Letting it ride
The gambler lost, the grifter’s burned and governments watched vast sums of public money disappear into big businesses gone bad. But hope springs eternal. There’s always another brass ring.
Like the inveterate gambler lets it ride, or the small-time grifter searches for a rich mark, Nova Scotian governments can’t resist the big play.
The gambler lost, the grifter’s burned and governments watched vast sums of public money disappear into big businesses gone bad. But hope springs eternal. There’s always another brass ring, even if it exceeds the reach.
Two stories this week stirred memories of some infamous rolls of the dice by governments past. Oddly, these were tales of small business and blueberries, not big payoff games that hoover up piles of tax dollars.
The long-of-tooth will recall some of the latter, like a cruise ship that never floated, a colour TV on the fritz, heavy water that came up light and a multi-billiondollar steel-making sinkhole.
In case late boomers and beyond want a sad history lesson, Google will offer a glimpse into the sagas of Mercator, Clairtone, Deuterium of Canada Ltd. and, of course, Sysco.
There have been tragic failures, too, like the methane-belching coal mine in Plymouth, Pictou County that deserves no name.
The flip side is spectacular success. It’s the big win that keeps us at the table. Michelin Tire is the legendary pot Nova Scotia raked in and, other than anti-labour legislation that won John Buchanan more votes than it cost, Michelin and its thousands of jobs came cheap.
More recent gambits include the big deal with Newfoundland to bring hydro power to Nova Scotia from the perpetually troubled Muskrat Falls project via a cost-climbing undersea transmission line. Emera/Nova Scotia Power hold the cards, but make no mistake, you’ve got skin in the game.
Ships Start Here . . . Soon, is pretty much a sure thing with a federal contract in hand. The wild card is the job-making power of the navy vessel deal at Irving’s Halifax shipyard. Darrell Dexter’s $300 million-plus bet is likely a winner, but the payoff may not be as advertised.
Today, one big bet comes at the cost of a bunch of sure things. Visions of gleaming grandeur seem to blind our leaders to the advantages of keeping what we’ve got, like a great little business district.
The massive downtown Halifax convention centre, office complex, hotel and “European” covered streetscape, variously known as the Nova Centre or the Halifax Convention Centre, can’t miss we are assured. Its endless construction eclipsed all in its shadow.
Every great fortune is built on the backs of hard workers who don’t reap the benefits. In the case of Halifax’s two-block glass and steel fortress, the hardworking victims are a dozen or more once-thriving small businesses that border the behemoth. The Argyle Bar and Grill is the latest to join the list of the lost.
Some say the nearby food and drink emporiums should count their lucky stars, for when the great castle is complete, they will roll in the dough. The flaw in that logic is that most small businesses can’t survive years of losses. They fold, or hold and hope their losses can be recouped if the shared dream of Halifax council and the province comes true.
Out in rural Nova Scotia, blueberry growers and a legion of seasonal pickers are in big trouble.
Some of the growers will survive a 20-cent-a-pound berry season. A few short years ago their crop demanded 65 cents, and they need 50 or better to break even.
So far, the province seems disinclined to help.
A rural food sector might eventually pull a little money from the pockets of big city bureaucrats, but a multi-million-dollar downtown development can lift a lot in a hurry. I could be wrong, but there’s something askew with that picture.
The plight of the blueberry growers, and pickers who earn some seasonal cash, brought to mind a once-thriving local film industry.
Short-term governments and short-sighted economic schemes drive the get-rich-quick group think. Yet hundreds of film-making jobs somehow aren’t worth the tax cut that kept them here. That’s another off-kilter image.
Seems when it comes to economic planning, the many make the sacrifice for the few.
Note: Earlier this week, I wrote that the Canadian College of Family Physicians (CCFP) “listed” Nova Scotia among the worst places for family doctors in Canada. The organization does not keep a formal list ranking provinces.
The information from an affiliated CCFP source was anecdotal, not official.