Nova Scotia is poor. That’s a reality that we don’t seem to want to come to terms with. Were it not for transfer payments—$2.9 billion last year, more than a third of the provincial budget—we wouldn’t have health care. Our very health is, quite literally, dependent on the good will of our richer, western compatriots.
So what’s the problem? To start, we’re cursed geographically, being a long way from anywhere, with mostly marginal land and a difficult climate.
Since the Brits kicked the French out, we’ve had an export-based economy, but such an economy brings great wealth to a few (John Risley is grateful) while most people struggle with piece-work or wage slavery (lobster fishers are pulling in just $3 a pound this year). Moreover, we’ve badly managed some resources—leading to a collapse of the cod fishery, for example.
Even when we’re not mismanaging our resources, the export economy is dependent mainly on an American market that is now in perpetual free fall—Christmas tree sales plummeted 15 percent last year, for instance.
And then there’s simply bad luck—as the Sable Island gas field peters out, offshore revenues will dry up completely in the next couple of years, just about cancelling out the recent sales tax increase.
Still, we keep our provincial attitudes —Nova Scotia will only “make it,” we think, if rich people and companies from somewhere else become our salvation, hiring us to service them. So each year we give millions of dollars in loans and tax breaks to companies to set up shop or expand operations; sometimes those companies pay off the loans, but often they’re here just long enough to take advantage of our low labour rates, then they move onto the next sucker jurisdiction.
The provincial attitude leads to bizarre fantasies, like the idea that we could spend $2 billion to host the Commonwealth Games and there’d be no possible risk to the taxpayer. Or the notion circulating in 2008 that Halifax could replace Singapore as the outside-of-NY financial capital of the world. Or, that if we build a fancy convention centre, rich people from Houston and Vancouver will come here and buy our trinkets, and we’ll be rolling in dough.
It also leads to the politics of blame. The local business elite is straight-jacketed by economic reality and their own shortcomings, but rather than admit as much, they lash out at those who would bring order and sense to the province. Completely contrary to the dictates of the market, speculation has led to the approval of over a million square feet of new office space development in downtown Halifax, none of it built. But, say the elite, the problem isn’t that banks won’t finance construction of a building that won’t make money, but rather that the regulatory approval wasn’t quick enough, despite the city bureaucracy exceeding the demands in approval time laid out by the Chamber of Commerce. Alternately, the lagging economy is the fault of unions, or preservationists or editorial writers who question turning the public treasury over to private interests.
So what should we do?
In his “Reflections of a Siamese Twin,” John Ralston Saul lays out the case that the success of Canada comes precisely “from the needs of a northern society—a society living on the geographical and political margins.” It was, says Saul, poverty of resources that led to a strategy for survival—social egalitarianism—and only from that egalitarianism did wealth come.
That’s no less true now. For Nova Scotia to succeed, or at least survive, we must give up our provincialist fantasies of wealth from elsewhere trickling down upon us, and instead learn that wealth is created as we begin to take care of ourselves—all of ourselves, not just the connected elite.
In real terms that means building an economy that reduces reliance on imported goods. It means building support for local agriculture and fisheries managed sustainably, and addressing head-on the looming energy catastrophe: what little offshore revenues are left should be entirely dumped into an emergency retrofit program for housing, starting with housing for those who can least afford to pay for imported heating oil.
We must, first of all, care for each other.
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2010.
This article summarizes a great deal of what I believe. I’d like to add to it though: by remembering the rise in out province of credit unions, dairy and fishing co-ops, grocery co-ops, and the explosion in the 70s of cooperative housing and building projects, Nova Scotians wouldn’t have to look too far back in their own history to learn how to build social capital with the goal of improving the collective standards of living in a poor province. The encouraging fact is that there are many still among us who know how to do exactly that.
Just ignore the Chamber of Commerce. Blowhards sucking on the government tit. Been like that since 1749.
Yes! This article sums up a lot that I have felt but couldn’t articulate as well about what is wrong with the approach to solving NS’s financial woes!
I’m constantly amazed that people seem to be so worried about Nova Scotia “making it”. Well, I live here because we haven’t “made it”, so that I don’t have to be constantly surrounded by capitalist assholes in suits all the time.
“Standard of living” is too often portrayed as “quality of life” in the majority of people’s eyes.
