Post by NewsHound on Sept 14, 2005 9:02:39 GMT -4
I know there is a poll for this but I wanted to enlighten some members on some possible benefits to Cape Breton being a province.
Nova Scotia's Conservative government has done a horrendous job developing Nova Scotia's offshore deals. The benefits of our resource rich land and water has impacted New England much more than it has Nova Scotia. Why have the people of Nova Scotia stood for this? Considering John Hamm succeeded in getting his party into power by promising to cut-off funding to Cape Breton has left an especially sour taste in my mouth, as well as the mouths of a lot of Cape Bretoners. So how can we improve our plite?
Let's first look at a Canadian Business survey to find out which Canadian cities were the best for conducting business in? Have you heard about this survey? Probably not since the local and provincial governments likely had no idea, or didn't care of it's results. Cape Breton ranked 5th in Canada! Only 4 cities, including oil pumped St. John's, NFLD, ranked higher than Cape Breton as the best cities to do business in.
If you use the offshore oil program in Newfoundland as an example, you can see some instant benefits for Cape Breton as a province. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product - total value of all goods and services produced) of the oil industry in Newfoundland was roughly 17% last year, that is a total of about $5.2 billion! If the same numbers held true in Cape Breton, the GDP here would increase by almost $590 million dollars! That's more than one-half a "BILLION" dollars which would be re-invested into the economy every year.
What about jobs you ask? Well, if we use a 1/5 estimate when compared to Newfoundland, offshore alone could create upwards of 600 jobs directly related to the oil industry as well as 1200-1500 spin off jobs. In total, these jobs could create a combined income of $16 million. When you take into consideration that there are 120,000 people in the labour force, this would translate into a decrease of 1.5% in the islands unemployment rate! Currently, Cape Breton's unemployment rate (16.3%) is almost 3 times higher than that of Halifax (6.5%)
In addition to the huge impact that the offshore could have, new provincial jobs would be created and possibly some new federal ones.
I know there will be major kinks to work out but I thought I would throw some positive points at you all.
Nova Scotia's Conservative government has done a horrendous job developing Nova Scotia's offshore deals. The benefits of our resource rich land and water has impacted New England much more than it has Nova Scotia. Why have the people of Nova Scotia stood for this? Considering John Hamm succeeded in getting his party into power by promising to cut-off funding to Cape Breton has left an especially sour taste in my mouth, as well as the mouths of a lot of Cape Bretoners. So how can we improve our plite?
Let's first look at a Canadian Business survey to find out which Canadian cities were the best for conducting business in? Have you heard about this survey? Probably not since the local and provincial governments likely had no idea, or didn't care of it's results. Cape Breton ranked 5th in Canada! Only 4 cities, including oil pumped St. John's, NFLD, ranked higher than Cape Breton as the best cities to do business in.
If you use the offshore oil program in Newfoundland as an example, you can see some instant benefits for Cape Breton as a province. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product - total value of all goods and services produced) of the oil industry in Newfoundland was roughly 17% last year, that is a total of about $5.2 billion! If the same numbers held true in Cape Breton, the GDP here would increase by almost $590 million dollars! That's more than one-half a "BILLION" dollars which would be re-invested into the economy every year.
What about jobs you ask? Well, if we use a 1/5 estimate when compared to Newfoundland, offshore alone could create upwards of 600 jobs directly related to the oil industry as well as 1200-1500 spin off jobs. In total, these jobs could create a combined income of $16 million. When you take into consideration that there are 120,000 people in the labour force, this would translate into a decrease of 1.5% in the islands unemployment rate! Currently, Cape Breton's unemployment rate (16.3%) is almost 3 times higher than that of Halifax (6.5%)
In addition to the huge impact that the offshore could have, new provincial jobs would be created and possibly some new federal ones.
I know there will be major kinks to work out but I thought I would throw some positive points at you all.
