Atlantic Canada's Urban Growth Agenda - Greater Halifax Partnership

Talent Index: On the Talent Index (percentage of adult population with a university degree) Fredericton and Halifax
scored very high. Indeed, both communities have among the highest percentage of university graduates among all
Canadian CMAs and CAs. Charlottetown and St. John’s were above average while Moncton and Saint John were
both below the national average. However, using university degree holders as a proxy for ‘talent’ has some flaws.
For example, Moncton and Saint John have much higher rates of community college and trade school graduates –
many of these are in new economy disciplines such as graphic design and computer programming. If these
educational attainment metrics were included, the overall results would be different.
Bohemian Index: Halifax and St. John’s again scored higher on the Bohemian Index (based on NAICS 16 codes F03
Creative and performing artists and F14 Creative designers and craftspersons) than the national average while
Charlottetown and Fredericton were slightly below the national average. Moncton and Saint John again were well
below the national average.
Melting Pot/Mosaic Index 17 : The Mosaic Index is simply the percentage of the population that is foreign-born or
first-generation immigrants. All Atlantic Canadian cities were well below the national average for this Index.
Tech Pole Index: This index was not developed for two reasons: 1) Florida and Gertler did not make public which
NAICS codes were used as technology-based industries and 2) their methodology included a size bias which would
rank smaller urban areas lower.
4.2.1 Interpreting the results
Among the urban experts interviewed for this report, there was skepticism about the value of the Creative City
approach as a policy development tool. Florida/Gertler’s work is more descriptive than prescriptive in nature. There
is a marketing value in portraying an urban area as “creative” and taking steps to foster a strong creative element on
all three fronts: talent, bohemian and mosaic. However, there is still no definite research that confirms the causality
of these factors i.e. that having talent, bohemians and the cultural mosaic drive the growth and development of
communities. Two of the cities that rank the highest in Florida’s work are Austin, TX and San Francisco, CA. Florida
concludes that the high level of pre-existing strengths related to bohemians and the cultural mosaic were the major
influencers of the growth of the high tech sector in those communities. However, there is some speculation that the
large-scale business investment and sector growth in those communities created an environment where talent,
bohemians and the cultural mosaic will foster which in turn are positive attributes to generate more growth.
In the Atlantic Canadian context, a more basic approach may be warranted such as attracting investment and
building economic development infrastructure.
16 North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS).
17 Gertler points out that the “Melting Pot” is a uniquely American term. In Canada, the terms ethnic mosaic, multicultural or
multiethnic are more commonly used.
…Atlantic Canadian Context 29