PUBLIC POLICY Stainless Steele Nova Scotia’s money man says his government won’t lose sight of balanced budget in its quest for re-election By Stephen Kimber “It’s a great day to be a Jets fan,” Graham bring the fiscal state “back to balance” and “I’m not here to make a speech,” he says, Steele beams. It’s shortly before 8 a.m. and better, Graham Steele can’t help but begin easily shifting gears to the matter at hand. – if this is February 24th – we must be at the this morning by crowing that his beloved “I’m here to hear what you have to say.” Holiday Inn in Stellarton. Winnipeg Jets had squeezed past the Tampa But then, of course, he makes a speech; his Steele, Nova Scotia’s finance minister, has Bay Lightning the night before, keeping promised 15-minute Powerpoint presentation come here for a breakfast meeting with the their flickering NHL playoff hopes alive. “to lay the groundwork” stretches into 30. New Glasgow-Pictou County Chamber of Steele, a Winnipeg native, was a hockey- There is a lot to say. Commerce. It’s the sixth of nine “dialogue crazed kid back in the 1970s during the Jets When Nova Scotia’s New Democratic sessions,” 15 “stakeholder meetings” and previous NHL incarnation. When a local Party swept into office in June 2009 – the three community group gatherings he is radio station staged a sports trivia contest in first time the NDP had ever formed any staging as he criss-crosses the province, which the prizes were tickets to upcoming sort of government in Atlantic Canada, asking Nova Scotians for their input in the games, Steele would plant himself by the let alone won a majority – there were great lead-up to his next provincial budget April 3. telephone, surrounded by his collection of expectations, many of them created by party Last night at the hotel, Steele did four local hockey trivia books, and eagerly wait for the leader Darrell Dexter’s rosy, read-my-lips, media interviews. Later this morning, on announcer to ask a question. He won so often new-programs-balanced-budget-no-tax- his way to Port Hawkesbury for a luncheon he eventually had to disguise his voice and increases mantra. There were just as many session with the Strait Area Chamber of use other people’s names when he called. trepidations, fueled not only by exactly Commerce, he’ll stop in at CJFX-FM radio in Steele doesn’t mention his trivia prowess those promises but also, in some quarters, Antigonish for a sit-down interview with its this morning, but few among the three by the stunning reality that conservative, news director. dozen local business and community leaders mainstream Nova Scotians had actually Though the real subjects of all these attending would probably be surprised. elected a “socialist” government. sessions are the still-woeful-but-becoming- There is a nerdy, earnest yet cheerful Once in office, however, the new NDP less-so state of the province’s finances obsessiveness to Steele. And he is clearly the government didn’t simply do a 180-degree and the important question of how best to smartest person in any room he is in. turn on the economic promises it had 38 | ATLANTIC BUSINESS MAGAZINE | May/June 2012 PORT OF HALIFAX (N.S.) campaigned on; it threw in a couple of double THOUGH2010 cargo: BORN over AND 9.5 RAISEDmillion metric in Winnipeg tonnes, comprisedout “something primarily of practical” containerized he couldcargo do(seafood, with back flips for good measure. of Scottishnewsprint, immigrant clothing, manufactured parents, Steele goods). says Halifaxtwo handled undergraduate 435,461 TEUs degrees. (twenty-foot Law schoolequivalent – The new government – like new his mostunits) formative in 2010, and experiences has the capacity came duringfor 1.4 million where TEUs. he There could is room follow to hisexpand fascination to a 2.5-million with governments of every stripe these days – his TEUpharmacy-professor capacity if needed. father’s year-long what he calls the “laws of government” – immediately commissioned a consultant’s sabbaticalsMain clients: – to Twenty-oneSwitzerland container when shippinghe was linesseemed call here: an ACL, ideal AFL, fit. China He consideredShipping, CMA schools CGM, report to show how badly the previous in gradeCOSCO, four Eimskip, and North Hanjin, Carolina Hapag Lloyd,in grade K Line, Maersk,in Toronto Melfi, and Mitsui Halifax, OSK, choosing Nirint, NSCSA, Dalhousie NYK, administration had mangled the province’s 11. DiscoveringOceanex, OOCL, a EuropeTMSI, Wallenius where Wilhelmsen,everyone Yangin Minglarge and measure Zim. because “I’d never been finances, creating the mess they were left didn’t speak English and a North Carolina to this part of the country.” His plan, he to clean up and, of course, forcing them to thatFacilities: wasn’t anything Two 70-acre like container Manitoba terminals “opened as well asadmits, bulk, breakbulk was to