Quote:
Originally Posted by fenwick16
The idea of promoting the rural areas doesn't seem to have paid off for the provincial government.
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There was an article tonight about an expanding salmon farming company in the Shelburne area that will create an extra 350 jobs.
I think a big part of the problem in NS isn't so much that there's no opportunity, it's that people expect to carry on doing the same thing they have for decades, and they want the government to make it work. There isn't much economic dynamism and entrepreneurship. There rarely is in rural areas -- they're not very suited to economic specialization and technological development.
I don't fundamentally agree that the Maritimes just have fewer resources than other areas, which used to be a very common argument for why they are less economically successful (though it should also be pointed out that the gap in wealth between the Maritimes and other provinces like Ontario was much larger back in the 1950-1970's period when manufacturing was still strong).
Another factor that I suspect people just don't want to talk about much is that a lot of young people don't want to stay in remote rural areas and they are not interested in the lifestyle of their parents or grandparents. Some move for economic gain alone but that's not the whole story.