Boom or Bust

As a Maritimer, I'm used to the ebb and flow of the boom and bust economy.

Boom! The mill opens. Boom! The mine opens! Boom! The weather is nice. Boom! We all have money to spend...until the season ends, but then we'll all have enough hours for EI and Boom! We get paid to do nothing.

Until Bust! The mill closes. Bust! The forest sector doesn't hire as many people. Bust! The mine closes. Bust! The EI runs out, and there are no jobs to be found.

Some people move, looking for work. That's why Fort McMurray is the second largest city in Newfoundland, as the joke goes. Many of us become cynical and pessimistic.

Having grown up in this type of month-to-month, hand-to-mouth environment has given me a skewed perspective of what a career actually is. My parents were relatively free from this cycle; however, my father worked in the construction industry, and his success was directly correlated to the boom/bust of other industries. Unemployed people don't build new houses.

I digress. The point of this is that we, as rural Canadians, now look at this cycle of boom and bust as the acceptable norm.

It isn't acceptable. It is absolutely insane. Why should we allow ourselves to think that these are the only career options available to us? Why are we dependent on resources we know are non-renewable, that we know will eventually run out?

My hometown is becoming a ghost town. More young people leave for the rich promises of Alberta. We remove ourselves from our family and community support systems, leaching our home region of is youth, vitality and talent, to chase a paycheque that offers more stability than we can find at home.

It's time to stop asking where we can go when we leave, and bring that hope, youth, and promise back to the land from which we came. Not just in the Maritimes, but in other provinces as well. What can we do to create gainful year round employment in boom or bust communities?

Stop waiting for the government or answers from above, and do it yourself. Why bother helping yourself, when it isn't your fault you're in this situation?

Because it isn't the government's responsibility to ensure your happiness. It is your task, and only your own. So stop whining, stop waiting, and try. If you fail, well, then you fail. But it's better than complaining.