Here’s the difference between a province that is successfully tackling the challenge of labour shortages compared to one that is hopelessly adrift.
Saskatchewan is
open to people from anywhere.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, meanwhile, the emphasis in every discussion seems to be on keeping local people in or figuring out – as with
apprentices – in how to lure them back.
Check that article from the
Telegram – first in a series – and notice how fast they turn to talking about a labour shortage. That’s really code for “there won’t be enough of ‘us’ to get the work.” Part of that sentiment goes unspoken, namely that letting more of “them” in would be, at worse, undesirable socially and culturally or at best an admission of some sort of ethnic failure.
In Saskatchewan, they don’t spend any time fretting that all this prosperity will mean a loss of the old. They don’t seem to be quite so bothered dividing the world up into “we”s and “they”s.
All we need in Newfoundland and Labrador this Christmas is a massive shift in headspace for some people.
- srbp -
