For years provincial and municipal governments have invested millions of dollars to maintain an industrial age economy based on natural resources like timber. Through these investments, our province has seen its rural regions especially the northern areas face an exodus of workers to southern cities and western provinces. Because we have decided to place greater emphasis on maintaining the norm, our provincial landscape is shifting. It is inevitable that our province needs to address key issues or New Brunswick faces certain extinction in the 21st century economy and national stage.New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham has gone on record to suggest that workers in communities reeling from the closure of mills will likely have to leave their homes to pursue employment opportunities. While honesty is appreciated, we asked ourselves three questions related to the article:
1. How did we get here?
2. What have we learned?
3. Where are we headed?
How did we get here?
It is easy to criticize, condemn and complain about the challenges our province faces, but it is important to show leadership and acknowledge that decisions we have made in the direction of our province have led us to economic collapse in Northern NB. Our continued investment in outdated and inefficient manufacturing facilities, transportation, illiteracy and an education model that supports dying sectors has us heading in a dangerous territory.
What have we learned?
You might not know it but you are seeing a clash between the transformation from the industrial age society to the Internet age community. This clash is not unique to New Brunswick. Many of our traditional manufacturing sector jobs are being moved to other regions of the globe because we are no longer as competitive as other regions of the planet in regards to manual labor. This "problem" is caused by innovative technologies and efficient exporting which makes offshoring a more feasible option. While we might be reluctant to let go of our proud past, we need to accept that the world is in the midst of a shift in which New Brunswick can write a new chapter in its history. What you are witnessing is not a problem, but an opportunity to move New Brunswick forward!
Where are we headed?The Premier raises an interesting point in relation to transit. His suggestion that workers might have to relocate for employment has led me to question if we are investing in the right kind of infrastructure? Instead of investment into more roads, which are a burden on the taxpayer in relation to construction, maintenance and the environment, why are we not investing in smart transportation and telecommuting as an alternative through building a knowledge enabled workforce?
Roads are a popular topic with the electorate, but if we were to invest the millions we put into expansion and maintenance of our highways and put that same investment into a light rail system, then workers from across this province could easily commute between work and home more easily like they do in Europe. Imagine workers from Miramichi being able to live there, but take the 7:30 AM train to Saint John to be at work by 8:30 AM then leave at 5PM to make it home by supper. While more inconvenient then our current circumstance, this option would help communities across this province thrive while also increasing the labor pool for larger economic centers and vice-versa. I would go even further and suggest that we built a rail system which links Atlantic Canada to the New England states, much like the London to Paris train. This would increase the fluidity of trade between our nations and give us access to a large workforce which is needed to prevent this area of the world to become the next 3rd world state.
The only question that I have not been able to answer is whether the people of New Brunswick are ready to shift towards the Internet age or do we have to reach rock bottom first?
Submitted by Trevor Macausland
3 comments:
Interesting post Trevor,however, being in the industry makes you a little more biased than most. What I mean is that there is really no such thing as an 'internet economy', at least not yet. Even RIM makes their dough out of selling a 'thing', in other words, a product.
In forestry, mid sized firms are actually making more money with value added products, just look at IKEA. The 'shift', I'd suggest, is between 'laissez faire economics' and 'value added economics'. New Brunswick lags not because it doesn't have resources, but because of who those resources are handed over to with little benefit to New Brunswickers-relative to what is given. UPM still holds a lease, only in a place like NB can a mill close and the government not even look at their lease.
But look across Canada-weapons manufacture in central canada, oil and gas in Alberta, auto plants in ontario and pharmaceuticals in quebec-what is propping up the canadian economy is mainly 'stuff'-at least for a huge sector of the workforce.
For NB, its ridiculous to think any political decisions are made for the benefit of workers. Highway spending is for industry, not workers.
But even high speed rail is getting a little to 'liberal', meaning its like talking about 'going from worst to first'. I mean, there is really no sense that there is enough population in rural areas to build a high speed rail, let alone enough commuters. Here in Waterloo they've been planning one for a decade, even though the population expresses little interest. But even here in a central area there is little evidence it is cost effective.
For rural NB the next logical step would at least be decent bus service. There isn't THAT much traffic. But in NB there isn't even enough commuters to keep a bus service viable, and there is a law that you can't even start a competing company because there are so few people that the government has had to pay off the bus company just to keep the rides it has open.
So that seems to be a bit far down the list. We're talking about a province where a good percentage are rural and have to pay a fortune for high speed internet-if its even available. Its hard to sell telework if the people don't have the 'tele'-not to mention the training.
So I'm really not sure what the shift IS, let alone whether people are ready for it. Rural dwellers have complained for years about poor internet service, they are certainly 'ready'. The question is whether city dwellers are ready to 'even the playing field' before advancing their own pet interests.
For telework it is certainly not workers who have a problem, it is employers who simply don't trust workers to work from home. Its been a decade and a half since they predicted people could work from home, but of course you can't FORCE an employer to have such services (well, you can, but thats a different issue).
But New Brunswickers were 'ready' for the 'shift' to public insurance almost a decade ago and we saw how that turned out. It's not a question of what New brunswickers are ready for, it is a question of what government will do and those are two very different things.
Cool blogsite by the way.
My goal with this post is to intiate debate about the direction we are headed. I am not saying we should go out and build a ligth rail system without studying the feasibility of one, but there are models that mesh rural and urban communities and work rather well. See Europe for that.
I see a benefit for taxpayers as well as industry in making it easier for people to move in a more fluid manner across the region.
As for a shift, I recommend you pick up this read and the concept will make more sense... We are in the transition period of the shift where traditional thought and a new standard of vlaues are clashing. We will always need raw goods even in the internet age, but we will need less people to produce these products due to efficiencies and cost. That is what I am asking here. Are we ready to embrace the shift that is happening and emerge as a leader or are we going to fight the change and eventually get left behind?
oh, and as for broadband internet access... I was surprised to hear a few weeks that NB has a 90% coverage for broadband access.
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