Rural P.E.I. alive and well

Growth in economy achieved by strong exports driven in agriculture and fisheries

It would be remiss of me not to state my concerns over the statements of Mayor Lee and the address that Don Mills of Corporate Research delivered last week to the Greater Charlottetown Chamber of Commerce, of which our company is a member of.

It is not my nature to wade into public issues, but Mayor Lee and Mr. Mills, what you know isn’t so. I make these comments based on facts of what is actually taking place in rural P.E.I., not speculated data based on past performance.

Last Friday, I visited an open house at one of the most modern dairy barns in the world. Yes, the world, in Southampton, on the outskirts of St. Peters. There were at least 200 visitors there from all over the Island, other Maritime Provinces and other countries. How removed you are from reality of the contribution that particular farm facility is making to the urban areas of our province.

Mayor Lee, your job is to be responsible for Charlottetown, but how can you do that if you don’t know who is feeding you both economically and nutritionally? I would suggest that the milk in your coffee at your luncheon came from a cow in rural P.E.I. The legal, accounting, consulting services, insurance and banking services probably were done in your city. This makes you a beneficiary of the rural community. Your comments on the days of the fishing boats or family farms being handed to the next generation being over are simply not true. Ask any lender, lawyer, accountant or car dealer in Charlottetown and they will gladly introduce you to people who are engaged in making our economy work and paying huge dollars into it. Succession is alive and well in our harbours and farms.

On my way to this huge dairy farm I passed the former St. Peters School that was spared from the wrecking ball by concerned community leaders like Jim MacAulay. These leaders were responsible for finding a use for the facility and it is now housing several businesses that are again sending money to feed the financial needs of your city.

These people had a vision and need your support as a leader of our capital city. Mayor Lee, you may go faster alone but we will go further together.

I wish to make reference to the Dundas school that was destroyed by the previous administration. Today, four years later, there is a flourishing Amish community in Dundas that could have made very good use of that facility.

Yes, we have an aging work force and there are more deaths than births on P.E.I., however, that can and will be rectified by immigration and encouraging rural development. It is already happening and we must take advantage of the present immigration minister’s view on the Atlantic region.

It is totally different than a year ago when Jason Kenney was minister of immigration and gutted the foreign worker program. That was a rural disaster, from crops not harvested in Quebec and fish plants in P.E.I. not being able to process enough lobsters because of a shortage of workers.

It is essential that we maintain our schools and rural hospitals if we expect people to live and work in the rural community to make the meaningful contribution they provide to our provincial purse. For many years we lost a lot of our workers to western Canada. Many of them are returning now and bringing with them the skills they acquired.

I hope that my comments help to set the record straight. I also want to assure you that we are here for the long run. It is also important for our young people to examine closely the opportunities that are right before us in our own province.

P.E.I. will be one of the three leading provinces in Canada, along British Columbia and Ontario, in growth. Again, this has been achieved by our strong exports being driven by the rural community in agriculture and fisheries. Our only hope is that Islanders and our politicians work together to turn this economy around. That is being done, one piece at a time all across P.E.I.

We live in the best province in the greatest country in the world. Last week, when President Obama spoke to our Canadian Parliament, he said the world needs a little more Canada. Let’s show the world a little more P.E.I.