Leg 154 CYFC - Fredericton (Canada) to CYHZ - Halifax (Canada)
CYFC - Airport Info
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ICAO code: CYFC
Airport name: Fredericton Airport
Location: Fredericton
Useful information
Airport elevation: '
Time zone: UTC-
Lighted runways : Yes
Maximum runway length: '
Runway surface : Asphalt
Instrument approach (ILS, LOC, LDA, and SDF):
Fredericton Info
Fredericton, city and capital of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Fredericton is the seat of York County and a provincial center of government and education. It is the third largest city in the province after Saint John and Moncton. The city is located on the St. John River in the south central part of the province. It lies along the Trans-Canada highway, 174 km (108 mi) west of Moncton and 118 km (73 mi) north of Saint John. Fredericton has an average January temperature of -15° C to -4° C (4° F to 25°F) and an average July temperature of 13°C to 26° C (55° F to 78° F).
According to the 2001 census, Fredericton’s population was 47,560, up from 46,466 in 1991. The city has grown significantly in recent decades: Between 1951 and 1981 Fredericton’s population grew from 16,018 to 43,723. This growth was due primarily to the annexation of the adjoining communities of Nashwaaksis and Marysville in 1973. It also reflected the expansion in provincial government services in the 1960s and 1970s, which brought more civil servants to Fredericton, and the growth of the educational sector of the economy, as more students enrolled in local universities.
New Brunswick is bilingual—both French and English are official languages and are used in all government functions. The province became officially bilingual in 1969, and its bilingual status became part of the Canadian constitution in 1982. As a result, many French-speaking citizens became civil servants in Fredericton. In 1991 the city’s French-speaking residents numbered 1780. As of that year, Fredericton also was home to more than 300 Chinese. In recent years, population growth has slowed as a result of reduced employment in government and education.
Fredericton covers a land area of 130 sq km (50 sq mi). The city is laid out along the St. John River. The city government offices and the Provincial Legislature are both located on Queen Street, on the south side near the river. Farther south near the Trans-Canada Highway are Fredericton High School, one of the largest high schools in Canada; the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital; a large retail area; and the Centre Communautaire Sainte-Anne, a gathering place for French speakers that includes a school, a library, and a daycare center.
Other points of interest in Fredericton include the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the York-Sunbury Historical Society Museum, the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, and the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Religious sites include Wilmot United Church and Christ Church Cathedral. Fredericton also contains the regional headquarters for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Attractions located outside but near the city include the Canadian Forces Base at Gagetown, which houses a military museum; King’s Landing Historical Settlement; Crabbe Mountain Winter Park; and Mactaquac Fish Hatchery and Provincial Park.
Fredericton is home to the University of New Brunswick (founded in 1785 as King’s College); St. Thomas University (1910); New Brunswick Community College; New Brunswick College of Craft and Design; and the Maritime Forest Ranger School, operated by the three Maritime provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) to train forest rangers and technicians. The Hugh John Flemming Forestry Center is maintained cooperatively by national and provincial governments, the University of New Brunswick, and the Maritime Forest Ranger School. International art exhibits and regular performances by Theatre New Brunswick are staged in the city.
Since the 1960s activities relating to government and university education have formed the largest sector of Fredericton’s economy. Beginning in the 1960s enrollments surged at the joint campuses of St. Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick, increasing from about 1000 in 1956 to more than 7000 by 1982 and more than 10,000 by 1997. The city’s participation in regional economic development programs of the 1960s and 1970s attracted small industries to an industrial mall established for manufacturing. New companies now produce computer software and other technology products, many of which result from research performed at local universities. Fredericton is also a commercial and distribution center for farming and lumbering in the region. Major manufactured goods include building material, shoes, processed foods, and wood products. However, during the 1980s New Brunswick manufacturing firms that employed more than 100 people declined by 30 percent. Service industries now account for 70 percent of the jobs.
A railway no longer serves Fredericton. Rail freight service ended in the mid-1990s, and passenger service stopped in 1985. Goods are carried in and out of the city primarily by truck, and the city’s once-thriving port now serves mostly recreational boats. The city government operates Fredericton Transit, which provides local bus service. SMT Eastern Limited offers bus service between Fredericton and other cities. Fredericton Airport is located just outside the city and provides direct links to major cities in eastern Canada and the United States.
Fredericton is governed by a mayor and a 12-member council. The council members are elected from political divisions of the city called wards. The mayor and members of the council serve three-year terms. The provincial government provides such important services to the people of the city as health care, education, and social assistance. The Fredericton city government looks after police and fire protection, water, and sewer services.
