New Brunswick's obsession with dualism
I agree wholeheartedly with Andrea Mandel-Campbell's comments in the Telegraph Journal today, in that, if we are ever to move forward as a strong province, both economically and socially, then it is essential that New Brunswick look past it's petty division, particularly when it comes to language:
"With a population of just 750,000 you're still talking about whether it's a French-English divide, or an urban-rural divide or a north-south divide," she said in an interview Sunday.For the record, here's a brief post I wrote on the subject last May just after Justin Trudeau spoke to a group of educators against the current "separate schools" approach of our education system wherein he said "a single bilingual board would be more efficient" (my brief touches a little more on the type of global demographics required in order to have a strong economy, not on education):
"You're up against the whole world, like China and India. What are you doing wasting your time with trivialities like that? You should be banding together, seeing where your strengths lie and using them to your advantage."
Mandel-Campbell also agrees with yours truly on the lack of boldness from the current government, not to mention, their uncompetitive tax policies:I agree with Justin Trudeau, there's no question we need to push past our “thirty year old” dualistic approach wherein we move to a more multicultural, tolerant model. Our resources are scarce in this province and investing too much in old failed policies has left our province [and region] in the global dust.
It is common knowledge that in the next five years, immigration will account for 100% of net labour force growth in Canada. And furthermore, province’s that have a larger number of people born within, for example the province of Newfoundland, tend to have weaker economies as opposed to those stronger ecomomies who rely more heavily on an outside influx of immigrants. [i.e. Toronto, Calgary, and Ottawa]
So there is no question that New Brunswick, whose french and english populations are dwindling [death rates outnumber bithrates] need to change the way they view themselves and their society so that our region can become a more fertile place for immigrants to live, work and pay taxes. In other words, old dualistic policy approaches which maintain the status quo and [keep our society insular] are no longer viable in a global economy anchored by a knowledged based economy [KBE]. We must find a way to convince the people and the powers that be that we need a policy overhaul in order to move ahead in a global society. In other words, we must follow the “3 Ts” recommended by Canadian economist Tom Corchene whereby he said:
“The regions who come out on top will be those who fare best in terms of Technology (as measured by innovation and high-tech industry concentration), Talent (as measured by the number of people in creative occupations) and Tolerance (as measured by the amenities afforded and opportunities available for every possible lifestyle). Cities and regions that score well, especially with respect to the tolerance index, will become places where the creative class will cluster.”
I can't stress this more. And it is a huge reason why I support [Corchene's] notion, in that, I believe we are wasting our time with old policies that have left our society insular and in decline. In other words, we will either ride the momentum of the global wave or sit idly by and watch it crash over our heads. We have a choice.
"It's all very nice and well meaning, but I don't see anything particularly bold there," she said of Graham's much-lauded Self-Sufficiency agenda.
"The entire province is on welfare and always has been, (and) you have a declining population - that seems pretty serious to me."
Mandel-Campbell said the province should make its business tax regime competitive by international standards, not just by Canadian standards.
13 Comments:
I think that message has fallen on deaf ears. Mostly the deaf ears of bureaucrats and government officials. :)
No doubt bill. Which is why the current government has continued with the failed legacy of high taxes (both business and personal)and corporate welfare for declining manufacturing firms instead of lowering taxes and investing in the key infrastructure needed to develope a fertile ground for a knowledge-based economy [KBE].
Trudeau rebuffed his original comments to the teachers.
I saw the same article yesterday. She says some pretty interesting things, and we'll probably ignore her. We've been banging our heads against the wall doing things one way, and we'll be damned if we're going to change.
Remember Danielle Smith's words: we're afraid of excellence, so we settle for mediocrity.
Our Best bet is to fly under the radar and keep so called stuggling. Nothing has worked for the last fifty years and there is no magic answers, and we keep getting our hopes up because the politicians prey on this suggestive ideal that they will magically solve economic problems in the province. Look where Frank McKenna got us, gave millions to giant US Corporations to set up call centers that pay us 8-10 dollars an hour, at the samr time he was cutting more government services and jobs. Now none of the other private sectors want to pay decent wages because the call centers flood the market. I think that it is very dangerous to allow huge companies to pay low wages because it causes our educated to either flee the province or constantly be underemployed. Another problem we have is Irving having to much control over industry, they have the ability to pay decent wages and set the standard in the province but no politicians are gutsy enough to call them out publicly. Don't tell me that Irving pays similar wages to its engineers and educated staff that other provinces that have to compete for talented workers do. It is simple that our workforce is under paid, underemployed and desperate to leave for a better quality of life. All we have to do is have the middle class get organised and do something from a grass roots perspective and demand more form the controlling interests in the province.
Don't tell me that Irving pays similar wages to its engineers and educated staff that other provinces that have to compete for talented workers do.
Why not? Irving pays its educated staff quite well, and thus expects a lot out of them. They wouldn't be able to keep them in this province otherwise.
Rob: well said my friend. Don't remember that Danielle Smith quote, but anything that comes from her mouth is gold IMO.
