25 January 2016
Guest Editorial, by David Connelly
News/North, January 25, 2016
An intrepid farmer in Norman Wells did a remarkable job growing an unheard of crop of 30,000 pounds of potatoes. Clearly a labour of love. At Yellowknife's retail price of 50 cents a pound, that bumper crop would sell for $15,000.
Alternatives North was watching. It just released a study proposing the Sahtu give up on oil and gas development and focus on farming, logging, tourism, trapping, arts and crafts. They conclude that policies should be shifted away from large-scale outside investment and be refocused towards building small local businesses.
Were people living in the Sahtu consulted about turning their back on big non-renewable resource opportunities like mining, hydro and oil and gas?
Will the development corporations and people of the Sahtu who have built employment and business expertise in exploration and services for the natural resource industry be happy to become full-time farmers, tour guide operators, loggers, hunters and fishermen? Can the land, forests, fish and animal populations sustain it?
Does Alternatives North also think the Slave Region should turn its back on outside investment in responsible non-renewable resources?
Let's do a little analysis.
If we shut the mining industry and turned all 3,000 miners into potato farmers and each was as successful as the Norman Wells farmer, they could produce a total of 42,000 tonnes of potatoes.
If they sold them at the YK retail price they would generate $45 million for the NWT economy.
But if we turned our back on diamond mining, the economy would lose $1.8 billion in diamond "crop" value. Our economy would suffer, and the federal, territorial and aboriginal governments would lose huge revenues, royalties and transfer payments. Not to mention the 4,500 employees that support miners and their families. That's an alternative that scares me.
Diversifying our economy is a good goal. We all agree that is important. Not everyone wants to be a miner or an oil and gas worker.
But we simply can't afford to turn our backs on non-renewable resources. Successful resource development and workers with good paycheques help spur diversification of the economy and provide our services.
Governments do not have the money to do it on their own.
Northerners are smart and resourceful. If small-scale renewable resource activities were clearly economic and you could make a living at it, we would already have thriving local forestry, farming, fishing and trapping industries. We have tried repeatedly and mostly failed for decades. The reasons are well documented. Each needs significant government support to be viable and competitive. They are respectable traditions or part time work. They are not enough to offset responsible non-renewable resource industries.
The Alternatives North study reminds me of a famous monarch who arrogantly told the people, "Let them eat cake." Northerners deserve so much more!
A better recommendation to the Sahtu for diversification is to consider exploration, mining and power generation.
They are sitting on huge, untapped potential.
Now is the time to look at getting ready to attract mining and energy investments.
Those benefits are no small potatoes!
David Connelly
Yellowknife
Monday, January 25, 2016
- David Connelly is a Northern business leader and former resident of Inuvik who is watching the rush to abandon our natural resource opportunities with growing concern