CCN Back Issues Vol 5 Issue 2

Will the art and science of producing food become a vibrant and resilient part of the rural landscape, or a race to achieve a "bottom line" that depletes both soil and people?
– Jennifer Scott, in the August, 1999 issue of Between the Issues, magazine of the Ecology Action Centre

The way we now measure progress doesn't put any value on the resources that are the source of that wealth. For example, in the fisheries the value of the fish harvested is the main indicator of "progress" in that sector, while the state of the fish stocks themselves is of no account to most economists. In the late 1980s and early '90s, the result of this approach was the depletion of certain fish stocks and all the social and economic consequences that followed. GPI Atlantic, a group of researchers in Nova Scotia, is developing a new way to look at progress called the Genuine Progress Index (GPI), which values natural, social, economic, and environmental capital. The GPI includes four natural resource "accounts": soils and agriculture, forests, fisheries, and non-renewable resources. It gives them value and examines how what we do to them affects their long-term sustainability. Reports on three of these accounts will be released by GPI Atlantic this fall. Here, we take a look at the "Soils and Agriculture" account.

Agriculture in Nova Scotia boasts a number of important assets, according to Jennifer Scott, who is working on the Soils and Agriculture account for GPI Atlantic. "Agriculture is an important industry in Nova Scotia," she says. "Farm cash receipts sit at around $380 million per year, and the multiplier effect from farming activity creates even more economic spin-offs." Peter Hill, the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture's First Vice-President, says agriculture provides 12,000 direct jobs, and another 4,000 indirectly, in Nova Scotia.

People with skills and experience raising crops and animals are perhaps our most valuable agricultural resource. In a 1995 survey, Canadian farm families said that they enjoy farming, that they want to be good stewards of the land, and that they are willing to work hard and invest everything they have. They are discouraged, however, by a feeling that the work they are doing is not valued by society.

"Unlike other agricultural regions," says Scott, "we are not dependent on just a few export markets. Our agricultural sector is diversified and is based on a mix of local, national, and international sales. Even the federal Treasury Board and bankers admit that Atlantic Canadian farmers are faring better in recent years compared to their western counterparts, because of a more diversified market structure."

"We don't have any shortage of agricultural land," says Scott. "We may be losing some of our best land to urban encroachment in the Annapolis Valley, but, overall, there is still a lot of land suitable for farming that isn't being used. Although the per-farm acreage of crops is increasing, more than half of the province's potential farmland is in pasture, woodland, or other permanent cover."So, you'd think that with lots of good land, willing farmers, and a thriving local market, Nova Scotian agriculture would be in good shape. However, there are some trends within the sector that are cause for concern.

"Depending on how you define a farm," says Scott, "there are only 3,500 to 4,000 farms left in Nova Scotia, compared with about 6,000 in the early 1970s. After three years of drought and at least $50 million in losses for the 1999 season due to dry weather, the numbers will probably fall even lower." And, of the $2 billion Nova Scotians spend on food, only about 2.5 percent ends up in the pockets of the province's farmers. Scott offers two reasons for this: "As consumers, we don't generally make a concerted effort to buy locally produced food. And most of the cost of food in a grocery store is bound up in advertising, distribution, and packaging costs."

If we want more of our food dollar to go into high quality food, and into farmers' pockets, then buying it as close to the source as possible, in as raw a form as possible, will give good value to the consumer and a higher share of the food dollar to the producer. (See sidebar on Farmers' Markets.)"Farming is a tricky business," says Scott. "The margins [the difference between income and expense] are very narrow. The average net farm income in Nova Scotia ranges from $12,000 to $15,000 per year. Many farmers depend on the off-farm income of family members to keep the farm going. If a farmer is faced with a jump in input prices, a drop in commodity prices, or unpredictable weather, those margins begin to look narrower and narrower."

And then there's the soil, whose quality is the foundation of farming's long-term viability. According to a 1995 publication of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (formerly known as the federal Department of Agriculture), "More than 200 years of agriculture in the Atlantic Provinces has resulted in serious soil degradation in some areas of intense row-cropping, seen in the loss of organic matter and fertility, structural degradation, compaction, and erosion." Scott notes that another study shows that the organic content of soils in eastern Canada has fallen 30 to 40 percent since the 1960s.

The organic matter in the soil is the "productive capital of agriculture that never gets counted," says Scott. "It's what holds water in the soil in dry years and allows it to drain in wet years. It helps prevent soil erosion and reduces soil compaction. It gradually breaks down to provide nutrients for plant growth and gets built up with the addition of plant residues and manure." Long-term studies in eastern Canada show that crop yields are maintained or improved with the addition of manure, but are gradually reduced with additions of synthetic fertilizer.

