Five Year Plan & Sustainability Vision

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Why and How the New Model Would Work

In a report entitled “Rural Nova Scotia Issues,” Greg Cameron, assistant professor of political science and rural community studies at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, writes:

In Nova Scotia there is a disconnect between the overwhelming challenges facing rural communities and the capacity of rural communities to confront and resolve them. Undoubtedly, there is more the government could do to create an enabling environment for community processes.

With less assistance than is needed in the face of rapid cultural, economic and technological changes, those communities most reliant on government-funded infrastructure and services are forced to fend for themselves. It begs the question whether the inability of rural economies to maintain or create profitability is a cause of increased ‘dependence’ on government provision, or an effect of decreased government provision in the first place?

Community as Project: The Commitment Criterion

We are clearly at a crossroads. The MCDA has worked diligently to create an appropriate balance between the commercial and social development and usage of the CDC, always mindful that the facility is there to help promote the well-being of the community in the fullest sense.We are working hard to offer programs and services to our residents; to participate in local and regional tourism development; and to assist local people develop the skills they need to find and maintain satisfying employment and so on.

Given adequate financial assistance, this Association can play a strong role in the economic, environmental and social development of this area and, by extension, of this region.

While we are committed to working toward positive change, we can not do so alone. It is time, we believe, for our elected officials to decide that rural communities are deserving of support to ensure their survival; and to assist us – partner with us – in making our future a bright one.

Weaknesses as Strengths: the Irreplaceability Criterion

We recognize that our request is unusual, but we also believe that it is time for policy changes that adequately recognize volunteer groups and local economic development efforts. Civic engagement of this sort is crucial for the stability of society and in rural Canada it is increasingly threatened. Without core funding to guarantee both the infrastructure and the provision of programs – coupled with volunteer burnout and rising energy costs – small rural communities are at serious risk of demise.

We are calling for an open and honest discussion with all three levels of government to discuss a strategy for our future. Part of that means acknowledging the elephant in the room: that in certain quarters of the economic development sector, there are those who plainly do not wish to prevent the demise of rural communities.

This very notion must be countered, but not with either pleas of desperation or claims of victimization. Instead, what is called for is a wholesale reconceptualization of what the volunteer sector truly brings to the CED table.

For what appears at first as weakness, dependence, reliance – in short, government as ‘crutch’ – is in fact the opposite. According to the Cape Breton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, if the work done by volunteers in Nova Scotia were to be replaced by paid employees, it would amount to $2 Billion annually-roughly 6.5% of GDP!

In a section entitled “Change needed: an attitude shift and an investment strategy,” the Blueprint for Action (also known as the ‘Bradshaw Report’) says:

funding for the community not-for-profit sector is not an expenditure; it’s an investment with dividends just like an investment in the business sector. It benefits the public by enabling people to learn and grow. It saves money by reducing the costs related to illness, poverty, lack of education, crime, etc, while improving the quality of life for everyone. It reduces pressure on government services and adds value to local economies.

The ‘pledge’ described in these pages should be an easy one to make, then, given the evidence that funding for community development initiatives is in fact investment in the overall economy.And given the magnitude of the voluntary sector’s contribution, not only is investment in it risk-free; without it the economy would cease to perform as governments – and those by whom governments are elected – have come to expect.

Economics as Ecology: the True Sustainability Criterion

As Cameron notes in his assessment, while rural Nova Scotia presents overwhelming challenges, “there are promising opportunities for rural communities in areas such as renewable energy.” Any promise in this area can’t be realized soon enough: coastal areas worldwide are especially susceptible to the effects of human-caused global warming and climate change, in particular rising sea levels. (See below. Source: Natural Resources Canada.)

The project outlined in this document is in line with the goals set forth in the Nova Scotia government’s Energy Strategy/Climate Change Action Plan:

• to protect the environment;
• to build a strong, sustainable economy;
• to help Nova Scotians adjust to rapid change.

Accomplishing all three – none at the expense of another – will necessitate treating the environment, the economy, and ourselves as parts of an inseparable whole.

Currently, any negative impact on the environment arising from business as usual is an ‘externality’ – an impact on something not considered directly involved in an economic transaction. Revising this flawed accounting will require substantial ingenuity, as we will be forced to think of development in terms other than of simply growth.

In Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, E. F. Schumacher writes that

an attitude to life which seeks fulfillment in the single-minded pursuit of wealth – in short, materialism – does not fit into this world, because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the environment in which it is placed is strictly limited.

The warning implicit in these words must be heeded if we are to avoid squandering our children’s future, not to mention imperilling our own, by favouring capital at the expense of the environment – the ‘natural capital’ on which we depend for our very survival – an absurdity illustrated in Al Gore’s Academy-award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, when a pile of gold bars is shown on a scales being weighed against the Earth.

Treating the environment as an ‘externality’ is akin to treating ourselves as ‘something not directly involved in economic transactions,’ a view Canadian Auto Workers chief economist Jim Stanford wishes to correct when he writes:

Because we interact, cooperate, and clash with each other in the economy… economics is a social subject. It’s not just technical, concrete forces like technology and productivity that matter. It’s also the interactions and relationships between people that make the economy go around. (Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2008.)

Development, therefore, includes not just building office parks and parking lots, but building these social relations – between and among individuals, between workers and the products of their labour, and between people and the ecosystems of which they are a part.

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Posted by Mike Targett | Email a comment