One final point about rural depopulation
The debate rages on. Outrage in the north. ‘Plain’ talk in the south. This corner still thinks there must be a better way.
So let me talk to my fellow Canadians that live outside these borders for a moment (the handful that read this thing).
At a time of unprecedented prosperity in Canada, a time of rapid population growth nationally, a time of record levels of tax dollars into government coffers:
Do we want to be the generation of Canadians that stands idly by why Atlantic Canada burns?
In this country’s early days, we spent what would be now billions of eastern Canadian tax dollars opening up the West for development by building railways, roadways and investing in building new communities.
We spent what would be now billions of taxpayer dollars building the St. Lawrence Seaway and effectively cutting of Atl. Canada as a trade route to central Canada.
Throughout history, the national government has made massive investments in an effort to connect this great country – rail, road, telecommunications, ports, etc.
Now, at our time of greatest prosperity, we seem content to let Atl. Canada drift into economic oblivion.
Population decline is the norm. Major industries that have been the bedrock of the economy for generations are in decline. Western Canadian governments are spending significant money to attract Atl. Canadians out west for work.
Atlantic Canada doesn’t need a few more Equalization dollars to be spent providing health care for a rapdily aging population.
What we need is a new partnership, a new deal, with the Federal government focusing on revitalizing the region’s economy.
Every one loves to quote this part of the Charter:
Parliament and the government of Canada are committed to the principle of making equalization payments to ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation.”
But how many of us know this part of the Charter:
furthering the economic development to reduce disparity in opportunities;
I have said it before and I’ll say it again. Atl. Canada should be viewed as the frontier. As we invested billions to build the West many years ago, we need to rethink our approach in the East.
Do we really want to be the generation that stands by and watches as communities that have existed for 200 years or more just slowly wither away and die?
How’s that for a legacy?
For the Fraser Institute and all the other Western Canadian (and some Atl.) think tanks, this is a natural extension of changing economies. They would say that EI and other support programs have just delayed the obvious and led to inefficient economic outcomes.
But I wonder if their tune would change if it were Hinton, or Canmore or Lethbridge that were imploding. I wonder if Alberta’s population were in decline and Equalization payments were increasing rapidly if Fraser would be saying ‘good riddance’.
My hunch would be that Fraser would be demanding federal government support and investment. That Canada’s economic well being is on the line.
It’s not Alberta, folks. But it is New Brunswick. And Newfoundland. And Nova Scotia.
These changes don’t happen over night. New Brunswick is not some remote mining town that just shuts down when the work is gone.
But slowly, over 30-40 years, the economic life is sapping out of this region. First it will be the rural areas but the urban ones are next. Possibly Halifax and a few other economic hubs will survive but the Alantic Provinces of 2050 will look dramatically different than 2007 – without considerable courage and commitment to this region.
When was the last time the federal government made a large scale (i.e like Bell Helicopter, Bombardier, Toyota, etc.) investment in Atl. Canada?
Just when it’s needed most, the Feds have all but disappeared. I am on the mailing list for Canada’s New Government and there are 3-4 major funding announcements per week involving direct support for companies – mostly in Quebec and Ontario – and literally none in New Brunswick.
I’m not sure why that’s aimed at expatriates, or ‘the dispossessed’ as I like to think of myself:)
Idly by? Remember the group, of which I am a member, of expats in Europe for the ‘knowledge economy’? Now that they know I’m in ontario they haven’t been quite so keen on me.
However, I’m in Waterloo, Ontario, and spend much of my time writing local letters to the editor, at blogs, basically mirroring this site. More importantly, I’ve helped two companies develop into ontario, perhaps they would have done fine anyway, but I don’t get paid for it so I’ll harp about it.
Not to mention that I’ve also played a part in getting legislation passed as well as many other political events that I won’t get into. Currently, we are working on a submission to these two idiots, er, the Commission, as well as a documentary. I’m still yet to find any ‘action’ apart from blogging done by New Brunswickers on this issue. I’m yet to even see anybody make a presentation or ask these questions of their local federal politicians or candidates in the next federal election.
