6 Discovering Enough: Working Away
Since when has “working away” become a negative value? What parent or family would not like to see their children educate and improve themselves and move away to achieve a way of life that inspires them?
The larger communities in New Brunswick currently have lower unemployment rates in comparison to the smaller rural communities. Most of the people moving to the oil patch of Alberta and the urban areas of Ontario, Quebec or other provinces have chosen to “work away” due to their skill levels and the promise of higher compensation and career advancement. Those who choose to remain in their home communities tend to do so because the quality of life they enjoy is enough. Seldom mentioned are the people from other provinces and countries that move to New Brunswick to celebrate our way of life.
New Brunswickers and maritimers are now being told that their only hope for the future lies in the unlimited extraction of our natural resources by foreign or large multinational corporations. Unlimited natural resource extraction in the past has led to the collapse of the fisheries and the loss of the majority of the Acadian Forest. Hydraulic fracturing for shale gas would expose current and future generations to a dangerous and toxic environment. Maritimers know that there must be a better way using their local skills to provide a quality of life based upon the tradition of enough. They at least want the opportunity to try.
As long as the mindset of the government and the citizenry is focussed on bigger is better, people will continue to be encouraged to “work away” rather than develop their home communities and support their local businesses. Before the advent of abundant and cheap energy, human population growth was essentially flat for many decades. Families were supported by a single income, wage inequality was far less, people consumed less, children replaced parents for jobs and an average quality of life based on enough was cherished. Without the development of local businesses and local economies, and local demand for the services they provide, there will continue to be people “working away” rather than working at home to develop a maritime quality of life.
Reducing unemployment in rural communities will require improved educational opportunities and the incubation of diversified small local businesses that serve the economic and social needs of those communities. One-industry towns are dependent upon the viability of that particular business. Community ownership of the industry can offer enhanced employment security and community sustainability. Diversification of opportunities within the community also offer improved stability. Support of a vibrant middle class and a diversified, small business does more to encourage residents to remain and support their local communities.
Rather than focussing on “working away” or inviting unlimited natural resource exploitation, perhaps the focus should be on how to provide a quality way of life based upon the principle of enough that will encourage those “working away” to eventually return and new residents to want to settle in our province.
One of a series of personal opinion pieces as to where New Brunswick could head in the future. With the effects of global climate change becoming more obvious each day and the need to leave fossil fuels in the ground becoming more imperative, these opinion pieces will put forth alternate ideas for job creation within a sustainable economy.
Richard Lachance
Cocagne NB
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