|
Dateline: September 2006
| The series of special articles
to follow is reprinted with the kind permission of Eastern
Shore author and publisher Marike Finlay-de Monchy and the
Guysborough
Journal. |
 THANK
YOU FOR LISTENING
"Sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs." (Brundtland Report,
"Our Common Future", 1987)
Three weeks before the date set for the Nova Scotia provincial
elections I was asked by the Green Party to be a candidate in
the riding of Guysborough - Sheet Harbour. It was with great trepidation
that I accepted. I did not want to become involved in partisan
politics. But I did wish to place on the table the sorely neglected
issues of environmental and economic sustainability. Quite frankly,
though, I was afraid to speak out about such issues, even at the
all candidates' debate in Sherbrooke. I feared being booed off
the stage should I dare suggest that we think further about our
area than the old adage: "A job is a job and comes first
no matter what the cost, cost to our environment, our health,
our neighbours, other jobs, or even our youth's future."
Once I got my heart out of my throat I began presenting a few
alternatives to that old Credo. I looked out amongst the members
of the audience to discover, with great RELIEF, that they were
listening eagerly for and to any suggestions that things could
be different in this area. Many people nodded in agreement when
I suggested that Guysborough - Sheet Harbour does not need to
become the resource grab bag or toxic waste dump for the rest
of the province, country or continent. Perhaps we could thrive
economically without selling short our youth's future not to mention
our own health and well-being. However, to thrive we must enter
the new economy of the 21st Century - the SMART economy.
What warmed my heart most that evening were the expressions of
pride on the faces of my listeners when I stated that we live
in one of the most unique and beautiful natural sites in the world.
If Guysborough - Sheet Harbour were located in Ireland, British
Columbia, California, or the Carolinas, people would be clamouring
to visit, settle and do business here. Surely pot holes and fog
are not the only things holding us back? Let's dare to look at
the other obstacles to our success and make strategies to remove
them!
I tried in the brief time allotted to me that evening, to introduce
a few suggestions for how things might be turned around. We have
to stop waiting to win the lottery, the ever-promised magic bullet
of a huge (often environmentally devastating) industry, which
may "someday" come to town.
Topics I hinted at included:
- The development of all kinds of highways, not just asphalt roads.
This means the information and communications highways, and support
for education as the royal road to the future.
-Assessing the true economic stakeholders, and costs and rewards
of government subsidies.
-Treating the root of problems rather than dealing with disasters,
(for example, insulating homes rather than removing tax on heating
fuel).
- Looking at the benefits of investing in early childhood enrichment,
rather than paying to fix broken kids.
-Re-branding the shore as a unique place in Nova Scotia and the
world.
- Looking at how we can increase in-migration, for example by
-Taking advantage of the demographic shifts to occur when baby
boomers retire, and
-Making telecommuting possible by providing equal access across
the area to new communications technology.
-Using government taxation and subsidization incentives to encourage
culture workers to settle here.
-Focusing on creating health rather than just treating sickness,
by
-De-toxifying the environment, by
-Providing economic dis-incentives to polluters and
-Rewarding with incentives "clean" industries and businesses,
such as renewable energy and organic farming.
-Making a concerted national and international public campaign
around the low-price of real estate as an incentive to settle
in the area.
-Organizing the summer populations to make a contribution.
-Encouraging international yachters to sail this coast, thereby
developing the recreational marine industry, with its ensuing
increase in tourism and settlement (think Chester).
-Ensuring quality control, arts and recreation education, and
enriched extra-curricular activities in the schools to help our
kids be on a level playing field.
- Constituting a community-based and consultative steering committee
to forcefully articulate to all levels of government requests
for low-capital sustainable funding for small step development
programs.
Following the debate, the editor of the Guysborough Journal,
Andrew Waugh suggested to me that some of the citizens of Guysborough
- Sheet Harbour might like to hear more from me about such alternatives.
Rightly so. It is not enough to merely hint at such things; these
ideas need to be developed with reference to other examples where
they have worked. Because the audience at that debate in Sherbrooke
seemed eager to imagine how this extraordinary place on earth
could flourish.
I will try my best in the following weeks to present a few step
by step solutions to the great difficulties and challenges that
confront us in Guysborough - Sheet Harbour. Put together, all
of these small changes that we ourselves can encourage and accomplish
would make for a world of difference!
Thank you for listening.
Part
2 - October - "Come From Away?" 
Read Installments - 2,
3, 4,
Marike Finlay - de Monchy taught Communications at
McGill University and abroad, practiced psychoanalysis, carried
out development work in Latin America, and managed an organic farm
in Quebec.
Marike sailed to the Eastern Shore and loved it
so much that she has since settled in West Quoddy where she runs
a small writing, editing and publishing business.
Marike and Karin Cope are co-authors of "Casting a Legend
- The Story of the Lunenburg Foundry".
"Casting a Legend - The Story of the Lunenburg Foundry"
Buy the Book Now!
Buy Karin Cope's book
"Passionate Collaborations: Learning to Live With Gertrude
Stein"
|
Where
on Earth is
