***** IDENTIFYING OUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES******
Every day I hear or read about the problems facing our communities in Shelburne County. The decline of the fishery, closure of military bases, boys school and other federal and provincial facilities, the drift of younger populations to larger urban centres and other areas of the country the reduced activity at our community college, closure of hospital facilities and services and declining tourism are good examples.
This litany of depressing developments is true. Denying them solves no problems. Neither does focusing on them and ignoring the opportunities presented by the things we do have and the new opportunities that arrive daily.
This morning I want to re-launch this blog in a new direction..... I want to start discussing the half of the glass that is full!
And soooo.... let's start with Shelburne's natural geographic phenomena and the resultant advantages I can name .... right off the top of my head.....
And dear reader, I would ask you to join me as we begin this exciting journey to explore the natural advantages we have in Shelburne County.
OVERVIEW OF LOCATION ADVANTAGES
1. Location - Our geographic location places us on the edge of the North American seaboard with close proximity to the United States and its market of some 360 million people. It also places us closer to the Caribbean and the Atlantic Side of Central and South America than any other jurisdiction in Canada. Our location also favours us as a shipping centre for cargo destined for Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Far East.
Our weather patterns are milder in Winter than most of Canada and our location results in diminished threats from hurricanes. Eastern Shelburne County has one of the highest winter solar irradiance levels in North America and the entire county benefits from ice free conditions in most of our harbours. For all intents and purposes our location far from the mid-atlantic ridge and relatively low incidence of earthquakes also means that our risk from tsunamis is low.
Our proximity to the natural gas and oil deposits off the east coast of Nova Scotia gives us a preferred position to service that industrial development and our location next to George's Bank and the Bay of Fundy generate significant fisheries opportunities.
In like manner, our proximity to a population base of some 50 million within 500 miles of Shelburne County favours us as a natural area for development of our tourism indusry.
Got any additional suggestions as to why our physical location favours Shelburne County? Send them in as comments and I will add them to our inventory of the things that make our glass half full.
9 comments:
Oh, please,fill the dam... glass...
So tired of no positive news coming forth !
Yes, we have great harbour,fab land ready for business group to put to good use ...just need the input of serious work not words !
People like Mr. Terry Hawkins could give ideas to get industries of importants for this climate/topograhy etc. We need input from area, successful, ambitious entrepreneurs.....
With so much talent in the area there should be lots of suggestions for new job opportunities.
Look around and talk to these qualified people and get their helpful views to help create good paying jobs.If the desire is there.... positive things will happen. WE CANNOT WAIT FOR THE HANDOUTS UNLESS THERE IS A PLAN THAT WILL CATCH EYES OF THOSE IN CONTROL OF FUNDS !!!
Just listened to town council ( poorly taped by Eastlink at the end just like night of poor quality taping of Barrington Mun meeting ) to learn nothing new heard about ship yard loss of jobs.....Belliveau and Paris must have moved on to more vocal citizens. It seems our local leaders and informed citizens start complaining a little too late !Youth center jobs lost were very poorly addressed at that time ! JOBS ARE LET GO TOO QUIETLY BY THE ONES WHO ARE ELECTED AND ARE PAID TO PROTECT.
O.K. agreed the glass should be half full but, be realistic. The harbor, yes it is great, filled with water like millions of other harbors (good and bad ) all over the world. Why is Shelburne special? Container port, (like the ferry) forget it. There is no advantage to the use. A feeder line coming from the South, Mid Atlantic or Northern States and then across the pond to Europe, possible but highly improbable as New Jersey has that one rapped up. Supply from the land side? Not really, no railway; highway, hoo humm and it would be a dead end route. The logical use of the harbor is servicing the offshore development that is going to come, maybe not this year or next but it will happen. Specialized ship / marine repair, you bet, huge opportunity to service drilling rigs. Ship demolition / decommissioning (a green proposal) excellent opportunity for shipping companies who want the “Green” image. The biggest drawback is people who have enough knowledge and vision (definably beyond planting flowers along the waterfront!) of financial markets, legitimate investment, tax credit system and the ability to attract a real player to develop an industrial base which would encourage a whole slew of spin off and support industry and jobs. The water will still be in the harbor a hundred years from now, the town as it was and is known may not be. The industrial base has to be something that would support 200 to 300 core base and skilled jobs. Next thought? Academic / education. R.I.P. tourism (that’s one ship that won’t come in!)
10:56..way to go!!! These ideas should get those on line ready to agree or start a good debate.
With Irving/Hfx getting the 19.4 million contract for 9 C.G. vessels, are they planning to rehire a few laid-off tradesmen from Ship Repair to appease us? Minister Paris has been updated on the talks between NSBI and Irving by now - if not why not?
10:56 has some good points, but what we need yesterday are jobs for the tradesmen on an Upgrade of Shelburne Slip Project! An investment of 10 million today will ensure work for our people for another 20+ yrs. If this upgrade doesn't come down the pike soon it's going to result in more layoffs/closures in other county businesses.
I don't see much in the way of support for these tradespeople in the community. It is time for Sterling to step up to the plate and speak out as an MLA should have been doing long before now!
- S. Fry
The slipway deterioration is not new. It has been ongoinh for decades.Another example of head in the sand....no foresight.....living for the day!!!
9:15 You are so right. Irving were quite happy to operate with the poor condition of the slipway as long as they could milk it. Strange that our MLA Sterling Belliveau is not speaking up on the layoffs and appears to be ignoring this serious situation. Anyone heard from Sterling lately? ~S.F.
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