But just to be cantakerous, when people were ACTIVELY protesting against these ideas, which I took pains to point out are part of the Atlantica Agenda, they were ridiculed by yourself and Alec Bruce. You guys shouldn’t have been inside listening to Crowley talk about bringing in mexican truckers and belittling protestors-you should have been one of them!
By being on the inside you are ‘standing by’ while this agenda is being pushed through on fairly tenuous grounds. So for ‘standing by’ I simply ask, do YOU want to be standing by? A blog is great, but thats all it is. It isn’t a lobby and it isn’t political pressure.
You want federal investment, absolutely, where? WHO? There is a federal election coming up in spring, organize a group or association who spends the election talking to the candidates asking how much they will bring in to X company. If Mathis can’t get more provincial money, they should get federal. What communities need investment, HOW should that be invested? How many grant applications does ACOA get? Does somebody like ‘fatcat’ even want federal money? Has anybody asked? What WOULD they like? Again, all it takes is an email.
Run as an independant saying this will be your ONLY job. As an independant you would have considerable clout especially if we once again have a minority government. If you won’t do it, ask your wife. Ask Alec Bruce. You don’t even have to win, but you two at least have a name and just by raising the issue will get COVERAGE which is just as important. In fact, you can contact Garth Turner and have an association of independants. Like I said, winning would be nice, and populist candidates are great, but just running opens the debate.
But once again, where does the money go? I completely agree yet I’ve never seen the opportunities you mention. I looked for animation companies and found two. There are only six publicly traded companies. Do they want money? Have they asked? I know the group who wants a scallop fishery, its tough for them because the province won’t even talk to them and the feds like solidarity,they HAVE to go through the province.
I’ve mentioned my own ideas here, take them if you want: school of pharmacy, medical school, a television station. Even small scale breweries, one of the biggest tourist attraction to germany is the fact that every town has their own unique beer. Know how many ‘beer aficianado’s there are in the world?’ I like beer and just bought one from scotland because its a premium. It costs $5 a bottle at the liquor store, five times the price of others, but its an import. A brewery can be started for 10 grand.
But remember that the feds don’t usually like investing where there is no industry. I’ve got some other ideas that will be coming out shortly, but the big difference between the maritimes and other places is POLITICS. Every other place in the country has a political voice, the maritimes don’t, they’ve always been divided. It takes political WORK to change that, so maybe maritimers really are lazy:) (couldn’t resist that:)
I have said it before and I’ll say it again. Atl. Canada should be viewed as the frontier. As we invested billions to build the West many years ago, we need to rethink our approach in the East.
I couldn’t agree more, David. Maybe we need another Minister of the Interior from the Laurier regime, like Clifford Sifton, who was successful in steering the country into a vigorous immigration policy designed to populate the west into a thriving region both economically and culturally.
An excerpt from The Romance of Canada;
“Sifton was convinced of the economic potential of the west and the centrality of the west to the prosperity of Canada as a whole. He viewed immigration as a “national enterprise” to be undertaken in the same manner as the construction of the transcontinental railway. To this end, Sifton’s department established immigration offices in the United States, Britain and several Central European countries in hopes of attracting experienced farmers.”
The samething needs to be accomplished here as was realized in the west. We need to reshape our society here in New Brunswick so as to accommodate a wave of immigration from overseas. Couple that with large foreign corporate investments, and you have hope.
Three cheers for Scott as PCNB leader. Announce on YouTube and say “I’m In and I’m in to win”.
What’s PCNB? Sometimes I swear this blog reminds me of the crew going down with the ship…”what we need is a captain who will take charge”….”what we need is a leader who will unite and save us”…”what we need is a Captain who will…blub blub blub..” If you think the reform movement was Preston Manning you’ve read too much media, if you think the Antigonish movement was a couple of Preachers the same goes.
There’s an interesting thing that happens when everybody says “won’t somebody else do it”…nothing. Politicians listen to the people who walk into their offices, and especially the ones who walk in with a cheque. They don’t have time to go looking for constituents to represent, they have their hands full. If you dont make noise, nobody hears you.
