Halifax, NS—Halifax is gearing up to welcome large international congresses, meetings, and major events, thanks to a memorandum of understanding signed Monday, May 4, 2009 by Premier Rodney MacDonald and Mayor Peter Kelly. The document commits the Province and Halifax Regional Municipality to work together in an effort to have a new convention centre up and running in downtown Halifax by January 1, 2013.

"This is a critical piece of our overall major events strategy," said Scott Ferguson, Interim President & CEO for Trade Centre Limited, the Nova Scotia crown corporation that manages Halifax’s World Trade & Convention Centre. "A new convention centre will catapult Halifax onto the world stage when it comes to vying for major conferences and events."

"This is tremendously exciting news for our city," said Patricia Lyall, Destination Halifax President & CEO. "Halifax has long been a preferred destination for meeting and convention planners. However, we do know event planners have often bypassed Halifax because our existing facilities have presented us with space challenges."

While many details about the proposed convention centre are still being determined, the plan does call for approximately 150,000 square feet of meeting space. This effectively triples the 50,000 square feet of space now available in the World Trade and Convention Centre (WTCC). "The WTCC has served our clients very well for the past 25 years," said Nina Kressler, Trade Centre Limited’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "We have managed to attract and retain a lot of satisfied customers who have told us Halifax is, without a doubt, one of the best places to hold a convention.

"However, being a major Canadian city and having one of the smallest convention centres, it has become increasingly difficult to attract new business," adds Ms. Kressler. "One of our biggest challenges has simply been that we have been unable to host multiple, large-scaled events; but, all that is about to change. We are thrilled that we are now able to share the terrific news with past and future customers wanting to host large conferences that, as of 2013, we will be much more likely to accommodate their needs."

The proposed convention centre complex is slated to include a 400 to 500-room hotel, a 14-storey office tower and retail space. Detailed designs are expected by this summer.

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For more information, contact:

Nina Kressler
Vice-President, Sales and Marketing
Trade Centre Limited
(902) 421-1302 ext. 139

Or

Patricia Lyall
President & CEO
Destination Halifax
(902) 429-4574

Trade Centre Limited (TCL) is a Nova Scotia provincial crown corporation that operates six business units: World Trade & Convention Centre, Exhibition Park, Ticket Atlantic, Halifax Metro Centre, Events Halifax and World Trade Centre Atlantic Canada. Its mandate is to create economic benefits by bringing people together in Halifax and Nova Scotia.

Destination Halifax is the dedicated tourism marketing organization of the Halifax Regional Municipality. It is an exciting partnership of the Hotel Association of Nova Scotia, the Provincial Department of Tourism, the Halifax Regional Municipality, and the World Trade and Convention Centre. Funded by a hotel marketing levy and the tourism industry at large, this organization works to increase business and leisure tourism activities in the region. Visit www.destinationhalifax.com