Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a province along the eastern coast of Canada, is Canada’s second smallest province with an area of 55,284 square kilometres and a population of just under one million residents! It is one of three maritime provinces in Canada and combines two major coastal islands (and many smaller ones).

Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia and has a population of about 403,000 residents. The most significant employers in Halifax are the Department of National Defense, Dalhousie University, Saint Mary’s University and the Halifax Shipyard. The average price of a home in Halifax is $321,000 and is slowly increasing annually due to the popularity of this major Canadian city. Halifax is also home to many post-secondary students (81 of every 1000 people in Halifax are students), and being the city with more bars per capita than any other Canadian city, we understand how students are attracted to the Universities here. Halifax is one of Canada’s top 4 container ports in terms of volume of cargo handled, and due to a recent real estate boom, there has been many property developments as well as gentrification of former working-class areas in the city.

Cape Breton is the other major city in Nova Scotia with a total population of 132,000 residents. The median home value in this city is around $200,000. Cape Breton is technically an island and is Canada’s 18th largest. The people of Cape Breton are predominately 1 of 5 different cultures, Scottish, Mi’kmaq, Acadian, Irish and English. The economy in Cape Breton is mostly in coal mining and is home to two significant coal deposits; the Sidney Coal Field and the Inverness Coal Field. Whale watching is the main draw for tourists that visit Cape Breton, and there are whale-watching cruises that are privately operated as well.

The economy in Nova Scotia is much more diverse than many people assume. For example, the aerospace and defence sector generate almost $500 million in revenues for the economy annually. Also, 40% of Canada’s military assets are located in Nova Scotia! The film industry in Nova Scotia is the 4th largest in all of Canada had over 100 productions annually, over half of which are from international television and film producers. The tourism sector has over 6500 direct businesses supplying the province with over 40,000 jobs, and the IT sector provides the area with about 15,000 jobs!

Arts and culture are quite popular in Nova Scotia, being home to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, four different performance theatres and the Symphony Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia has produced some very prevalent people in the arts and film industry including Academy Award nominees Ellen Page and Arthur Kennedy. Most notably, however, would be the fact that Academy Award-winning film Titanic, was filmed in Nova Scotia.

PNP Skilles Migration

PNP Business Migration