Time to Make Some Lemonade

By Submitted Article

There is a saying that “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” and the shut down of the Galore Creek mining project could be a case in point.

Although it may be difficult to find something positive in the temporary shelving of a nearby $2.1 billion megaproject, the decision does create a small window of opportunity for those of us living in the Northwest to reflect on a couple of critical questions for our future prosperity:  what is the mix of external and local sources of employment we want in our economy and what is the pace of development we want in our own backyard?

Despite BC Liberal government claims that their mining policy is what is driving the latest development frenzy, the primary reason for Galore Creek shutting is the same for why it started up in the first place – global commodity prices.  As mine owners Teck Cominco and NovaGold said in a news release, the project is “uneconomic at current consensus long-term metal prices.”

The overdependence in our economy on sources of employment and revenue generation that are linked directly to global commodity prices, and control from boards of directors in far away places, has got us into trouble before.  A prime example of this overdependence is the forest industry.  The collapse of Repap in the late 1990s is an event that continues to have negative repercussions in communities all along the line from Prince Rupert to Smithers.  And recent announcements of the slashing of more than 1,000 direct jobs by AbitibiBowater in Mackenzie and Canfor in Prince George and Chetwynd is further evidence of the devastation when we rely on only one, dominant model for our economic health.

There are other ways of looking at things.

Across Canada communities are organizing their work within comprehensive frameworks because they recognize that economic, environmental and social challenges are interdependent, complex and ever-changing.  They are finding that to be effective, solutions must be rooted in local knowledge and led by community members. This approach is known as Community Economic Development (CED). CED promotes holistic approaches, addressing individual, community and regional levels, recognizing that these levels are interconnected. CED has emerged as an alternative to conventional approaches to economic development. It is founded on the belief that problems facing communities - unemployment, poverty, job loss, environmental degradation and loss of community control - need to be addressed in a holistic and participatory way.

The CED approach has been roundly ignored and unresourced by current provincial and federal governments.  Ask an MLA or MP from the ruling parties holding seats in BC what CED stands for and you are most likely to get a blank stare.  That is not acceptable if we ever hope to alleviate the boom and bust nature of our economies.  What we need is to implement a better mix of economic development – those dependent on external control, such as Galore Creek, and those with more local control, such as found in CED.  Even former Alberta premier Ralph Klein, a man who Gordon Campbell longs to pattern his policies after, candidly divulged when he left office that his government had “no plan” when it came to the dominant economic model and he admitted his province is suffering because of it.

And that brings us back to the burgeoning boom on the horizon typified by Galore Creek, whose scope of development and impact on all of us cannot be easily comprehended -- the original construction costs of $2.1 billion, for example, were more than those of 2010 Olympics.

A responsible government would use the breathing space that shelving of the project creates to support a process where the people living in the communities most effected by the current development surge can define what kind of future they have in mind.  For example, how many mines and oil and gas developments do we want to see come on line at once?  And what kind of links to provincial infrastructure do we think will be consistent in supporting community values and visions?  A case in point is the Northern Transmission Line proposed to service resource rich mining zones near Iskut and Dease Lake.  Is the large 287 kV transmission line option that Gordon Campbell unilaterally declared a done deal the best fit for those values – a line that would enable numerous mines to come on line at once -- or would a smaller, 138 kV line be more appropriate for the pace of development the communities support?    

What it all comes down to is the mix -- the view that we should allow control to be in Victoria, Ottawa and New York balanced by the outlook that control of our resources and development should primarily rest with locals.

These are the type of questions that we can use the breathing space to address.  Lets make lemonade out of the lemons.

Doug Donaldson lives and works in Hazelton.  He is a municipal councillor and  a member of the Canadian CED Network’s BC/Yukon council.

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