Victims of failing natural resource economy don’t fit in new knowledge economy
Every time a position opens up at the Huntsman Marine Centre in New Brunswick, Sandra Clark braces herself for a “big, difficult process.”
Clark is director of finance and administration at the remote non-profit marine science centre on the Bay of Fundy. To find a researcher or a marine biodiversity specialist, Clark may have to go a-hunting in the United States, Germany or New Zealand. To find someone for even a basic administrative function, Clark may have to throw away her checklist of required skills.
“I recently had someone here who’s out on sick leave. I needed to hire somebody in an accounts payable and purchasing position for three months. And it’s near impossible to find a qualified person. You end up getting someone unskilled, because that’s the only person willing to accept a three-month position here.”
Clark’s experience illustrates the human resources problems posed by the dual economy in Atlantic Canada. On one level, large swaths of the workforce remain under-educated and increasingly unemployed as traditional resource-based industries like mining and fishing close down. On another level is a worker-shortage in urban areas, which are turning to knowledge-based and innovation-driven industries for economic renewal.
Addressing the under-educated workforce in the rural areas, the federal Atlantic Liberal caucus is calling for major investment in workforce training, including basic-skills and literacy development.
In the report, The Rising Tide: Continuing Commitment to Atlantic Canada, the caucus makes four recommendations for helping workers sidelined by the closing of resource-based industries. They include:
•improving literacy and basic skills in the region;
•assessing prior learning for recognition and credentials;
•improving access to lifelong learning opportunities; and
•encouraging Atlantic Canadians to obtain university and post-secondary degrees.
“Right now there are parts of Atlantic Canada that are experiencing skilled-labour shortages, particularly in the industries. We’ve got to address that,” said Shawn Murphy, Liberal MP for the Prince Edward Island riding of Hillsborough. “It’s very hard for industries to grow if there’s not a skilled labour pool.”
Even then, the report noted, tens of thousands may never be equipped to participate in a knowledge-based economy.
The report identified more problems than just under-developed human capital. It called for investment in transportation infrastructure, starting with the completion and maintenance of a four-lane highway from New Brunswick to Quebec and to Maine. The report also acknowledges a growing digital divide in the region, as vast numbers of people, particularly in rural areas, remain computer illiterate. High-speed Internet access should be made available to give all communities access to public services, as well as learning opportunities, said the report.
Funds for research and development need to be made available to universities and post-secondary institutions of the region, and a venture capital risk fund should be set up to lure entrepreneurs to the region and away from central urban centres like Toronto, it added.
Murphy categorized the report as simply a set of suggestions and recommendations that will be put before the cabinet.
“I’d like to see some response from the executive, but I don’t think we’re going to get all that we’re asking for,” said Murphy. He pointed out that some of the recommendations have already been adopted, namely infrastructure improvements such as the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway between Edmunston and Fredericton, as well as the enhancement of the border crossings at St. Stephen, N.B.
“If there’s one thing we’re looking for, that would be the continuation of the Atlantic Innovation Fund just to continue the level of research being done in the region to try to match it to the level of the rest of Canada,” said Murphy, referring to an existing $300-million, five-year fund meant for the development of knowledge-based industry in the Atlantic region.
But transforming remote markets into knowledge-based economies isn’t always feasible. Mario Polèse, an academic at Quebec’s INRS-Urbanisation, Culture et Société, said Internet connectivity can’t overcome the barrier posed by distance. Goods still have to be transported, and innovators still need to meet face to face to share ideas, particularly the tacit kind.
In fact, rather than giving peripheral economies a boost to close the gap with urban centres, Polèse found the Internet actually widens the gap by giving centrally located industries access to far-flung markets.
Polèse, who two years ago completed a study on the knowledge economies in the peripheral regions of Quebec and Atlantic Canada, said the dire economic picture doesn’t describe the entire region. Urban centres along the Fredericton-Halifax corridor have been faring well, in contrast to the economic performance of the rural corners of the east coast.
“Halifax has done quite well. In the areas of fisheries and oceanography and oceanology, medicine, the city has built a decent base,” said Polèse.
Moncton, N.B., as another example, has taken advantage of its location as the centre of an agglomeration of nearby cities and as a transport node for both rail and road. The high level of public-sector employment, particularly at the city’s two universities and two large public hospitals, is balanced out by a variety of industrial employers.
“The problem is still that these centres are small, far from big markets and far from where the action is. The problem is in making these places interesting and attractive to young professionals.”
At the Canadian Federation of Independent Business office in Moncton, senior policy analyst Yves Bourgeois said too much emphasis has been placed on seeding research and development projects.
If innovation is defined broadly as “efforts to incorporate new forms of knowledge into production,” then the region has much potential, especially as local industries retool processes to add value to their traditional products.
And from this perspective, Bourgeois sees investment in research and development as just one small way of nurturing a knowledge-based economy.