The indigenous people known as the Maliseet used the site of Fredericton as a campsite and burial ground before Europeans discovered the area. In the 17th century they became partners with the French in the fur trade. Pierre de Joibert, a Frenchman, received several land grants along the St. John River in 1676, but the first important settlement in the area was not completed until 1692. Joseph Robineau de Villebon and other settlers built Fort St. Joseph, also known as Fort Nashwaak, at the mouth of Nashwaak River in 1692. They abandoned the fort about 1700. In the 1730s the French settled Saint Anne’s Point, but it too was abandoned. British settlement was temporarily discouraged by the Maliseet in a show of force at Saint Anne’s Point in 1762. However, the Maliseet were eventually overwhelmed.
The British won control of the area in 1755, and following the American Revolution (1775-1783), about 14,000 people left the 13 colonies and came to the part of Nova Scotia north of the Bay of Fundy. A year later this became the separate colony of New Brunswick. Many of these refugees, known as Loyalists, had fought on the British side during the Revolution. In 1785 a group of Loyalists laid out the community of Fredericton and named it after Frederick Augustus, a son of King George III of England. That same year, Fredericton became the capital of New Brunswick. In 1786 an elected assembly first met in the city, along with the General Sessions of the Peace (a meeting of appointed justices of the peace who handled local judicial and political matters). In later years, land was set aside for the establishment of schools, churches, King’s College, and military bases. Fredericton was incorporated as a city in 1848.
As a provincial center for government, forestry, military activities, and agriculture, Fredericton grew from 4400 residents in 1848 to 7117 by 1901. Telegraph lines were established in 1851, telephones in 1888, and radio broadcasts in 1923. Early newspapers included the New Brunswick Reporter (1844-1902) and the Maritime Farmer (1879-1905). After 1850 Fredericton flourished as an industrial town. Sawmills, shipyards, tanneries, boot and shoe factories, carriage shops, iron foundries, brickyards, and factories turned out a variety of products. Railroad connections were established between Fredericton and several other cities. A few brands, such as Hartt’s boots and shoes and Chestnut canoes, became nationally known and remained competitive well into the 20th century. These manufacturers, and a cotton mill built in Marysville in 1885, were encouraged by the federal government’s support of New Brunswick industry through protective tariffs (fees imposed on imported goods).
In the 20th century, the government and the university have become important to Fredericton’s economy. In efforts to overcome regional disparity, New Brunswick centralized municipal services under provincial departments during the 1960s. As the capital, Fredericton benefited from an increase in the number of provincial civil servants. Health and educational services also grew to serve a larger region.
CYFC - Airport Info
ICAO code: CYHZ
Airport name: Halifax Intl. Airport
Location: Halifax
Useful information
Airport elevation: '
Time zone: UTC-
Lighted runways : Yes
Maximum runway length: '
Runway surface : Asphalt
Instrument approach (ILS, LOC, LDA, and SDF):
Halifax Info
Halifax (Nova Scotia), city, capital of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Halifax is built around Halifax Harbour, the world’s second largest natural harbor, which offers a protected, deepwater, ice-free anchorage for international shipping. Halifax Harbour is one of Canada’s busiest ports. In 1996 Halifax merged with the former city of Dartmouth and other neighboring municipalities to form the Halifax Regional Municipality. This merger made it the largest urban center in Canada’s Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Halifax is a regional center for trade, industry, government, and cultural activity. The city also has a strong military presence, largely as a result of being home port for Canada’s east coast navy and coast guard. Halifax possesses a relatively mild but damp climate, with an average daily temperature range from 0° C (32° F) to -9° C (16° F) in January and from 23° C (74° F) to 13° C (56° F) in July. Typically it rains or snows 170 days of the year, and in spring the city is frequently blanketed in fog.
The Halifax Regional Municipality had a population of 359,111 at the 2001 census. The census metropolitan area (CMA) of Halifax was home to 359,183 people in 2001, up from 320,501 in 1991. The Halifax CMA is home to more than 1 in 3 of all Nova Scotians. About half of the Halifax CMA’s residents live in the urban core; another one-third reside in the suburbs while the remainder are rural. The 5-year growth rate of the city’s population was 4.7 percent from 1996 to 2001, with most of that increase taking place in the suburbs. There has been little foreign immigration; most residents of Halifax are Canadian-born and of British descent. A major exception is the city’s small (under 3 percent) but historically significant black community; its roots go back to the early 19th century.