"In our new ledger, the GPI," says Scott, "we will count declining soil productivity as a loss." Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has itself tried to estimate the ongoing costs of soil degradation in Nova Scotia and, in the mid-‘80s, came up with a very rough figure of $11.5 million per year, or about $2,685 per farm (20 percent of average net farm income at the time). Long-term studies show that the organic content of soil can be increased by two very simple farming methods: growing perennial hay for forage and the addition of manure from livestock that are fed that forage. According to the Eastern Canada Soil and Water Conservation Centre, Atlantic Canada's livestock sector produces $52.4 million worth of nutrients in its manure. "The other side of this equation," says Scott, "is that farmers in Atlantic Canada spend $51 million annually in fertilizers."

Many farmers are caught between a rock and a hard place. They want to be good stewards of the land but are trapped by a system that addicts the soil to synthetic fertilizers and prevents the farmer from thinking in a long-term way about the quality of the soil they till. Scott hopes that the GPI approach to soils and agriculture will spark discussions about important choices that need to be made if Nova Scotia's agriculture sector is to survive and thrive into the new millennium. The story of the Atlantic groundfishery in the late 1980s and early ‘90s provides some evidence about the consequences of not addressing questions of long-term resource sustainability.

The Genuine Progress Index looks at the way economic activities really affect our lives. The values the GPI is based on are:

The term "local" is usually applied by retailers to produce that takes less than 24 hours to be transported to the province. And so, "local" does not necessarily mean it was grown in Nova Scotia. A resolution at the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture's Annual Meeting this year asked that the organization "pursue legislation to define the word ‘local' used at the point of sale to refer only to product grown within the province in which the sales establishment is located."

In 1996, New Brunswick's 24 farmers' markets, 34 U-picks, and 65 roadside stands had combined gross sales of $7.7 million. The New Brunswick government has launched a strategy to develop the farmers' market sector. Its goal is to increase the number of vendors by 30 percent in less than five years. The province will also provide training sessions to vendors, offer annual assistance of up to $7,000 for marketing, and include farmers' markets in its provincial tourism literature. Surveys of farmers' markets in Ontario show that 80 to 90 percent of customers shop in them for the fresh produce on offer there. Consumers also say they want to deal directly with the primary producers of agricultural products, and this intimacy is something producers value as well. With farmers' markets, they get the satisfaction of seeing their product going to the end user, and they get to see a happy customer. Of course, the profit margin is also an important factor: market sales bring the producer a larger part of the selling price than does wholesaling to brokers or supermarkets.

More Than Mere Fortress

Louisbourg resident Rick McCready has what in a lot of ways must be a pretty depressing job. As a municipal planner for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM), he has over the past few years put together a lot of facts and figures that show how tough things have been economically for Industrial Cape Breton for the past several decades. He has tables and figures showing the area lagging behind the rest of the province, and the country, in population, employment income, participation in the labour force, and other important economic indicators. He'll also tell you that times are tough for CBRM itself: its per capita tax base is only about 60 percent that of Halifax and future prospects aren't hopeful, so it has few options other than looking for ways to cut badly needed services.

But, when you talk with Rick McCready, he isn't at all sombre or depressing. In fact, he's really an upbeat sort of guy. One of his passions is community theatre, and he's one of the reasons that live theatre is now performed at the Louisbourg Playhouse every night during the tourism season, from early June through mid-October. A few years ago he sat on the Town of Louisbourg's Business Improvement District Committee. (Before the 1995 amalgamation that created CBRM, Rick worked as a planner for the Town of Louisbourg. Now, he commutes to Sydney for work.) "The Playhouse," he says, "has been a small part of an overall strategy to develop tourism in the town. About 1990, we knew that things were going to tighten up in the fishery, and tourism was an obvious alternative. But the community's infrastructure was little prepared for tourism."

Indeed it wasn't. Although the Fortress of Louisbourg three kilometres down the road draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, most people would simply drive through the town, both coming and going. And there was little reason for them to stop. The waterfront was a workaday place, dominated by the town's major employer, the National Sea plant. (It closed in 1992.) There were few places offering accommodation, and there was little to occupy tourists in the evening.

It took a while for things to change, but in 1993 Disney made a film at the Fortress, and its story-line called for an open-air theatre built in the style of Shakespeare's day. When filming was complete, the town's Planning and Development Commission dismantled the structure and had it moved to the centre of town. In 1994, the first productions were staged in the theatre, though it was only over the next couple of years that a roof was built, and washrooms, a furnace, and other facilities were added. In 1995, ownership of the theatre was taken over by the non- profit Louisbourg Playhouse Society, and improvements have continued to be made ever since. Today, the Playhouse is a key aspect of a growing tourism boom for Louisbourg. There's plenty of good-quality accommodations, there are ample camping facilities, and there's an attractive boardwalk along a spruced-up waterfront.

Although the theatre now has a full-time staff of two people, as well as a number of students, during the tourism season, volunteers have always been the lifeblood of the Louisbourg Playhouse. More than two dozen of them sit on the theatre's Board of Directors, staff an on-site gift shop and a small bar, and take care of most of the other nagging details that come with live theatre production. Former Louisbourg Mayor Vic Hanham chairs the Society, while Rick McCready himself volunteers his time as Vice-Chair. An exception to this reliance on volunteers, however, is the people who "trod the boards" – the performers themselves. "We knew we needed a certain level of professionalism," says McCready, "if we were ever going to attract enough people to make the Playhouse work."

