And now for a visual representation of where population growth is occurring in the Maritime Provinces:
There are 11 counties in the region (out of 36) where there has been population growth over the last dozen years. In the map below, I have highlighted each of these counties by outlining them in red.
Except for Cumberland County in NS and Queens County in NB, there is a near continuous band of growth occurring in the
central Maritimes. It is easy to see that it is northeastern NS, southwestern NS, northern NB and eastern PEI which are in trouble.
This will be a challenge for any government to deal with. The dying counties are in the extremities of the region. The question becomes - do we concentrate our resources where growth is naturally going to occur, or do we participate in a Quixotic adventure to try and stabilize populations in the extremities?
A very serious question indeed, especially given our limited and diminishing financial resources……….
Thoughts anyone??
EDIT - I'm not really seriously thinking about throwing the areas of the Maritimes not experiencing growth to the wolves. That would be inhumane. Basic services have to be maintained everywhere, and all Maritimers should be guaranteed a basic standard of living. I'm just thinking that expenditures should be judiciously employed in order to stimulate growth in those areas of the region where there is a greater probability that there will be a guaranteed economic return. That only makes good business sense. Growth therefore should be preferentially stimulated in the central Maritimes, and by this I do not mean just the 11 counties currently experiencing growth, I also mean Saint John County, Cumberland County, Queens County (NB), the Upper River Valley in NB, Lunenburg County and Pictou and Antigonish Counties in northern NS. This encompasses 20 counties in the very heart of the region.
I think we would get far more bang for our bucks if we concentrate economic development funds in the central 20 counties rather than spreading it out over all 36 counties………...