Million dollar questions

Low population has long been a concern in Nova Scotia, particularly in rural areas and towns. New Glasgow is taking up an interesting challenge in hopes of reversing that trend. The town is participating in the Smart Cities Challenge, a call from Infrastructure and Communities Canada to urban and rural centres across the country to assemble ideas on making their communities better, and more enticing for people to move there. These ideas and plans will be shared with other communities to help everyone meet a challenge that faces locales across the country. Making the challenge that much more exciting, prizes are involved: $50 million for a winning urban community and $5 million for a winning rural community. A guiding strategy of the local committee participating in this challenge is to take advantage of the concept of “townsizing.” As committee member Jim Fitt explained, a growing trend shows some residents of areas where property values are vastly higher than, say, in the Maritimes, are looking to sell their homes and relocate where they can buy something comparable for a fraction of the price. And with a move toward a more technological, information-based economy, relocation among this mobile workforce is more often a possibility. In the case of Pictou County, part of the driving force is the rating handed down a number of years running by MoneySense magazine that put this area near the bottom of places to live in Canada. Just to clarify, the MoneySense rating involving New Glasgow was in reference to a conglomerate that included the surrounding towns and county. In that sense, it would be good to view this pitch from the local committee in terms of having benefits for Pictou County in general. But also, with the MoneySense rating in mind, it pays to think specifically about the criteria the magazine’s analysts were using. While residents of the area justifiably felt slighted, and talked about the friendliness, the wonderful feeling of community and natural beauty of Pictou County, the magazine had a different mission. It was about such items as availability of higher-paying jobs, access to doctors and health services, transit services and activities and events related to entertainment and culture. People relocating don’t want to lose those features, even if another area offers other great advantages. It’s not hard to think of current local issues related to this bigger picture. The Pictou County Wellness Centre, for example – part of the reasoning for building it was that people wanting to move here would expect such a recreational asset. But a concern getting more airing these days is the absence of a safe pedestrian route to the centre from other parts of town. Lack of a full-scale transit system serving the county’s urban core is another challenge that has been discussed over the years. Obviously, a key ingredient to achieving such goals as these within the community and tackling challenges is a growing, vibrant population, which is the aim of the challenge. People can go to the committee’s survey form at townsizing.ca and share ideas and suggestions that might appeal to the mobile workforce, and that would be amenable to the tech sector. The Smart City Challenge will certainly yield a wealth of ideas to be shared, ones that could benefit Pictou County and other areas. Winning the prize would be the cherry on top – great potential to kick-start some initiatives.