andget ro/rohis degreeterminals and with get laydown out, areas capable of handling any type of cargo. By 2012, the Port of Halifax will have seven super post- declare all previous promises null and void. my panamaxeyes to the cranes world,” and deep and berthsencouraged to accommodate his on the his largest way shipsto a successful afloat. career somewhere The consultants obliged, concluding that, love of travel. else. He even did an internship at Blake, if nothing changed, the province was on a HisFuture interest plans: in “The the fundamentals wider world are was in placealso to advanceCassels the & portGraydon, as a key a North powerful American Bay gatewayStreet collision course with reality. By 2012-13, the stokedand weby willa continueWinnipeg to workFree with Press our partnerspaper and stakeholderslaw firm. to see that vision through to the end.” – Michele Peveril, spokesperson, Halifax Port Corporation. annual deficit would be an unsustainable route; he says he “managed to read the But somewhere along the line, he met a $1.5 billion while long-term debt would top whole paper” each day while he folded fellow student, Tilly Pillay, a South African- outPORT at a future-defying OF BELLEDUNE $17 billion. (N.B.) copies for home delivery. born woman whose family had moved to A follow-up report by a blue-ribbon ”I’m not sure I can explain why now,” he Nova Scotia when she was nine. They fell panel2010 cargo:of economic total tonnage experts was 2.15 recommended million metric tonnes,allows comprised with a smile,of bulk butcommodities the young (such Graham as in love and decided to make Halifax home. thecoal, zinc,government wood pellets, commit etc.), liquidto bulkcompletely and project cargo.Steele also became a Young Liberal. Today, he and Pillay – who practices law eliminating its annual deficits by 2012-13 “Somewhere,” he even has a John Turner with the province’s Justice Department – Main clients: NB Power and Xstrata Zinc as well as tenants such as Shaw Resources, S&B Minerals andand Groupe“implement Savoie. tax increases, introduce Youth T-shirt from the party’s June 1984 have two children. significant spending restraint measures and leadership convention. “Nova Scotia,” Steele likes to point out, focusModern more equipment: on economic Eastern growthCanada Stevedores,to achieve one of Belledune’sBut by then, terminal he was operators, on his wayconsistently to Oxford politician-like, “is the place I chose to live.” thisinvests goal.” in new equipment, including reach stackers, 150University tonne capacity for crawler two cranesyears and in high Thatcher- speed But he didn’t choose what he saw as Nova conveyors.The man Premier Darrell Dexter charged era England as a Rhodes Scholar, where Scotia’s peculiar brand of “tribal politics. withFuture playing plans: “ThePaul Belledune “Dr. No” Port Martin Authority to hishas just increasedhis focus the would land available not be next on topolitics or on the with People here voted Liberal or Conservative, genial,terminals optimistic by 100 per cent;Jean there “Regular is now a totalGuy” of 88 acresa partisan available as“P” well but as twoon newloftier terminals. ideas Weabout not because of ideas but because of the way Chretienplan to use was the Grahamnew terminals, Steele. the new modular fabrication“government facility and beand an public anchor affairs.”of the economy in in which their parents voted, and that went northernHe chose New well. Brunswick” – Jenna Doucet, director of marketing,In 1986, Belledune he returned Port Authority. to Canada to figure back generations.” A B You have dreams about the success your business will have. East Hants can help you get there. Opening your doors in East Hants means placing yourself at the centre of a natural logistics hub, with a port, railway and an International Airport all just minutes away. Plus you'll have the support of a business community as committed to growth as you are. To find out if East Hants is the best decision you'll ever make, call 1.888.883.4355 or email [email protected] success.easthants.ca Online extras: atlanticbusinessmagazine.com | 39 Online extras: atlanticbusinessmagazine.com | 23 An incident early in his time in Halifax “was about people, about who they knew. 52-member legislature. “There was room for helped cement his aversion both to old-style There wasn’t a single word about ideas. I just ideas in the NDP,” Steele explains, insisting politics and also to the province’s old-line sat there for an hour and said not a single he isn’t “highly partisan, though I can be political parties. To help make law school word.” when I have to.” ends meet, Steele had taken a position as a But as he eventually settled into life in Stephen McNeil chuckles when I quote residence don at the nearby University of Nova Scotia in the early 1990s – Steele had Steele’s words to him.