Anonymous: you said, "Look where Frank McKenna got us, gave millions to giant US Corporations to set up call centers that pay us 8-10 dollars an hour, at the same time he was cutting more government services and jobs."
That is so untrue. Services and the overall size of government increased under McKenna. Plus, very much like Graham, he was not willing to cut back on the use of corporate welfare to companies that probably would have appreciated a deeper tax break rather than a few cash handouts.
And in the end, once the handouts dry up, so do the companies that receive them because it's not viable for a company to remain in a market that is in decline.
Case in point: UPM Kymmene which relocated. They said it was because of worldwide industry overcapacity, but the very next day they moved their operations to a lower tax rate country...like, say, a [tax] hospitable jurisdiction somewhere in the former Soviet Union.
Thet broke the union apart.
Rob I have to disagree with you in the fact that the educated workforce in the whole of New Brunswick in the private sector and are very underpaid. They can retain them because not all of these people are in the position to move where better paying jobs are. That is why New Brunswick loses many of its University graduates to Ontario, Alberta, B.C. and even the U.S. New Brunswick is way behind especially in the technology and engineering fields as far as pay and incentives go.
As far as the McKenna Government goes they did cut 3700 public sector jobs, almagamated everything which meant that most rural areas lost some of the services that they counted on. I am from a small community in central NB and we lost alot because the jobs were cut and centralized somewhere else. I know that many community hospitals were gutted of services and kept open with Doctor's visiting weekly, so we were no longer afforded health care and had to travel over a hundred kilometers to the nearest city to get treatment. After the Government cut everything we stupidly assumed taxes would go down but they didn't. But the Government seem to have millions to give forgivable loans to huge US corporations to st up call centers, and remember that our own premier used our "cheap" labour force to attract them.
anonymous, I agree with you that the educated workforce is paid less here than in other places. However, we do enjoy a standard of living that is higher, and a cost of living that is lower than the regions you mentioned.
Speaking from experience, I left a higher paying job out West to come back to New Brunswick. This cost me about $6,000 in yearly salary. I believe that $6,000 is more than offset by the fact that I can buy a house in Fredericton for $150,000, while in Alberta it would have cost $300,000.
I was also offered work in Calgary, for about $4,000 more than I was making in my previous job. The problem is, I'd commute for two hours, and pay $400-$500k for that same house. I believe I'm paid a fair wage in New Brunswick.
I will agree with you that we don't
do enough to keep graduates here right after they are finished school. Entry-level jobs are hard to come by, and I believe that may be where the real wage gap is. Not many university graduates with 40k loans are willing to answer phones for 13.50/hr.
I hope that happens more in the future where we as a province can utilize our university graduates to avoid the brain drain!
I agree with anon [somewhat] regarding the fact that Irving has hurt competition in this province.
I know it's a micro example, but take the tree planting industry (reforestation) in both New Brunswick and British Columbia.
As a student, I had the opportunity to work with both Irving (2 years) and a few British Columbia companies (yes, there were more than one) for two years as well.
When working with Irving, there were rules put in place that limited the amount of money one could make in a day (everyone made the same as they capped or limited that amount per plot or hectar). This was upsetting because there were many who could have worked harder and made more, but Irving didn't want to promote that. They wanted to give out the minimum amount of money (determined by the market and adjusted to location) while ensuring the job was done right to only benefit them. In other words, they distrusted their workers and weren't ready to fully reward hard work. Furthermore, if you didn't like it, your only other option was to join a small outfit that paid even less than Irving (usually a guy with a rusted truck and a make work program from the government for EI claimants). I actually worked a day on one of these outfits during my days off with Irving. Again, the attitude was horrid amongst the very few who were just working for weeks [EI]. Not exactly an incentive based company per se, if you know what I mean.
As for formen and managers, they were extremely underpaid (as determined by the market) than there BC counterparts.
As well, from a planters perspective, when I travalled to BC to plant to three private companies, I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. The companies believed in incentives (full market price per tree) while encouraging all planters to go hard and make lots of money. During my second year there, I
worked for three different companies while making more in a week and a half than I did the entire summer with Irving.
Now I know what you're thinking, I should say the difference was money, but it wasn't. The big difference between the two provinces' industries was attitude. You had one that encouraged excellence, individualism, hard work, competition and treated workers with respect and you had another [Irving] that discouraged competition, hard work and promoted minimalism and collectivism while treating their workers with suspicion. Which company and province will have a longer lasting industry due to a healthy business environment?? Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
You have to wonder why McKenna had such a strong following when he called our owns work force "Cheap Labour" to lure in U.S. corporations to set up call centers. At the time I was shocked and outraged that he had the arrogance to say that and still had fairly strong support. And our cheap labour wasn't enough so the liberals gave them millions of our tax dollars. No wonder UPS asked him to sit on their corporate board. I also rememebr that he magically came up with money for kindergarten, truth is he didn't he asked the certified teachers of our kindergarten program to work for a partial salary and then hailed it a liberal sucess. I think that the Dalton Camp expression " Smoke and Mirrors" was so accurate when describing McKenna that it was frightening. It seemed that everybody in the Province was scared to say anything because the liberals and Irving were close so everybody kept quiet.
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