That strategy has clearly paid off. After slight audience increases in each of its early years, 1998 saw a 30 percent jump in the number of theatre-goers over the previous year, and, according to McCready, incomplete attendance figures indicate there will be yet another rise in 1999. One of the reasons for this was a decision taken in 1996 when, after two years of dramatic productions, the Playhouse Society decided to switch its focus to music. "People don't come to Cape Breton to see Shakespeare," remarks McCready, "and Cape Breton is just bursting with home-grown talent. So, the move to local and regional musical talent seemed a good idea." It seems that it was just that.

Quite naturally, the eighteenth-century Fortress of Louisbourg has always attracted a large number of francophone visitors (recent figures put their proportion at something near 20 percent of all visitors) and the question of how to offer something to these visitors has been a sticky issue for the Playhouse Society. This year, they decided to address the matter by scheduling a number of bilingual Acadian performers, including Michelle Boudreau-Samson and Grand D&#eacute;rangement, and their appreance has been a big hit. "It's helped bring francophones to the theatre," says McCready, "and these people are simply such great performers that everybody is equally entertained."

Through its early years, the Playhouse received assistance from a number of government agencies, including Enterprise Cape Breton, Human Resources Development Canada, the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and municipal bodies. "Now, however," McCready says, "for the most part, we are self-supporting in our operations, with only a minimum of grants, such as one used this year to foster Acadian culture." Ticket sales, at about eight to ten dollars a pop, provide both a bargain for theatre-goers and significant revenue to the Playhouse Society. As well, the bar and gift shop both generate further revenue.

Using the Playhouse as the lynchpin in a strategy to boost tourism in Louisbourg has been a great success. "It's been excellent! There's just no other word to describe it," says Linda Kennedy, who along with husband Tom runs Point of View Suites, just on the edge of town toward the Fortress. "People come for the Fortress, then stay another night for the theatre, where the calibre of talent is mind-boggling for such a small community. The Playhouse has been a gift, a real gift."

That "gift" has come about only because of the hard work of a small army of volunteers. "People in the community just dug in and put the whole thing together," says Kennedy. "Rick and the others deserve lots of credit. They've all put in a lot of volunteer time and effort. The community dedication to the Playhouse has been sensational."

If you let them, the facts and figures Rick McCready is able to toss at you can get you down. But maybe we should look at the guy who's doing the figure-tossing. He doesn't seem at all depressed: he's far too busy making things better for his community.

CCN: Forging Broader Links

One of the unique features of the Coastal Communities Network (CCN) is that each year our Annual General Meeting (AGM) turns out to be a completely different kind of event. One year it's a straightforward business meeting, the next year we have a high- profile speaker, another year we have skills workshops: every year, the AGM is designed to fit into CCN's particular situation at the time. This was especially true of the 1999 AGM, which proved to be a watershed for the organization in a number of ways.

This year's gathering, held at the beautiful Tatamagouche Centre August 13-15 and attended by more than 50 people, had a two-fold purpose, as was summed up in its theme: "Broadening Our Alliances: Energizing Our Communities." The AGM Planning Committee decided on these themes for a couple of reasons. Firstly, for the past two years CCN has been working intensively to further its own organizational development, giving us a much strengthened capacity to be "A Large Voice for Small Communities." In light of this, the Committee felt it was a good time to emphasize an outward look, with an eye toward building alliances with other organizations that share our struggles and aspirations within Nova Scotia, across Canada, and around the world. To help us forge these links, the Committee invited a number of guests, including Russ Helberg from British Columbia's Coastal Community Network, Jim Mahone from the Foundation for Rural Living in Ontario, three international students from the Coady Institute, Will Hopkins of the Cobscook Bay Resource Center in Eastport, Maine, as well as guests from the forestry and agricultural sectors. The Committee saw the beginning of these linkages as an opportunity to raise public awareness about common initiatives and problems.

Secondly, the Committee felt that the AGM offered a good opportunity to support our members in their work in their own communities by giving them a chance to hear about new approaches, develop new skills and awareness, and, in general, to "recharge their batteries." Because we didn't have a lot of organizational business to get through this year, we were able to make this a more interactive and dynamic event.

And so the AGM was a mix of speakers, workshops and working sessions, presentations, and plenary discussions. To start off, Ron Colman, of GPI Atlantic gave a talk on the Genuine Progress Index (GPI), a way of measuring the real value of the quality of life in our communities. (For more on the Genuine Progress Index, see "Defining Progress: Common Sense Economics" by Wendy Johnston in the September/October, 1999 issue of this magazine.) As it turned out, Ron's talk was a perfect way to start the weekend, because it made us think about the broader purpose of our work and the values that underlie it.

