Work first!

What is the most important thing to Nova Scotians, and Canadians in general?

Some would quickly say health care, the environment or some other issue.

In fact, it’s work.

Employment – productive, wealth-creating work - is what makes the economy move and will help cure (or remediate) the ills facing us.

Now, I’m a big health care consumer and it’s in my best interest the most money and effort possible be put into those programs; I’m under no illusions without work – including mine – it can’t happen.

As well, everyone eats: we still hear complaints of slow-moving agricultural vehicles on our roads, or of some unsavoury smells coming off some agricultural operations at different times of year.

Personally, having been held in place in traffic tie-ups in New Glasgow while huge steel-product bearing trains took up to an hour to pass, and living downwind from a coal-powered electrical generating plant and a kraft pulp mill, I see these as pretty minor things. When those trains ran between Sydney and Trenton, we knew there was prosperity and the economy was relatively safe.

Well, that given is gone.

Never mind you could be held up in exhaust-belching traffic in a major city for hours, folks still complain about farming.

I recall a number of years ago there was controversy over the location of a poultry barn in Lower Wolfville. The producer pointed out, correctly, if you live near an agricultural-zone, don’t be surprised if there is a poultry barn.

Like the Trenton steel works and the Canard poultry processing plant and the Dartmouth Moirs facility, some day we will wish we had more poultry barns, wherever we can put them.

There is considerable concern locally about the possibility of uranium mining taking place here. My humble opinion is, because of the small physical size of the province, with its decomposing rock formations and our small but densely settled demographics, it is not likely a go.

I get the distinct and disturbing impression the opposition is not only against uranium mining, but all mining - or anything else that may disrupt some ground and fell a few trees in the process.

Word is, some folks want to preserve the pristine environment for “future generations.”

What future generations?

If we’re not careful, our future generations – the ones that aren’t already there – will have buggered off to Alberta, where you can work, make money and feel fulfilled.

This was clear at a recent Volunteer Planning input session on resources held in New Minas. People asked where the young people were: take a guess.

Times can’t get better until there is a change in attitude toward resource recovery, manufacturing and food production - and the work needed to further them. This includes remediation and mitigation of some of the negative effects of these necessary operations.

Remember: we are a poor, developing, rural country and will be such – regardless of the existence of some large, urban pockets of well-being – until the northern boundaries of Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton reach the tree line. Even then, there will be work to do.