I’m 39. Allow me to turn 40 before I become as cynical as you. I still happen to believe that leadership is important. Call me naive but I still think that good ideas, nurtured by good leaders can lead to better outcomes.
After 40, I am change my mind.
It’s actually the OPPOSITE of cynicism. Saying political leaders are not populist or interested in average canadians problems is so ingrained in most people’s head that almost forty percent won’t go through the bother of showing up at a hall and casting a ballot.
That’s REALISM, not cynicism. But you misunderstand what political leadership is, it goes NOWHERE without the followers. In Canada those followers are then ignored and derided, take a look at how Lamrock made that school decision.
If there were ‘political leadership’ then the liberals wouldn’t begin every speech with ‘..because of the tories…’. In opposition the liberals never griped about anything substantive in the budget, they never said ‘you shouldn’t spend here, you should save here…’ etc. Never happened.
The point is, that people sometimes get the government they deserve. When you live in a political system where those who speak loudest get their concerns addressed, then you can’t always complain if you are whispering.
That’s not cynical, that’ reality. Cynicism is the approach to that, and I think those who refuse to engage in the political process are the cynical ones. It’s basically admitting that you (generic) don’t believe you can be effective. That’s not only cynical, its defeatist. It’s also fairly fundamentalist, the firm belief that a messiah is going to come down and make everything all right with the economy. Heck, He hasn’t done it for humanity yet, I doubt He’s going to do it for New Brunswick’s economy.
But maybe I’ll try back next year.
Turns out the first version was correct, this guy really is crooked as a branch:
Translated from l’Acadie Nouvelle of January 24, 2007 but quoting an
interview in TJ (I haven’t found what date yet!)
(1) “Miramichi must become a suburb of Moncton linked by a 4-lane
highway.”
(2) “Development of the North is utopia because of it’s
depopulation.”
And my favorite!
(3) “Depopulation will happen anyway. We can let it happen or
accelerate it.”
In front of the NB Economical Council in 2003 he said (translated
from French):
(1) “We have to stop thinking that for every 1$ invested in the
South, we automatically have to invest 1$ in the North” (as if somebody had been thinking that!)
(2) “In the next few years, we will see banks and large chain stores
move away from the regions. Credit Unions and Co-ops will have to
play a greater role” (that may be true)
(3) “When I was in government, I was often told: You have done this
in one region, why would we not expect the same in our region? I
replied: your needs are not the same. For me, planning has to occur without looking at the neighbors.”
I would love to see the entire article about the depopulation in the north. (Can’t find it online.)
The gov’t wants to think that northern NB is the same as southern. IT’S NOT.
It doesn’t have the population the south has. Why? Because every third person you talk to in Moncton or Saint John or Fredericton is from Miramichi or north of there.
Northern NB doesn’t have the economy the south has, because the economy is made up of much more industries than the south is (or was). And when industry took a downturn in the early 80s, so did the north.
When industry collapsed in northern NB due to the economy, there was no help from government; not like in Moncton when CN pulled out and all of a sudden SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE.
There is no sense of urgency for the gov’t to do ANYTHING in northern NB. When the Brunswick Mines closed … too bad .. “market conditions” they called it. There are simply not enough votes for the politicians to care.
When Bennett Environmental wanted to build a toxic waste incinerator in Belledune, the gov’t let it slip right through … after all, didn’t the region need jobs? Despite the fact that there are toxic amounts of arsenic and lead in the gardens of Belledune residents because of their own NB Power Plant, it is suddenly OK to consider burning PCBs in their backyard, too? All for the sake of (drumroll please) … 18 jobs. Even the local pharmacy employs more than 18 people. What a joke.
Bernard Lord had announced multimillion$$ “diversification” projects in the north, then threatened to take it away should the area vote Liberal.
And now the Graham Liberals are not proving any better. So will they fund that 4 lane highway from Miramichi south? Let’s just see.
Then again, let’s just see how much “real” business he drums up from his Alberta trip. Maybe he should “spread some of the wealth” to the north. After all, it’s those northern taxpayers who held the Liberals up during Lord’s reign.
Then again, the north has lost many skilled tradespersons to Alberta, so there are not many people left at home to do the work.