On Saturday morning there were four workshops focussing on individual skills and knowledge: "True Colours: Learning to Work Together Effectively," "Gaining and Maintaining Volunteers," "Principled Negotiating," and "Becoming an Effective Lobbyist," the last of these being facilitated by former CCN Co-Chair Senator Sister Peggy Butts. Through these workshops, participants were able to sharpen personal skills that will allow them to work more effectively, both as individuals and as part of larger groups. These were all very well received and contributed to the later discussions.

On Saturday afternoon, three working sessions focussed on ways CCN could establish broader alliances. The three groups looked at ways CCN might broaden its alliances across different economic sectors within Nova Scotia, at building national links within Canada, and at finding and developing allies internationally. Many common themes percolated out of these discussions.

Then, on Sunday morning, the whole group worked through the results of Saturday's sessions and arrived at a number of resolutions that will be of great importance to CCN's work in the coming year. There was also a brief business meeting of the CCN Board of Directors. (Because of a change in our fiscal year, we will not be electing new officers until the next AGM in April of 2000.)

The weekend, however, wasn't all working sessions and meetings. On Saturday evening, international development worker Irene Novaczek gave a slide show about fisheries communities and issues in South Asia. (Many who saw it were seen to be nodding their heads at the similarity of many of the problems and initiatives with their own experience of the fishery here.) As well, birding veteran John Kearney led a nature walk that was joined by a number of enthusiasts. Then, as darkness approached, delegates gathered together to vie for prizes in the second annual Nova Scotia Trivia Contest, with questions posed by CCN Communications Officer and Quizmaster Scott Milsom. The biggest winner, without doubt, was Jeff MacDonald of the Enterprise Development Centre at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish.

What was most remarkable was how this mixture of relaxation, reflection, new approaches and concepts, strengthening of skills, and alliance building flowed together, giving the event a unity and purpose that even its organizers hadn't foreseen. The gathering identified a number of important tasks and new directions that will become part of CCN's strategic planning in the coming months. These included:

A communications plan was devised around the AGM through which we were able to get word of these outcomes to a wider public. On Monday morning, we issued a press release and held a press conference where CCN Chair Arthur Bull, along with Russ Helberg and Jim Mahone, announced the launch of a Canadian rural coalition. This resulted in a number of articles across Atlantic Canada, some of which were picked up nationally. (See sidebar page 12, for the text of the CCN press release.) Russ and Arthur were also guests on CBC-Radio's Maritime Noon phone-in show where we were able to talk about CCN's work, address a number of key rural issues, and discuss our national networking initiative.

Taken together these outcomes of the AGM have made a positive contribution to CCN and have given us a good start on our work for the coming fall and winter. At a meeting of the CCN membership in early September, participants had the opportunity of looking at CCN's work plan in light of the initiatives that came out of the Tatamagouche meeting and developed a number of ideas on how we might bring the interests of coastal and rural Nova Scotians before a broader audience. Sure, there's lots of work to be done, but with our direction clarified and the tasks ahead set out clearly before us, CCN is poised to be more effective than ever in its work on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Nova Scotians living in our coastal and rural communities.

The Community Animation Program, for providing funding for the training component of our Annual General Meeting

Rural Canadians Voice Common Response to Crisis in Rural Canada

Rural Canada is in serious decline: the combined problems of isolation and urban-centred policies have made the negative effects of globalization far worse in small rural and coastal communities than in the country's larger cities. High unemployment, reduced health and education services, domestic abuse, deteriorating infrastructure, demographic shifts, and shrinking financial resources all threaten the very survival of Canada's rural communities. Outside control of the resources of rural Canada have caused a deterioration of rural economies, of rural ecologies, and, ultimately, of rural communities.

Delegates from across Canada, and beyond, met this past weekend at the Coastal Communities Network's Annual Meeting in Tatamagouche to discuss the threats to rural life and to develop common responses to the crisis of rural Canada. Delegates from rural Nova Scotia, small-town Ontario, coastal British Columbia, and developing countries agreed on a number of calls for action and underlying principles to help rural Canadians in their struggle to survive, and to prosper.

Many actions are urgently required to ensure that rural Canadians can continue to live and work where their roots are, and delegates in Tatamagouche worked together to identify their most pressing concerns and needs. These include:

Rural decline in Canada is more advanced than in many other developed countries. Nations of the European Union, such as Britain, Ireland, Sweden, France, and Italy, as well as Australia, the United States, and even India have been taking encouraging steps to address the problems within their rural communities. But, here in Canada, governments, private industry, and other institutions have to date failed to address Canada's rural situation. Clearly, urgent action on the part of rural Canadians is called for to reverse the deterioration of rural Canada. Governments at both the federal and provincial levels also have a role to play in rejuvenating rural Canada: rural Canadians make up 30 percent of the population and pay the same taxes as their urban counterparts. Their future deserves the same respect and attention accorded Canadians in larger centres.

In the process of identifying their most pressing concerns, delegates relied upon three Guiding Principles that all agreed were essential if rural Canada is to continue to be a viable place to live. These are:

These Guiding Principles are firmly held by rural Canadians. They deserve the respect of urban Canadians, and of government policy makers.

