformation with the local Port community, “We are also working with the young people who are today designing the systems of the future. We want to transform Halifax into the most digital port on the Eastern seaboard.”

To that end, the HPA has also been working with the Center for Ocean

Digital innovations provide real-time information to shippers, making paperwork more efficient.

Ventures, (COVE), with Volta (start-up lab) and with “our colleges and universities.

We need skilled workers who understand data analytics and digital transformation,” Oldfield said. “Our goal is to take those students who have those skills and keep them here.”

She cited a partnership between the Seaport Market and the David Sobey Centre at Saint Mary’s University.

“We established a Retail Imagination Lab. It tests innovations in a live store environment,” she said. “It’s staffed by students.” It went on to become RetailDeep, which tested and developed facial-recognition software at the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market.

“Two years later, RetailDeep has gone on to work with Estee Lauder and Google among others,” she said.

Another example of the Port’s digital work involved the raising of the Macdonald Bridge over Halifax Harbour. “We had to make sure ships could fit under the bridge safely during construction. So we created a system,” Oldfield said. “It measures the distance between the water and the bridge in real time. It improves safety and efficiency and is still used today. It even won some awards, and the company we partnered with has gone on to sell that technology globally.”

Oldfield said the HPA is “focused on innovation. We believe in creating opportunities for everyone. We know opportunities and innovation are connected.

Through opportunity and innovation we can and we will keep the next generation here in Atlantic Canada.” Q

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