Everyone wants to jump ship from a losing team. Isn’t that the saying, or something close to it? Whatever it is, the sentiment also works for government in a declining region, i.e. New Brunswick.
You should be forewarned, I’m about to rant.
I had a lively conversation in a pizza place early this week about why people leave the province. (Yes, this ignores the latest figures from Stats Canada. David Campbell provides his thoughts on the numbers here.) A couple others joined what had by then turned into a heated debate midway through.
Everyone involved were from the province. All were educated at University here and all have since left. I hope it was exaggerated by the beer but their frustration with NB was deep. They lamented not being reached out to by government to move back, low starting salaries, language politics, a weak brand, few opportunities, and no economic niche. It got dizzying.
While one can have a legitimate argument about these complaints, there was a crazy conflation between what they should do and what government should and can do. They were quite firm that government creates opportunities. And to a worrying extent, that what opportunities exist in government symbolize available opportunities in the province.
If this is what students leaving New Brunswick think, we’ve got huge challenges. When I asked if they had looked into private sector opportunities and started listing companies doing cool work – Radian 6, Ambir Solutions, Vision Coaching – this had not been part of the equation. Of course, if you want to work in government policy than options are going to be limited, especially during a recession. But as far as I know this person wasn’t looking explicitly for a government job. Government has a huge interest in making it easier to find work, but it is not government’s sole problem or what should be their core competency. These non-government organizations do it well, here and here.
Moreover, to think that government should be subsidizing companies to create opportunities for youth, as was argued to me, greatly misunderstands the role of the private sector. Yes government can, should and does help create opportunities through youth employment programs and internships. But almost all opportunities would not exist without the private sector and nonprofits to do the hiring (or pay the taxes to run government). To rely on government for subsidies creates a free-rider problem that could foster less employment for recent grads as firms wait to hire until government grants them funds to do so.
I do not deny there are deep problems with how we create work opportunities for young people. Lower salary levels are a big problem. Policy discussions and hiring pitches are dominated by baby-boomers talking about the high quality of life in the province, as if the quality of life for someone 24 is the same as the 64 year old about to enter retirement.
In order to fix these things though we need to better grasp what government can and should do. And what we as individuals need to be responsible for.
3 comments:
The twitter link for this article does not match the content:
"Why do NBers living elsewhere hate the province so much? The need for a reality check"
Reality check: if we hated the province, NB expats wouldn't be coming home at Christmas to have these discussions, nor would any of us care about the failed state of the provincial government.
To rack up billions of dollars in new debt per year without creating significant increases in jobs or publicly funded opportunities is pretty suspect.
If you look at the companies and sectors that do get massive public funding, for example the scoff-law, Bermuda-based Irving conglomerate, it becomes easier to understand anger at the situation.
But to equate hostility towards public corruption and ineptitude with hatred of one's native province really crosses the line - you should modify or remove the wholly unsupported tweet.
Dan, thanks for the comment. "Hate" may have been a strong word to describe the associated blog post, but the emotion displayed during the conversation was deeper than frustration.
The frustration in the conversation I wrote about had government as its initial target. But this frustration spread outwards, to the private sector and low paying jobs, where they still blamed government. It was this mismatch between cause and effect that inspired my post.
In many ways their frustration, and I suspect a frustration for many others, has roots in various attributes of New Brunswick's culture. For example, our tall poppy syndrome, being content with mediocrity, and risk aversion.
So I agree with you that hate was an exaggeration, but the roots of their frustration is beyond government and with the province.
Hey there Tim,
Thanks for the Radian6 shoutout. Very kind of you. Many of our customers are not in NB and often are suprised that we are here. They generally ask "why is the company there?", fully expecting us to be in a much larger center. My answer is, we're here because that's where the company is. Yeah, I know that sounds silly but there is a serious message in it.
In today's world, more and more, you work where you are. Sometimes for me personally that means in our Fredericton office, our Saint John office, at home, in an airport, a hotel, at a conference etc... The business exists and where the work is done often doesn't matter.
So there there may be two takeaways from this:
Firstly, NBer's may not need to move to where the companies are head officed any longer. They can work where they are now - in NB. This is still an early trend but it's certainly where it's all headed.
Secondly, where companies form a head office is generally around where the idea (in the form of a person or persons) is located. In our case it was Fredericton and we grew from there. So helping those seeds take root, helping them get fuel (resources, financing, investment) is always a good thing.
Just a few thoughts.
Cheers
@davidalston
Post a Comment