Obviously, the tasks before rural Canada are immense in scope. But the first small steps are being made. Links are being established among organizations in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, the prairie provinces, and British Columbia toward the establishment of a national network for rural Canadians. CCN's Annual Meeting, with its theme of "Broadening Our Alliances: Energizing Our Communities," has been a large step in the right direction for rural Canada.

Notice

The Raging Grannies are women who write funny yet critical lyrics to familiar songs, then perform them in public to protest and raise awareness about the issues of peace, the environment, and social justice. The movement began in British Columbia several years ago, and there are more than 40 Granny groups across Canada and in the United States and Europe. On June 9-11, 2000 the Halifax group will host an "unconvention" for all these Granny groups. We invite those of you in Atlantic Canada who might be thinking of launching a group of your own to write for information. Tell us about yourself and your community. We are interested in helping new groups get started.

Notice

An East Coast Conference on Community Development is now scheduled for April 6-8, 2000 in Sydney, N.S.

This conference is being hosted by the Nova Scotia Citizens for Community Development Society. It was originally scheduled for October 21-23, 1999.

"Taking Root: Communities Standing on Common Ground" will focus on two themes, "Reinvesting in Community" and "Community Capacity Building." As trans-national corporate interests dominate our economy more and more, the need for communities to take back control of their own future is vital. We'll examine our successes, discuss how we've learned from our mistakes, and share strategies for making our communities better places to live and work. Please make note of the new date and mark it on your calendars.

Boom Times Coming, or Pandora's Box?

Get ready, it's coming! The big bucks and jobs, jobs, jobs! There has been a lot of talk recently about the oil-and-gas industry in Nova Scotia. Provincial politicians have been promoting it as the answer to Nova Scotia's economic woes, and everyone, it seems, is trying to jump on the bandwagon. Schools are proposed to grant high-tech degrees while businessmen scout various ports to set up shore-based facilities. We just can't wait for the big companies to find huge fields of oil and/or gas in exploratory areas both on and off our coastlines. Fields that are profitable enough will warrant drilling rigs. Rub your hands together folks, the boom times are coming!

But wait, is there no catch to this potential windfall? Well, yes, I'm afraid there is, and it's called the fishing industry. You remember, the industry that is still a large part of the backbone of Nova Scotia's economy?

Somewhere along the line, the powers-that-be in this province have neglected one of its largest economic players, the fishery, a neglect that has the potential to do far more damage to the economy of this province than any possible benefits of oil and gas. Seismic testing is going ahead in recently allocated exploratory areas off Cape Breton where many organisms coexist in a delicate balance. It's known that this seismic work kills such organisms within a certain distance of the sonic emitters used to gather information about areas beneath the ocean floor. Some of these organisms are lobsters-to-be. Others are a food source for a variety of commercially viable species, and their depletion could have devastating consequences. And, this testing is permitted at a time when these organisms are in their highest concentrations and while we in the fishing industry have sacrificed our time and personal incomes to put certain conservation measures into effect, thereby ensuring the fishery's sustainability. (Witness current measures to increase lobster egg production, for example). Unfortunately, our government is jeopardizing all of that hard work and sacrifice for a gamble on an industry with a limited life span and, at best, limited employment.

Fish harvesters successfully pressed the government to allow them a voice on boards that regulate the oil-and-gas industry, but to date we've found these positions to be token representations lacking the power to make much-needed regulatory changes. Just as with the collapse of the cod fishery, the advice and information of those most familiar with the fishery – the fisher harvesters themselves – is being ignored, passed off as either unsubstantiated or alarmist. The few regulations now in place are woefully inadequate and don't properly address the concerns of the fishery.

For a couple of months during this past summer, I worked as an interpretive animator at Fortress Louisbourg National Historic Site, and I had the opportunity to speak with quite a few visitors to the Maritimes from right across North America, both north and south of the border. These people all seem somewhat familiar with the oil and gas industry, but are totally uninformed about the fishery: all they hear is that it is just about finished, but that's far from the truth. Our fishery is still vibrant, and it has the potential to provide far more employment than we could ever realize from oil and gas. Yet this potential is discouraged.

The collapse of the cod fishery has had some unforseen benefits. Certain species, such as snow crab and shrimp, have greatly increased their biomass since one of their natural predators, the cod, has declined. Tuna abound once again in our waters. And we are beginning to see a slight improvement in lobster catches, which we hope will continue through our conservation efforts. Are we, then, as a province, willing to seriously jeopardize these and other fisheries? If the thinking of today's politicians holds true, then the answer would have to be "yes." I also have to ask this: why is government saying that, if the codfish come back, draggers will be allowed to take part in any future fishery? Surely one ought to think twice before allowing those same draggers that decimated the cod and its habitat to once again wreak their havoc on the ocean floor and all the species they come in contact with.