“Most firms across the board don’t innovate either exclusively or predominantly through R&D. What we need are policies that encourage networking or collaboration between firms, policies that foster synergies through interaction and the exchange of ideas and best practices.”
Clark is director of finance and administration at the remote non-profit marine science centre on the Bay of Fundy. To find a researcher or a marine biodiversity specialist, Clark may have to go a-hunting in the United States, Germany or New Zealand. To find someone for even a basic administrative function, Clark may have to throw away her checklist of required skills.
“I recently had someone here who’s out on sick leave. I needed to hire somebody in an accounts payable and purchasing position for three months. And it’s near impossible to find a qualified person. You end up getting someone unskilled, because that’s the only person willing to accept a three-month position here.”
Clark’s experience illustrates the human resources problems posed by the dual economy in Atlantic Canada. On one level, large swaths of the workforce remain under-educated and increasingly unemployed as traditional resource-based industries like mining and fishing close down. On another level is a worker-shortage in urban areas, which are turning to knowledge-based and innovation-driven industries for economic renewal.
Addressing the under-educated workforce in the rural areas, the federal Atlantic Liberal caucus is calling for major investment in workforce training, including basic-skills and literacy development.
In the report, The Rising Tide: Continuing Commitment to Atlantic Canada, the caucus makes four recommendations for helping workers sidelined by the closing of resource-based industries. They include:
•improving literacy and basic skills in the region;
•assessing prior learning for recognition and credentials;
•improving access to lifelong learning opportunities; and
•encouraging Atlantic Canadians to obtain university and post-secondary degrees.
“Right now there are parts of Atlantic Canada that are experiencing skilled-labour shortages, particularly in the industries. We’ve got to address that,” said Shawn Murphy, Liberal MP for the Prince Edward Island riding of Hillsborough. “It’s very hard for industries to grow if there’s not a skilled labour pool.”
Even then, the report noted, tens of thousands may never be equipped to participate in a knowledge-based economy.
The report identified more problems than just under-developed human capital. It called for investment in transportation infrastructure, starting with the completion and maintenance of a four-lane highway from New Brunswick to Quebec and to Maine. The report also acknowledges a growing digital divide in the region, as vast numbers of people, particularly in rural areas, remain computer illiterate. High-speed Internet access should be made available to give all communities access to public services, as well as learning opportunities, said the report.
Funds for research and development need to be made available to universities and post-secondary institutions of the region, and a venture capital risk fund should be set up to lure entrepreneurs to the region and away from central urban centres like Toronto, it added.
Murphy categorized the report as simply a set of suggestions and recommendations that will be put before the cabinet.
“I’d like to see some response from the executive, but I don’t think we’re going to get all that we’re asking for,” said Murphy. He pointed out that some of the recommendations have already been adopted, namely infrastructure improvements such as the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway between Edmunston and Fredericton, as well as the enhancement of the border crossings at St. Stephen, N.B.
“If there’s one thing we’re looking for, that would be the continuation of the Atlantic Innovation Fund just to continue the level of research being done in the region to try to match it to the level of the rest of Canada,” said Murphy, referring to an existing $300-million, five-year fund meant for the development of knowledge-based industry in the Atlantic region.
But transforming remote markets into knowledge-based economies isn’t always feasible. Mario Polèse, an academic at Quebec’s INRS-Urbanisation, Culture et Société, said Internet connectivity can’t overcome the barrier posed by distance. Goods still have to be transported, and innovators still need to meet face to face to share ideas, particularly the tacit kind.
In fact, rather than giving peripheral economies a boost to close the gap with urban centres, Polèse found the Internet actually widens the gap by giving centrally located industries access to far-flung markets.
Polèse, who two years ago completed a study on the knowledge economies in the peripheral regions of Quebec and Atlantic Canada, said the dire economic picture doesn’t describe the entire region. Urban centres along the Fredericton-Halifax corridor have been faring well, in contrast to the economic performance of the rural corners of the east coast.
“Halifax has done quite well. In the areas of fisheries and oceanography and oceanology, medicine, the city has built a decent base,” said Polèse.
Moncton, N.B., as another example, has taken advantage of its location as the centre of an agglomeration of nearby cities and as a transport node for both rail and road. The high level of public-sector employment, particularly at the city’s two universities and two large public hospitals, is balanced out by a variety of industrial employers.
“The problem is still that these centres are small, far from big markets and far from where the action is. The problem is in making these places interesting and attractive to young professionals.”
At the Canadian Federation of Independent Business office in Moncton, senior policy analyst Yves Bourgeois said too much emphasis has been placed on seeding research and development projects.
If innovation is defined broadly as “efforts to incorporate new forms of knowledge into production,” then the region has much potential, especially as local industries retool processes to add value to their traditional products.
And from this perspective, Bourgeois sees investment in research and development as just one small way of nurturing a knowledge-based economy.
“Most firms across the board don’t innovate either exclusively or predominantly through R&D. What we need are policies that encourage networking or collaboration between firms, policies that foster synergies through interaction and the exchange of ideas and best practices.”
