It's no longer about the jobs. Communities must be attractive.
My two brothers and I used to go on ‘adventures’. With the acquiescence of our wives, we would take a week each year and go to some out of the way places in North America. We drove the Dempster Highway in Yukon and we hiked in back country Wyoming, as examples.
One of the most interesting trips was driving through Quebec into Labrador to see Churchill Falls. In northern Quebec, on the way to Labrador you come across ghost towns. Places that used to be thriving mining towns with houses, stores, churches but when the mine closed so did the town. All that is left is the skeleton and even that will disappear within a generation or two.
Throughout history there have been lots of towns that just ended. Think about the outports in Newfoundland or the ghost towns in Nevada. They had a reason to exist. That reason disappeared. So did the town.
I was thinking about that as I listened to an interesting Ideas documentary on CBC. It’s called Hands Up Who Loves Timmins and chronicles the very determined efforts by the city to attract new population. I’m not sure about its slogan “the city with a heart of gold” as I am not sure that was ever meant to be literal.
Anyway, it wasn’t that long ago that places like Timmins or Yarmouth or Miramichi relied on imports into high wage jobs (doctors, miners, etc.) and the local population pool to fill all the other jobs. Now things have fundamentally changed. The population under 20 in many of these communities is down 30-40 percent while the workforce aged 55 and older has doubled or more. Too many leaving. Not enough coming up. As a local mayor and council you have two choices. Accept your fate and settle in for 20-30 years of decline or try and attract new population.
Now communities need to be attractive. Listen to the Timmins podcast above - they are trying to build reasonably priced housing. They are determined to embrace immigrants and make them feel at home. They are deliberately trying to change attitudes and create a community where people want to live - independent of the job they are working.
We have come a long way. I remember in the 1990s, a Toronto-based VP for a large firm was in New Brunswick looking to set up a large national customer support centre in the province. The EDT guy making the presentation about how great New Brunswick was had a few slides on ‘quality of life’ and the VP said he didn’t care about the quality of life as he wasn’t planning to move here. As long as the locals liked it that was enough for him.
That is not enough now. VPs looking to expand here want to know that the companies will be able to attract staff here. They want assurances the talent pipeline will be here. That applies to Halifax and Parrsboro.
So, as we have talked about a lot on these pages, economic development is now all about housing, walking trails, good restaurants, hip coffee shops, access to childcare, family doctors, good schools, minor hockey, low crime rates, social trust, events, festivals AND also a positive business environment, employment lands, competitive taxes, etc.
The communities that win will either a) be lucky (e.g. in proximity to a larger urban centre); and/or b) be the hardest working in their efforts to be ‘attractive’.
Good observations Dave. People have some pretty hard decisions to make these days. People have to have priorities themselves. I have heard that Gov people posted to Charlottetown have complained bitterly about having to be there. What a beautiful place to live. Moncton is now a hub is it not? It is geographically between Europe and “Canada”. Is that worth something to business? Saint John Is a deep water port. That must be worth something. We now have two new cranes. Some one said there are 400 Irving Companies. It seems they are doing well. You probably know a few uncomplimentary names that upper Canadians have for Saint John.
Is it now accepted that young people are not going to be able to own their own home? Who is getting married these days to team up with two salaries? People, individuals or business, People! What can you do.
My wife and l went to McAdam, a major rail link between Canada and the USA, just before Christmas to see the old Train Station all trimmed. What an experience, Stories, History, War time intrigue. Groups and Companies apply to trim rooms, nooks and crannies. I bumped into the Mayor and we started talking about this amazing attraction, in an unknown out of the way place. Yea. What would the area be like if we had a Super Computer Data Centre established there? NB would have to guarantee an abundance of power to supply the Center.
I believe that it is Virginia that has Data Centres slated for it and No Power. Well that’s another thing isn’t it? We are fooling with Sun and Wind and way behind in our own provincial needs. Ps,I don’t want to take any more time to craft this any more than it is. Maybe you can spin something out of it. Keep writing.
I was raised in Timmins as a young child and loved it. Nature was all around us, we treked through the woods, we fished in the streams, swam in the lakes and played pick up hockey for nearly as long as today's NHL season. I went back this summer for the first time in four decades. I found the same place I left. Nearly exactly the same place. I stayed at the hotel built by our former neighbour. Only it hadn't seen a penny's worth of investment in at least 10 years. I walked through the deserted downtown one summer Saturday afternoon and recognized most buildings from my time there in the 1960s. Timmins region is a mining hub. Gold, copper, zinc, you name it, they mine it. But the business investment in the town is nearly zero, except for new retail and chain restaurants five kilometers away from downtown. Downtown was multiple pot shops, abandoned storefronts and many obviously homeless people. My point is that business people make a town by investing in it's future. Timmins is a case of wealth being sucked out of the earth with little coming back to the place it belongs.