With decisions like these being made by our bureaucrats and politicians, we have every right to be very wary of future oil-and-gas decisions. Bureaucrats rarely seem to have a handle on the portfolios they are employed to advise their ministers about, and all too often they seem to make decisions based on questionable statistics and corporate lobbying, rather than on facts. Now, that's scary!

Surely the whole point of a provincial government, or even a federal government, with their various departments of "experts," is to ensure that the best possible actions are made on behalf of all the people, not merely an affluent or influential minority. Personally, I can only hope that, somewhere in the not too distant future – before it's too late – the ears of decision makers will finally open to the sounds of those who have a real stake in all of this, Nova Scotians themselves.

You may guess from all this that I'm dead against oil-and-gas exploration and development. Not so. What I'm against is sacrificing one proven industry for the unknown of another. These two industries can coexist, but we must proceed with caution, be open to compromise, and know when and where to say no.

Helping Communities Help Themselves

"He's a true hero and a pioneer of community development in Nova Scotia. He's devoted his life to it in a quiet, unassuming way. He doesn't look for credit for things. He just goes about working to improve community life."

The subject is Wayne Edgar, and the speaker is Rick Williams, who worked with Wayne in the early 1990s when they were both involved in laying the groundwork for what would later become the Coastal Communities Network (CCN). At the time, Wayne worked for the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, and he saw that something like CCN could be a valuable tool and an important forum for Nova Scotia's small communities. So, he simply went out into communities and played a major role in establishing the organization.

Don Zwicker, who has served as Co-Chair of CCN and remains active in the organization, was also involved in its early days. He remembers the important role Wayne played in the creation of CCN: "His knowledge of and compassion for our small communities was the driving force that got CCN started, and he did a tremendous job. I have the greatest of respect for him, because he's a person of such goodwill, someone who has the well-being of coastal and rural Nova Scotia close to his heart."

Wow! Those are words of high praise, indeed. So, who is this Wayne Edgar guy, anyway? Born in 1948, he grew up in Halifax and Shad Bay, a small coastal community just outside the provincial capital. After high school, he attended Saint Mary's University in Halifax where he earned degrees in the Arts and Education. He tried teaching in Hants County for a year, but then moved on to do community development work in northern Nova Scotia until 1976, when he came back to Halifax and took the job of Executive Director of the North End Community Health Clinic. In the mid-1980s he did part-time child welfare work and health care research while studying for a Master's degree in Public Administration at Dalhousie University. After adding that feather to his academic cap, Wayne went to Ottawa for five years to work for a community health centre in the nation's capital. Then, in 1989, he came back to Nova Scotia to serve as a field worker in the Extension Department of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, an organization which was, and still is, heavily involved in community development issues. In May of 1997, he took a leave of absence from the university to serve what was to be a brief stint as Executive Director of Tatamagouche Centre, a residential learning centre owned by the United Church of Canada. A few months later, he was offered the job permanently, and he's now been there more than two years.

That's a pretty impressive, if sketchy, biography, but it fails to convey just how much Wayne Edgar has helped people and communities throughout his adult life. His work in health care obviously benefitted thousands of people directly and indirectly, but he's also done far more for small communities across the province than simply be the mainspring from which CCN grew. While working at St. F. X., he helped inshore fishermen better organize themselves and improve their communications links with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, secured funding to launch Coastal Communities News in 1995 and to sustain it through its early years, fostered both community economic development and community participation in the development of health-care policy in eastern Nova Scotia, and worked with the credit union movement. Along the way, he's been an administrator, a lecturer, a trainer, but most of all, and always, a community activist.

Community has always been central to what motivates Wayne. "In all my wanderings," he says, "my passion has been to work in and with communities, to try to make – as corny as this must sound – the world a better place to live in. This, I think, can best be done by addressing the problems that get thrown up to communities by the way our society operates."

This helps explain Wayne's return to university in the mid-‘80s to study Public Administration. "I didn't take that degree to become a bureaucrat," he remembers. "I did it to learn about ways for communities and community groups to be more effective and how they can create their own participatory democratic structures."

While the backdrop for most of his working life has been Nova Scotia, Wayne also spent five years working in Ottawa in the late ‘80s. "That was my going-down-the-road experience," he recalls. "I was fortunate to be able to work with another community-based organization there, but the plan always was to return."

It was in 1989 that Wayne came back to work in the Extension Department at St. F. X. One of the many projects he took on there was a "social audit" for Bergengren Credit Union in Antigonish. "A social audit," explains Irene Lefort, who was President of the credit union's Board of Directors at the time, "is an investigation to see whether you're living up to the aims and objectives of the credit union movement, to see whether the organization is a real social asset to its community. A social audit is something that a bank would never do. Wayne was very insightful. He had a really good grasp on the credit union movement and the obligations we have to the community. He did a wonderful job. What a fine man to work with."

Ginger Hogan is Manager of the Extension Department's Field Work Unit, and she well remembers the value of the work Wayne did while there. "He was a great model of what a field worker should be. He seemed to always know when to step in and offer assistance to a community or organization, and when to back off and let the people involved solve their problems by themselves. And people always identified really well with him."

