Community Profile

Introduction

Welcome to the Big Land, a vast, friendly place with tremendous promise and opportunity. Trophy- sized fish, giant caribou herds, world-class wilderness country, vast hydro, mineral and timber resources are all standard fare here. These and other assets provide the Town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay with a very attractive combination of opportunities for business growth and a quality of lifestyle opportunities unmatched anywhere.

We are a "Can Do" community of nearly 9,000 people, where new business opportunities are never far away. Our entrepreneurs are taking on new challenges and partnering opportunities every day. Our people have a diverse mix of Aboriginal, European and other origins; collectively they have built a community with a positive, business friendly attitude and a vibrant arts and culture sector.

We are strategically located with respect to global air routes that led to our origin as an aircraft base during World War II. Today, Goose Bay Airport is on the official NASA list of alternate Shuttle landing sites due to the quality of its infrastructure and prevailing weather conditions. Canadian Forces Base 5 Wing Goose Bay is a well established location for Low Level Flight Training by a number of Air Forces for the same reasons.

Access to North American markets has been greatly via the Trans Labrador Highway. This all season road connects us to Central North America. We are 1304 kilometers by air and 1838 kilometers by road northeast of Montreal.
Happy Valley-Goose Bay is a regional service centre for the communities of coastal Labrador and a variety of industrial activities throughout the region. It is a strategic location for mining exploration and development in central and eastern Labrador, including the giant Voisey's Bay development and the Lower Churchill Hydro projects.

These are some of the reasons why we say that Happy Valley-Goose Bay is "A Bright Light in Canada's North". If you are interested in exploring business opportunities in the Big Land, we would like to discuss them with you.

Our Quality of Life

Ours is a strong, progressive community with a frontier spirit. While we look to the future, we are grounded in our origins. The celebration of our cultural and natural heritage takes many forms, including the annual Creative Arts Festival, the Labrador Canoe Regatta, theatrical offerings by the Mokami Players, Them Days (the Labrador cultural magazine), and a rich assortment of locally produced crafts.

Our schools offer high quality programs, including French Immersion and French First Language programs and language maintenance for the children of our visiting German Air Force personnel. The Health Labrador Corporation administers the Melville Hospital, a teaching hospital. It is a regional facility serving central and coastal Labrador. The Paddon Memorial Home is the regional seniors facility.
Happy Valley-Goose Bay has modern facilities catering to a full range of recreation and athletic activities for both winter and summer. The unspoiled wilderness environment at our back door stretches for hundreds of kilometers in every direction and offers countless opportunities for world class hunting, fishing, photography, canoeing and snowmobiling in winter, just to name a few of the activities popular within the region.

We have a good supply of affordable building lots and existing housing. Serviced lots cost, on average, approximately $30,00.00 and single detached housing sells in the region of $100,000.00. The Town is actively working to ensure that a steady supply of high quality housing lots are available to meet the demands of the future. If you are looking for more information on housing, feel free to contact us at your convenience.

The Town also offers the most extensive range of commercial services in Labrador, including government support agencies, training and professional support services. There is a ready supply of competitively priced commercial and industrial land available in our industrial park and in smaller lots located in business areas. Happy Valley-Goose Bay is a gateway to the North. It is the transportation hub of Labrador; the only location where road, sea and air services all come together with a quality infrastructure.

Our People

Our population is comparatively young, with 42% under 25 years of age, compared to 36% for the province. We have a diverse mix of cultural backgrounds including European settler, Aboriginal (Inuit and Innu) and Métis. We offer employers a stable, adaptable and motivated workforce, skilled in the management and technical operation of a major airbase, the many private sector operations supplying it along with the mining, tourism and other industries. A diverse mix of other management and operational skills are also employed in the delivery of regional services to central and coastal Labrador.
Training and education levels are very competitive. 30.5% of the population fifteen years of age and over have either a postsecondary degree or certificate compared, for example, to 30.9% for the capital city of St. John's and 26.4% for Corner Brook.

The Labrador Institute of Memorial University, located in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, is responsible for maintaining communication between Labrador and the university campuses in St. John's and Corner Brook, identifying research and education requirements within Labrador and the resources to meet them. Through the University's Distance Education Program, residents can access diverse continuing education programs, including degree credit courses and certificate programs. There are currently several courses offered with World Wide Web components and 30 additional courses are currently being developed for this medium.

The Happy Valley campus of the College of the North Atlantic accommodates approximately 200 full-time students and offers 14 certificate and diploma courses. Other programs are customized for industry, aboriginal and community groups, with an emphasis on flexibility and responsiveness to the marketplace. Priority is placed on graduate placement, with a full-time placement officer.

There is a very healthy entrepreneurial spirit abroad in the town,with a significant number of business startups/expansions each year. Home-based business startups, for example, have blossomed from just a few per year to a total of 62 during 1996 and 1997.

Our International Connections

A gateway to the North, Happy Valley-Goose Bay is strategically located with respect to northern air routes between Western Europe, the Arctic and North America. Combined with the high quality infrastructure of Goose Bay Airport, a creative business sector and skilled workforce this creates unlimited potential for future economic development in sectors such as aerospace, defense, import/export and servicing to the endless stream of traffic overflying the community. Goose Bay Airport daily hosts unscheduled technical stops and represents a key port for the world's airlines.

CFB Goose Bay is an established venue for international low level flight training, with participating Air Forces including the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland and Italy. Containing two major runways, six ramps and twenty-seven hangars, the airport is an official alternate landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle Program. A reflection of the quality and scale of the facilities available.

With the completion of the improvements in 1999, The Trans Labrador Highway is a high standard all weather road. Improvements to the highway in recent years have resulted in new trading patterns, business expansions and new developments in the tourism industry. An example is major increases in the volume of trucked freight from central Canada, accompanied by construction of warehouse space and the location of an established transportation company in the town.

The Town is a modern, "wired" community with high-speed Internet capable of accommodating high-speed data transfers and live satellite video-conferencing. With several Internet service providers and web page designers now located in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, the Town is the recognized technological hub of Labrador. As the level of available technology has continued to rise, we have gained easier and broader access to global markets, distance learning programs and possibilities for strategic alliances around the world.

The Port of Goose Bay is the termination point for the Trans Labrador Highway and a vital link for marine service to the coast of Labrador. Located just 4.5 km from Goose Bay Airport, it contains two docks. The Main Dock is a 244 m long by 15 m wide marginal wharf with 9 m. minimum water depth on the west side and 5.6 to 9.1 m. minimum water depth on the east side. The second dock is a pier wharf 51 m. long with 5.4 to 7 m. minimum water depth. The main storage shed is 53 m by 31 m. Other infrastructure includes asphalt and fuel tanks and a transshipment warehouse.

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