Nova Scotia Population Decline

NS: Demographic doom
By Nancy King, Transcontinental Media

Source: Cape Breton Post, Mar. 25/10

[SYDNEY, NS] – Quality of life in Nova Scotia could drop significantly in the next 10-15 years if the province can’t stem the population decline.

A report released this week details the demographic challenges facing the province and what they could mean for the Nova Scotia. It came out of a population forum held recently in Wolfville that brought together municipalities, chambers of commerce and regional development authorities.

It notes that Nova Scotia will run out of its available labour force in less than seven years, with one in eight jobs going unfilled, and that will affect all economic sectors and job categories.

“Municipalities — I’m talking rural, towns and cities — are going to find that in the next 10-15 years, that short, if we can’t get some solutions to this problem that we see looming out there, we’ll not be able to provide the necessary services and health care for senior citizens and for our children that we’ve had in the past, and the quality of life as we know it as Nova Scotians is in jeopardy,” says Port Hawkesbury Mayor Billy Joe MacLean, who chaired the forum.

If the province doesn’t retain young people, encourage others to move back, attract immigrants and stop the decline of rural communities, it won’t have the necessary tax base to pay for those services, he says.

“Even if we jump on it now, we’re going to have trouble in the next 10 years, but let’s try to alleviate this a little bit,” MacLean says.

In the report, Jim McNiven, a senior policy research adviser with Canmac Economics Ltd., predicts the province would need to attract at least 515,000 immigrants by 2028 to maintain modest economic growth, something deemed unrealistic for a province that now attracts less than one per cent of immigrants to Canada.

If the province relies on seniors remaining in the workforce past the traditional retirement age, workers would not be able to retire until some point in their 70s and all adults would have to work.

Even if Nova Scotia increased productivity by more than 50 per cent, the province would still come up short.

As a result, the report says addressing the labour challenges will require a mixed solution.

MacLean says all three levels of government and other agencies now need to look at the statistics and work together to develop a plan.

“We’re watching, as we speak, rural communities shrinking, losing their young people, going out west or moving to the cities… how do we retain our people here? There has to be some cooperation between all levels of government to try to, first of all, create jobs to keep our young people here,” he says.

Keeping the older population active and healthy will also be key so they can continue working, MacLean says.

“This is a very obvious crisis that has to be addressed by all of us,” he adds.
There are efforts underway to organize additional sessions, possibly in Sydney and Halifax, which would include provincial and federal officials. MacLean says he’d like to see a provincial cabinet minister assigned to the issue.