St . John ’ s , Newfoundland & Labrador
SOMETHING FISHY IN JELLY BEAN ROW
A FEW GEOGRAPHICAL notes to start . St . John ' s is along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean , so don ’ t confuse it with Saint John in New Brunswick . It ’ s North America ' s most easterly city ( excluding Greenland ). It ’ s actually closer to London , England than it is to Edmonton , Alberta . St . John ' s architecture has a distinct style from the rest of Canada , and its major buildings are remnants of its history as one of the first British colonial capitals . Often compared to San Francisco due to the hilly terrain and steep maze of residential streets , housing in St . John ' s is typically painted in bright colours , earning its downtown the nickname Jelly Bean Row .
The Downtown area is subject to strict heritage regulations . However , in the face of economic growth and to meet the need for more office space the council have created Commercial Central Retail – West Zone , allowing for the construction of much larger buildings .
St . John ' s economy is connected to both its role as the provincial capital of Newfoundland and Labrador ( NL ) and to the ocean . While the fishing industry took a dramatic downturn in the 1990s , it is still a major contributor . NL ’ s ocean economy employs more than 37,000 ; there are 88 active fish processing plants . The total value of seafood production in 2018 was over $ 1.3bn and the sector continues to grow . The
St John ' s is now the centre of oil and gas industry in Eastern Canada and is one of 19 ‘ World Energy Cities ’.
Above : St . John ' s is closer to London than to Edmonton
Aquaculture grew by over 500 % over a 10-year period , and the ocean economy accounts for more than 40 % of NL exports .
However , the new economic strategy was to focus on extracting the wealth that lay beneath the seabed . Consequently , it is now the centre of oil and gas industry in Eastern Canada and is one of 19 ‘ World Energy Cities ’. Four major oil developments sit offshore of the city and produce 80 % of Canada ’ s petroleum .
The economy has grown quickly in recent years and per capita GDP is the second highest in Canada . St . John ’ s is also known as an entrepreneurial city , ranked in the top 20 of Canadian cities for small business development .
And there are some big names : Kraken Robotics Inc . is a marine technology company engaged in the design , development and marketing of advanced sensors , software and underwater robotics for Unmanned Maritime Vehicles ( UMVs ) used in military and commercial applications . The company is an innovator of synthetic aperture sonar ( SAS ), a revolutionary underwater imaging technology that dramatically improves seabed surveys by providing ultra-high resolution imagery at superior coverage rates . It also produces pressure tolerant batteries which were successfully tested to depths greater than 5,000 metres and achieve an unprecedented 100 + hours without recharging .
Kraken were also key players in the first Technology Leadership Project from Ocean Supercluster .’ OceanVision™ is a three-year , $ 20m project focused on the development of new marine technologies and products to enable underwater data acquisition and analytics as a service business . That means
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