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The Resilient City
Trends Affecting Canadian Resource-Dependent Communities
Like most countries around the world, Canada has experienced a clear and fundamental population shift away from rural areas and towards its cities within the last decade, especially in regions of the country where communities rely on single resource industries. Although Canada's overall population rose by 4% and urban areas grew by 6.4% between 1996 and 2001, rural and small town areas, apart from those adjacent to cities, saw their population decrease by 4.7%. In particular, youth are migrating out of rural areas to pursue educational, job and lifestyle opportunities, causing a rise in the median age of people in rural communities and reducing their capacity to develop economic and social strengths. Low levels of in-migration to small towns and rural areas are insufficient to redress these population and capacity losses.
The primary resource sector accounted for 7.1% of Canada's gross domestic product in 1981 but only 5.8% in 2002. The primary sector represented roughly 60% of total Canadian commodity exports in 1981, but has accounted for between 30% and 40% of Canadian commodity exports since 1993. Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting have declined most rapidly, while mining, oil and gas exploration have been more stable. Between 1987 and 1999, employment in agriculture, mining, and fishing declined across Canada. Forestry employment grew until 1995, but has declined since. The decline in primary resource sector employment has occurred in all Canadian regions, with Québec, Ontario and the Maritimes showing the highest rates of loss.
As a major player in world minerals and metals markets with 128 mostly remote communities depending on mining for their economic wellbeing, Canada placed first globally in 1998 for the production of potash and uranium, second for nickel, zinc and cadmium, third for aluminium, platinum-group metals, titanium concentrates and diamonds, and fourth in copper, gold, molybdenum and salt. Canada is also the world's third-largest producer of natural gas and the tenth-largest producer of petroleum. Such a heavy economic dependency on extracting natural resources, leaves Canada vulnerable to world price fluctuations that directly impact resource communities.
Government policies and international trade practices also play a defining role in determining the survival of small, single-industry communities. For example, Canada's agriculture sector, particularly on the Prairies, has been drastically affected by protectionist agricultural policies of the US Congress and by the US response a minor ‘mad cow' (BSE) scare. The ongoing US/Canada softwood lumber dispute has had a severe impact on the more than 300 Canadian communities dependent on the forest industry. Fisheries closures because of declining stocks on Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts have impacted nearly 1,500 coastal communities and caused employment in this industry to plummet over the past several years.
Canada's many economic changes have had an impact on rural places and small towns across the country. While employment in the primary resource sector has declined since 1987, there has been significant growth in the other employment sectors. Thus, rural and small towns are showing some signs of diversification. In 1987, the primary resource sector accounted for a little over 19% of total employment; in 1999, the share had dropped to 15.4%. Although there has been some growth in the high-value-added sectors usually associated with the knowledge economy in rural and small towns, these sectors still lag far behind in terms of their share of the total employment in comparison to urban areas.