Share of what?

Maybe I’m missing something, but are we really benefiting from an offshore resource boom?

Alberta is oil rich, with some exceptions; Saskatchewan and Newfoundland are coming up in the world with petroleum and other resource booms. There is talk they are now “have” provinces. Despite its manufacturing industries taking severe hits, Ontario is still resource rich.

My take is we may be a “have” province, too - but we don’t “have” much to show for it. Maybe the conspicuous consumption is being more conspicuous in the Metro area – and I make a point of not venturing down there unless I have to for work reasons or by ambulance.

All this talk of a Crown share hasn’t really caught my imagination.

The last time the federal government shelled out, then-premier John Hamm and opposition leader Darrell Dexter agreed we’d put it all on the provincial debt. Great idea, but not immediately conspicuous.

Nova Scotia - like the smaller eastern seaboard states in the U.S. in past centuries, Rhode island, Connecticut, Delaware, etc. - has had a problem: our landmass can’t substantially increase. While Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Newfoundland have expanded their borders by multiples, we’re stuck at our current size, and have been since we gave up New Brunswick after the Revolutionary War.

What’s worse: global warming may increase the height of the ocean, further cutting into our dry land supply. Filling in lakes and cross dyking coves are the only ways we’re ever going to get more territory.

Not that there has been a huge run on land for folks to occupy. After hitting a high point of nearly a million souls in recent years, our population has been in decline. Whoever is staying here, or comes into the province, is more likely to remain around the Metro area.

Exploiting resources is a problem, though, especially when the ore or whatever is close to a community. The current furor over uranium exploration is a case in point. There is not likely anywhere with the necessary elbowroom to mine anything as contentious as uranium in this province.

These Crown share monies are from a federal/ provincial agreement made more than 20 years ago to compensate us for what we’d have had if we’d kept rights to a share of the offshore resource industry. Clear as tar sands to me.

Sure, a federal/ provincial panel has confirmed we’ll get some $234 million to date, with up to $633 million – depending on natural gas prices - over the next 15 years. Mind you, add it all up and it’s much less than the bill for education or health care for a mere year.

We can’t all retire on that.

There are benefits: projects for the Pictou shipyards and jobs in Metro, but we’re not the Clampetts - I’m not really expecting to be moving to Beverly Hills anytime soon.