It’s about time that we dump all that offshore money into supporting and financing young organic farmers who would like to buy the farms of the ageing farmer population (average age of a farmer in NS is 57) while ushering in a new era of smart urban re-development. We need value-added forestry industries that don’t simply burn our forests in coal power plants. No more band-aid solutions!
I am new to Halifax and NS, and am still getting my bearings here. But having lived abroad for the last six years while working for companies in Hong Kong, Denmark and Switzerland – all of which have dynamic economies though none of these countries are blessed with natural resources that feed primary industries – my first impression is that HRM should be focusing on retaining the very well-qualified people who are trained at the local universities.
To create a sustainable economy in a small city like ours, you don’t need 16-story, speculative buildings that deprive the urban landscape of its character or depend on subsidized tenants operating call centres. You do need success stories about Dalhousie and St. Mary graduates who, whether originally from here or not, decided to make their lives in Halifax because the “lifestyle buy” beats that of bigger cities to the west, south, or beyond.
Who will steward that kind of strategy for HRM? If the elected officials at the municipal and provincial level lack the vision, will and skill to move forward, then others can step up and make their presence felt. That includes the progressive leaders of universities where new intellectual property is generated and local entrepreneurs who could harvest those ideas before they are sold or licensed out to companies that don’t have a presence here, and therefore are not contributing to the long-term health of our economy.
Repatriated – That’s something of a chicken-and-egg scenario, though. Without those ‘speculative buildings’ that would demonstrate some kind of sign of growth and prosperity that would potentially attract those graduates to stay, the urban character in Halifax is often defined with empty lots and old, crumbling, obsolete buildings. To say nothing of ridiculously high taxation, a poor job market, and a woefully inept city government. That ‘urban character’ works fine for tourists but when even Halifax natives are jumping ship and moving West because the city’s backwardness is no longer sustainable, what makes you think students from more prosperous places in the world are going to want to stick around in a city that uses the Citadel to hold its own growth hostage?
Among the Maritime provinces, at least, Nova Scotia is a “Have” province. If we cut off Cape Breton we probably would be a “Have” province. Wasn’t there something saying that we would officially be a “Have” province, joining recent newcomer Newfoundland, in the next couple of years?
Halifax ranks among the wealthier of cities of similar size in Canada. We actually have a higher per capita income than those wonderful western cities such as Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (both shitholes) and even Victoria, BC, believe it or not.
More money would be a great way to keep more of us “young” people in Nova Scotia, though. I know it’s not all about the money for everyone, but no matter what it will always be an important factor. That’s why I’m in Edmonton: the city itself may not have as much to offer as Halifax, but at least I can afford to have a decent standard of living here. Maybe if I was a dirty hippy I’d think differently though… but then again, you can afford those higher-priced “organic” veggies and “fair-trade” coffee with more money.
After reading this and yet another of Bruce Wark’s black holes of thought on renewable energy (wind sucks, hydro sucks, oil sucks…just live in the dark, you fools!), I’m happy to see The Coast is redistributing its wealth to the remaining cadre of encrusted socialists in Nova Scotia.
Not too much wealth though, I hope, lest Tim get spoiled and feel entitled.
Really, this is an truly insulting piece to every entrepreneur in your midst who aspires to earn more than the average income (or perhaps just more than Tim or Bruce) while not turning the city into a scene from “There Will Be Blood.” The vast majority of them likely do, since they appreciate the same “quality of life” that draws others, I imagine.
(I hate to break it to you, but the city you serve – with its average income of $70,000 per household and its 6% unemployment — is relatively thriving in the worst economy since the Great Depression. But let’s not get too uppity about it, for fear we sound Torontonian, or *gasp* American)
I hate to break it to you “Not Forgotten” but the employment stability and positive average income in this city is primarily due to its status as a centre of government, military, and academia. Business did not build this city as much as the military/government has.
To keep moving forward Halifax will have to rely on more than transfer payments and government infusions of cash for big new buildings. It will require just what your ‘socialists’ are calling for – progressive thinking, along with environmentally and economically sound projects developed to serve the population as a whole and not just a few people who are still living the myth that unrestrained capitalism will solve all our problems.
Not here it won’t.