The Halifax Regional Municipality covers a land area of 5,577 sq km (2,153 sq mi). The CMA covers a land area of 2,503 sq km (966 sq mi). Halifax began as a fortified village located on the eastern shore of a hilly peninsula, which juts into the surrounding harbor. That site, originally selected because it offered shelter against storms and enemy attack, today contains a modern high-rise city, along with many reminders of a lively past. Overlooking the downtown core is the Citadel, a mid-19th century fortification. The Citadel sits on a hill and is topped by towering flagpoles, which were once used to signal the approach of merchant and naval ships.
Just below the Citadel’s ramparts sits Halifax’s most famous landmark, the Old Town Clock, built in 1803. Nearby are a series of historic buildings. These include St. Paul’s, the oldest Protestant church in Canada; St. George’s, the first round church in North America; Government House, the oldest executive residence in North America; and Province House, the longest-serving parliament building in Canada.
Along the waterfront are a series of wooden and stone warehouses and shops put up during Halifax’s 19th-century age of sail, when Halifax merchants owned many wooden sailing ships. Artifacts from this era are found in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, located on the waterfront. This museum also houses a modern warship, which chased submarines during World War II (1939-1945). A short distance away are other interesting sites, such as the Old Burying Ground, with gravestones from the 1750s; the Public Gardens, laid out in formal Victorian style; and Point Pleasant Park, which contains Canada’s oldest martello tower, a circular fortification whose massive stone walls could defy bombardment.
Leading cultural institutions in metropolitan Halifax include the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotian Symphony, Neptune Theatre, the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, the Dartmouth Heritage Museum, and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia.
Major institutions of higher education and research include the University of King’s College (1789), Dalhousie University (1818), Saint Mary’s University (1841), Mount Saint Vincent University (1925), and the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (1962).
Every year the city hosts a series of cultural events. Particularly well known are the Scotia Festival of Music, Shakespeare by the Sea, the Atlantic Jazz Festival, the Halifax International Busker Festival, and the Atlantic Winter Fair.
Halifax’s workforce is concentrated in public administration, commerce, and personal services. Despite recent cutbacks, the government remains the single largest employer. A large percentage of workers in Halifax are employed at the two military bases in the area, Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax and CFB Shearwater. Important industries are food processing, printing and publishing, petroleum refining, ship repair, motor-vehicle assembly, and tourism. In addition, electronic equipment, plastic goods, clothing, cordage, and furniture are manufactured in the area.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, economic growth came primarily from investment in business parks located in the suburbs. Since then, plans for growth have been focused more and more on the port of Halifax and on making it capable of handling ever larger ocean-going container ships. To this end, administration of the port was put under the control of the newly created Halifax Port Corporation in 1984, which is responsible for all Halifax port facilities and is constantly enlarging and upgrading them. In addition to shipping, electronics technology and ocean-based research, including the continued exploitation of offshore gas and oil deposits begun in the early 1990s, are also gaining importance in the economy of the region.
The Halifax area is served by nearby Halifax International Airport and is the Atlantic terminus of the Canadian National Railways. The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge and the A. Murray MacKay Bridge span Halifax Harbour and provide a link to Dartmouth.
When the Halifax Regional Municipality was established, a new Halifax Regional Council was created. This council is made up of a mayor and 23 councilors who are popularly elected to two-year terms. The city of Halifax is also the site of the provincial governing bodies for the province of Nova Scotia.
Called Chebucto (“at the great harbor”) by the indigenous Mi’kmaq (Mi'kmaq) nation, this part of Nova Scotia’s coast remained unoccupied by Europeans until 1749. In that year, British colonel Edward Cornwallis established a settlement and military base on the harbor and named it in honor of the earl of Halifax, a British official who had planned the enterprise. The base was created primarily to defend the area against potential attacks by the French, who had a fortress at Louisbourg on Isle Royale (now Cape Breton Island in eastern Nova Scotia). In 1752 the first newspaper in Canada was established in Halifax, and in 1758 Halifax became the site of the first elected legislature in what is now Canada. During the 19th century, the port emerged as a major center for trade. Halifax was incorporated as a city in 1841.
During World War I (1914-1918) Halifax again became a military bastion. Huge convoys of ships assembled at the inner harbor (Bedford Basin) to prepare for sailing through the submarine-infested North Atlantic. On December 6, 1917, a munitions ship arriving to join a convoy collided with another vessel at the Narrows leading into the Basin. A massive explosion resulted, killing nearly 2000 people and devastating the whole north end of the city.
In World War II Halifax played a vital role in the Allied effort. Many of the supplies and ordnance going to Europe from the Americas were shipped through its port facilities. For both its modern military presence and for its important role during both world wars, Halifax has earned the nickname “Warden of the North.”