Through the years, Wayne had become familiar with the Tatamagouche Centre (also known as the Atlantic Christian Training Centre) by attending and facilitating programs and workshops there, and he was delighted to take on full-time work there in 1997. "It seemed like a natural fit," he says. "I felt that the Centre, as a community-based, non-profit organization, has a special role to play in the Maritimes, to serve both communities and the church with a focus on social justice issues. That's what drew me here. Spiritually, I consider myself a seeker, and though I'm not an active member of any specific religious organization, I'm happy to be working with the United Church."

According to Catherine Gaw, Executive Secretary of the Maritime Conference of the United Church in Sackville, N.B., Wayne's pleasure in working with her organization is a two-way street: "He has provided very worthwhile skills," she says, "especially when it comes to planning out priorities and directions. He's been invaluable to the Tatamagouche Centre, and to the United Church."

The Tatamagouche Centre is situated in a beautiful setting, where the Waugh and French Rivers both flow into Tatamagouche Bay. About eight people work there full-time, and seasonally it employs almost twice that number. It offers both accommodations and wholesome food to people who come to seek self-improvement. It defines itself as a "learning centre for transformational learning," and offers courses of various lengths that come under four areas of emphasis: Spiritual Growth, Self Discovery, Social Transformation, and Congregational Life. Its Program Calendar for 1999 reads:

We see ourselves as called to be active agents with the Creator in a movement toward greater wholeness for us as individuals and as seekers of justice. Our practice of education is aimed at learning how to respond to this call. Our intent is to co-create a more just, loving and compassionate world.

Over the years, Wayne has devoted himself to the betterment of people and communities, and he sees his work over the next few years in the same kind of light. "I'll pretty much be focussing on the Tatamagouche Centre," he says. "I see it as an institution that's part of the community, actually a part of many communities. I want to help the Centre become even more of a place where church, community, and social justice groups can come together to learn how to do their work more effectively."

With Wayne Edgar heading up the Tatamagouche Centre team, it's a pretty good bet that it will become a more useful tool than ever for community groups to become more effective, an even better place to learn through sharing of experiences and insights. After all, Wayne has been using his own insights and experiences to help communities and community groups for a good long time now, and he shows no signs of changing his ways.

Making Business Work for Communities

People have been leaving small communities across Nova Scotia, and throughout the Maritimes, for a very long time. For generations, economic circumstance has forced people to move to Halifax, Alberta, Ontario, New England, or even farther away from their roots. Can anything be done to stem the tide?

At one time, governments thought that the best way to provide economic opportunities that would allow people to stay in their small coastal and rural communities was to make it attractive for large investors from other places to set up shop here. That approach has worked for some communities: Waterville, Pictou County, and Bridgewater have managed to attract a French multinational tire manufacturer, while the Liverpool, New Glasgow, and Port Hawkesbury areas have benefitted from the establishment of large pulp and paper mills. But, for each of these success stories, there's a well-known failure. And, there are simply not enough large industries and businesses to go round. There has to be a better way for most of our communities.

The good news is that there is. The fact is, it is not big business that provides most of the jobs in Nova Scotia. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), it is small and medium enterprises that provide the lion's share of jobs. CFIB statistics show that, nationally, small businesses (those having less than 50 employees) provide more than a third of private-sector jobs, medium-sized outfits (those with less than 500 employees) provide more than 40 percent, leaving only a quarter of all private-sector jobs for larger enterprises. Every year, more than 150,000 businesses are started across Canada, and that's where most new jobs come from. And so, small and medium-sized businesses are the key to the survival and prosperity of rural and coastal Nova Scotia.

Do you have a a good business idea? If so, you have the potential to build a successful operation, but there are so many different regulations, and different programs, out there that the whole process of launching your own business can be intimidating. Fortunately, whether you're looking to launch your own business, or to expand or maintain a current one, wherever you are in the province there's a place not far away that can offer solid advice. There are now ten Business Service Centres (BSCs) in towns and cities from Yarmouth to Sydney. And in sixteen other communities ranging from Cheticamp to Barrington, there are offices of the provincial Department of Economic Development that can put you in touch with the right people to answer your questions. You can find out where the nearest available help is by simply dialing: 1-(800)-668-1010.

The BSCs are, essentially, a cooperative effort of the federally funded Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the provincial Department of Economic Development, working in cooperation with municipal agencies and the private sector, places where various organizations have come together under one roof to provide better and more efficient business services to Nova Scotians. The New Glasgow BSC on East River Road is typical. It includes the local office of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, as well as those of the Pictou Regional Development Commission, the provincial Department of Economic Development, the Nova Scotia Department of Education, the Pictou County Chamber of Commerce, the Pictou County Tourism Association, and Northern Opportunities for Business (NOBL). Ron O'Brien is the Executive Director of NOBL, one of more than a dozen Community Business Development Corporations (CBDCs) across the province that form a network of locally autonomous, not-for- profit companies to meet small business needs.