Nova Scotians purchase about $600 million per year of RRSPs almost all of which is invested in the TSX. The TSX listed companies invest about 2% of that amount ($12 million) back into Nova Scotia. It costs us about $120,000 to educate a student from primary school to the completion of a two year diploma at NSCC. Ten percent of graduating students go west every year. It is not unreasonable to think that every decade NS residents spend $10 billion to build economies in other parts of Canada.
If we provided a significant tax credit to RRSP holders to invest in a Nova Scotia First Fund where proceeds could only be invested in community owned infrastructure such as sustainable agriculture and fisheries, clean energy and public transportation it could vastly improve quality of life. Imagine the power of our own money and expertise building our own province. A half a billlion a year for ten years or so could turn things around. The best part is that we already have the money. We just need to put it where our mouths are!
Dave in Kingsport
@icfy95 – So on one hand, “transfers’ from government employers to their employees to their local economy are bad. Right. Ok. Uh-huh. Unrestrained capitalism is bad. Ok, Got it. Environmentally sound (however you’re defining that – please ask Bruce Wark, since nothing appears to be environmentally sound – you guys will clearly have to beat each other with left hooks for a long time to settle that one) and economically sound is what’s needed. Right-o.
Hard to disagree with the latter two thoughts, but I have no clue how you figure the first one is bad. Those jobs are well-established (ie a military presence and an academic presense has been here for 200+ years). It’s not like Ottawa opened “People’s Auto Factory #41” and employed 100,000 people. I can’t figure if you hate government, hate business, or hate both.
But as for Tim, elsewhere in the Coast a couple weeks back, he wrote a piece on Gottingen Street businesses where he said he normally hates government subsidies (very glibertarian!) to big businesses (very paleo-socialist!) but for these small businesses he’ll make an exception (very noble….and dumb)
Whether you like subsidies or not – I think they work more often than not, but I could quibble about the process — I think we could agree that some subsidy is needed whether you go for Tim’s route — “Let’s just stay poor and ignore 300+ years as a port with all its transactions of odious outside capital in favor of buying local and closing our doors to outside trade….unless those outsiders want to buy our shit at a premium!” — or the government’s current subsidy route.
So…would the goal of whatever subsidy you prefer be to see some return on that investment or perhaps even repayment?
Then please show data in how much we’ve “lost” in tax breaks versus how many loans to small business have gone delinquent.
I’m not saying “no grants to small business!”, I’m just wondering what you’re all getting at. You hate big business. You hate government. You hate “rich people”. You love equality. You love local production. Great. So how will that actually work???
Oh right. We’ll just get comfortable with being poor.
There is this wonderfully Capitalist-loving attitude that Canada is just like America and anything that works, (I’m not sure how well you can say free-market is ‘working’ in USA right now) down south should do fine up here. We are a unique country with unique challenges. We need to learn from our past, realize it isn’t that far back, and strengthen the community like Tom is suggesting. Our greatest accomplishments as a nation have been our community building ones (be that Universal Health Care or the Cross-National Railway; both of which are being dismantled) We need to stick together and build ourselves as a whole so that we can each succeed instead of everybody thinking about themselves and their lot and hoping that the rest will at least do well enough for themselves to buy our product/service.
I’ve never seen so much ill-informed nonsense packed into one page. Give up on foreign direct investment, give up on exports, don’t invest in initiatives that will actually grow the economy … well, I suppose as a social experiment, if you REALLY wanted to find out whether you could shrink your way to greatness, this would be the way to do it.
Just by the way, Tim, if we are ‘cursed geographically’ (a long way from anywhere, with marginal land), how do you explain Vancouver? I wish people in the Atlantic region would stop using that as an excuse. We have just as much opportunity as anywhere in the country. What’s NEEDED is a stop to the kind of excuse-making and small-thinking that this column is chock full of. Have a nice day.
“Just by the way, Tim, if we are ‘cursed geographically’ (a long way from anywhere, with marginal land), how do you explain Vancouver?”
One word: China. Vancouver owes most of its current success to Hong Kong’s reintegration, Halifax dosen’t have the financial crutch of an influx of investors jumping ship across the ocean.
Interesting response, ‘A Pack of Mentats’. Your point seems to be that Vancouver has capitalized on its geographical proximity to China, and made itself open to both people and to investment, and succeeded by doing so. For the record, I agree 100%. Thanks for underscoring my point that Bousquet has no idea what he’s talking about when he suggests that FURTHER closing our doors to the world is a good idea.
Although Nova Scotia enjoys favourable geographic (and cultural!) proximity to Europe, and has had all the same opportunities as Vancouver has had with China, we haven’t done the same. Why? Maybe because there are too many people here who, like Bousquet, don’t understand why it’s important to participate in the global economy.
Good for you, Tim, for telling smug and complacent Nova Scotians exactly what they do not want to hear.
Nova Scotia is a Western Debt Slave, just like those poor individuals who visit those Loan Shark Payday Stores once a week. (What about those, NDP?) Proof of this is the bonus Offshore Gas Billion a few years back that went right to pay down debt, the banks and Stevie Harper wouldn’t even let Deadbeat NS touch a dime.
And what about the millions of NS Healthscare dollars that go to Drug Racketeers like PFIZER? More natural health, better nutrition would mean millions more spent in this province rather than going to criminal multinational “health” corporations.
Profligate Nova Scotians can dream on about an endless Debt Pit to finance World Class living while producing Third World Income. However, it does have a Bottom. Think Iceland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, etc. Dexter & Co. are just digging the Hole deeper to line their own pockets and those of their families, supporters and contributors.
PS Looks like one of NS recent poster boy techo Welfare Bums is in trouble. RIMM may go the way of the dodo or is that doodoo?
BlackBerry Is Doomed, Says Another Analyst
http://www.businessinsider.com/blackberry-…
Good article even though federal-provincial transfer agreements are more complex than Tim makes it look like.
In Nova Scotia we can expect shortages for all kinds of skilled labour by 2013. Shortages for semi-skilled and unskilled labour will follow, but not as quickly. Wages will go up. More jobs will be available, because the baby-bommers are retiring, but population loss will kick in big time from the mid 2020s onward. This will especially affect rural Nova Scotia. The answer is not huge numbers of skilled immigrants – because it simply won’t happen – but improved work conditions, a more democratic economy, more participative democracy that will lead to higher productivity to make up for a smaller, older population. Also, downshifting consumerist life-styles and sustainable prosperity for the province as a whole are a huge opportunities for a better, happier society.
What a bunch of bs Tim…this has to be your worst yet. The only reason we are poor is because of attitudes like yourself. We are afraid to take a chance on anything. Our geography should be an asset and not be a hindrance. We are very close to some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world we are positioned very well between the major markets of Europe and North America and how do explain places that are rich and more isolated than we are.
After reading this I think I am going boycott the Coast…it’s a piece of junk.
For starters: marginal climate my ass. It’s as good as, or better, than a lot of other places. We may not have a great deal of arable land (and let’s do something about people building houses on what we do have) but we can do considerably better in supplying much of our own foods than we do now – there’s one area to improve. Also: the city using the Citadel to hold its own growth hostage? That comment left me scratching my head – if the presence of a historic site is crippling the growth of Halifax that badly, I simply can’t understand why dozens of world-class cities can possibly survive with considerably more such sites in their downtowns. As if all the buildings have to be packed into a few blocks between Citadel Hill and the harbour.
In any case we are no worse off than hundreds of other regions around the planet, many of which are doing very nicely. We’re not doing so well right now, and contributing factors are public attitudes and short-sighted political and business thinking. That’s government of all stripes, by the way. Let’s get one thing straight: we don’t have a geographical advantage when it comes to world trade, and maybe the container terminal folks can finally realize that. We actually labour under a serious geographical disadvantage. Relying on shipping isn’t the answer.
Our main problem – again governments of all parties, and most of our business community, think this way – is that we’re still set into 19th century resource-based and traditional manufacturing thinking. We’re toast (and in fact we *are* currently toast) if we think that way. Our way onwards and upwards must be centered around a strategy of self-sufficiency first, demonstrating how a region this size with our advantages *and* disadvantages can take care of itself, using 21st century approaches and technology and knowledge, and selling *that* knowledge and technology to the rest of the world. *That* should be our growth industry.
But these solutions cannot include a withdrawal from the world, or an acceptance of marginalization, or thinking that we can return to the land and live simple. Those “solutions”, espoused by elements of the green community, are as destructive as the ideas of Old School Business. We need to become more urbanized, not less so.
People moan about us having all these purported problems. Well, that right there is an opportunity, because whatever real problems we have a whole bunch of other regions do too. We can develop the solutions and then be a model. But we won’t do it by trying to return to what worked in the late 1800’s.