Not too long ago, business people were able to get grants from goverenment agencies, but this seems to be a thing of the past. "The news about grants," says O'Brien, "is that there are none." Nevertheless, if you've got a good business idea, some equity, and a willingness to work, CBDCs and BSCs might be able to help by providing loans of up $125,000, loan guarantees, and financial advice to qualifying clients. "One of the keys to the success of the CBDCs," says O'Brien, "is that loan and investment decisions are made at the local level, by an independent Board of Directors sensitive to the needs of the community. Most of these people are local business men and women who volunteer their time because they believe in their communities." The BSCs can also provide help to people who have recently been laid off and who want to start their own business, and can offer advice on everything from licencing requirements for businesses to marketing research and franchising information.

"We try to act as an advocate for aspiring entrepreneurs," says O'Brien, who then refers to a number of programs available to assist small businesses. These programs are provided by municipal, provincial, and federal agencies and they all go by different names and initials, so sometimes O'Brien sounds like alphabet soup. But he will also stop to explain clearly the purpose of each and every one of them. And he'll answer just about any other business-related question you can dream up and steer you in the right direction as you try to launch or maintain your enterprise. There are people like Ron O'Brien scattered in BSCs and CBDCs all across the province, working to make businesses work for their communities. If you've got a business question, give one of them a call.

Marshall and Our Common Future

As this issue of Coastal Communities News goes to press, the effects of the Supreme Court of Canada's Marshall Decision are evolving day by day, and even hour by hour. The Coastal Communities Network and this magazine encourage all sides to engage in constructive dialogue and cooperation as we work together toward agreements that will provide a framework for the future of our coastal communities. As a bi-monthly magazine, it is beyond our scope to describe or comment upon the day- to-day steps that will lead us into a new era, but Coastal Communities News will be closely examining the medium and long-term implications of this landmark Supreme Court decision in upcoming issues.

Coastal Communities News is published bi-monthly by the Coastal Communities Network, a non-profit society registered in the province of Nova Scotia.

Coastal Communities News is made possible by the generous efforts of many volunteers, and by financial contributions from Human Resources Development Canada, and by donations and in-kind contributions from the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Culture, as well as from member groups and organizations.

We welcome all articles and submissions, from individuals and groups, with content in keeping with the role and nature of this magazine. We reserve the right to edit all submissions. Except where additional credit has been given, all articles are prepared by the Editor and Editorial Board.

Our Mission Statement

The Coastal Communities Network is a volunteer association of organizations whose mission is to provide a forum to encourage dialogue, share information, and create strategies and actions that promote the survival and development of Nova Scotia's coastal and rural communities.

"A Large Voice for Small Communities"

CCN is made up of organizations rooted in Nova Scotia's coastal and rural communities, and it is the diversity of its membership that gives it strength. Your organization, and your community, can help CCN determine its direction and strengthen its voice still further. Join the Coastal Communities Network today.

— by participating in regular monthly meetings of the CCN membership. These are held in Truro (usually on the first Tuesday of each month), and allow representatives from member organizations to review what is happening in coastal communities across the province, plan actions on issues of common concern, and review progress on CCN-sponsored projects;

— by getting on our mailing list to receive regular copies of Coastal Communities News. Send us your name and address by mail or fax, or call us directly;

— by contributing written articles to Coastal Communities News, and so letting everyone know what's happening in your community;

— by taking part in CCN workshops and information sessions. Special events like this are held on topics of importance to coastal communities (for example, community economic development, co- management in the fishery, etc);

— by inquiring about CCN's resource library, which includes information, reports, and studies on topics that affect the future and sustainability of coastal communities.

CCN Coordinator:
PO Box 1613
Pictou, N.S. B0K 1H0
Phone:(902)485-4754 Fax:(902)445-7134
e-mail:coastalnet@ns.sympatico.ca

CCN Communications Office:
Phone: (902) 445-7168
Fax: (902) 445-7134
e-mail:ccnews@ns.sympatico.ca

Standards, Stewardship, and Soil

More Than Mere Fortress

CCN: Forging Broader Links

Rural Canadians Voice Common Response to Crisis in Rural Canada

Notice

Notice

Boom Times Coming, or Pandora's Box?

Helping Communities Help Themselves

Making Business Work for Communities

Marshall and Our Common Future

Coastal Communities News

Join the Coastal Communities Network

Our Mission Statement

"A Large Voice for Small Communities"

How to Become Involved
in the Coastal Communities Network

Standards, Stewardship, and Soil

More Than Mere Fortress

CCN: Forging Broader Links

Rural Canadians Voice Common Response to Crisis in Rural Canada

Notice

Notice

Boom Times Coming, or Pandora's Box?

Helping Communities Help Themselves

Making Business Work for Communities

Marshall and Our Common Future

Coastal Communities News

Join the Coastal Communities Network

Our Mission Statement

"A Large Voice for Small Communities"

How to Become Involved in the Coastal Communities Network

How to Become Involved
in the Coastal Communities Network