Cranbrook politicians need to work together on 'big ideas' to improve city's infrastructure

by Michael J Morris
The federal election is over, and sooner rather than later I hope, Cranbrook city council will come up with 10 big ideas to fix the community's infrastructure and be ready when Justin Trudeau announces details of the infrastructure program he promised.

But before so doing, Mayor Lee Pratt and his council will need to accept the reality that Canadians elected a majority Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau. However, in Kootenay-Columbia, voters bounced David Wilks, the Conservative MP in the last Parliament, and replaced him with Wayne Stetski, of the  NDP.

Stetski, who was mayor of Cranbrook but defeated by Pratt in the last election, is now the city's voice in the new Parliament, but will be a rookie MP in the House of Commons with a steep learning curve. The NDP is also the third party in terms of members.

I would suggest that as the political times are new, all involved put aside any differences they may have, meet and get on with co-operating for the improvement of the community. Focus totally on the things bringing them together -- a better place to live, work and play -- rather than those things dividing them.

It was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll who aroused me to comment singing "I'm late / I'm late / For a very important date. / No time to say "Hello, Goodbye". / I'm late, I'm late, I'm late."

I really don't want Cranbrook to be late for a very important date with the new government of Canada in submitting projects to improve the city.

On to 10 Big Ideas for Cranbrook. I suggest that a public consultation process be undertaken to assist in deciding the infrastructure program.

For example, a year or so ago, the Toronto Star started by asking its readers to provide 35 big ideas that would help the city became a better place for all citizens to live, work and play, and then whittled them down to the top 25. The next stage was to select the Top Ten, and hopefully city council would  act on them.

I know. I know. My example is from Toronto not the most popular city in these parts.

Wow. I must have been here a long time When I arrived here over 26 years ago, I was very careful about mentioning in the faculty lounge at College of the Rockies, then East Kootenay Community College, that I was from Ontario, never mind that I had attended school and worked in Toronto. And yes, I have written articles for the Toronto Star in the interests of full disclosure.

Anyway, I digress as usual. How about asking citizens for Big Ideas to make Cranbrook a better place to live, work and play. I have not come up with a plan to sort them all out, but that can be decided later if necessary. 

I am really just blue skying an idea.  It will have served a useful purpose. It will help establish common ground on issues that bring the community together rather than divide it. 

Let me return to Alice in Wonderland and the Walrus: "The time has come, my little friends, to talk of other things / Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings / And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings / Calloo, Callay, come run away / With the cabbages and kings."

You figure out the metaphor(s). Thanks so much for 26 years in Cranbrook. I wish you all the very best.

 My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Political, economic and social infrastructure challenges posed by decline of rural areas of Canada

By Michael J Morris

I n 2015 I took my second trip in three years from British Columbia to Ontario, and return, taking essentially the same route. I have updated my musings from my first trip in 2012 following the news that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans amassive infrastructure project.

As I travelled from British Columbia to Ontario and back in the summer of 2012, there was one constant refrain that stayed with me all the way, and remains with me now. I was witnessing first hand the decline of rural Canada, and quite possibly, if things don't change soon, Cranbrook may meet the same fate as I saw in other parts of the country -- boarded up hotels, service stations, stores, restaurants, banks  and homes, in communities that may never have been really prosperous but held their own not so many years ago.

And, in many communities, including my home town of Chapleau, Ontario, the infrastructure is well beyond its past due date. Canada is crumbling all around us!

Transient that I have been, although 2015 marks 26 years that I have lived in Cranbrook, I am one of those fortunate Canadians who lived in Alberta. Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario before coming to British Columbia in 1989.

I travelled by bus from Cranbrook to Calgary, flew to Ottawa, and then drove to North Bay, on to Sudbury and further across Highway 17 to Highway 129 and north for a high school reunion in my home town of Chapleau in 2012. Same route in 2015.

I've made the Ontario portion of my trip many times, and that is when it struck me that things weren't the same, Some communities had all but disappeared except for the closed buildings. I flew back from Ottawa to Calgary.

Perhaps a sign of the times was that the busiest business anywhere on my trip was a Tim Hortons located just off the highway at Blind River, Ontario. 

While I noticed it most in Ontario, on the bus trips to and from Calgary, I saw the same situation developing in some communities in Alberta and British Columbia. Friends have  told me it's the same in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

 I have to make a trip to Brandon, Manitoba, and if I can find a Greyhound bus that will get me from here to there and back, I will see for myself.

There has been some discussion recently about empty space in downtown Cranbrook, and as I continue my walking tours, I am noticing the same along 'The Strip' and at Tamarack Centre.

In those parts of rural Canada that have been especially hard hit, there has been a significant population decline, but so far statistically that does not seem to have become a significant factor in Cranbrook, although in the 26 years I have been here, there has been a net population increase of about 15 to 20 percent. Not exactly inspiring considering that it was just over 16,000 in 1989.

Cranbrook may remain static for some time yet given its role as a regional service centre but if the outlying communities experience population decline, that will obviously affect this community adversely.

Cranbrook faces huge infrastructure challenges too,

Writing in Dal News, a publication of Dalhousie University in Halifax in June 2012, Ryan McNutt notes that "the 'best of times' story is that Canada’s urban centres are strengthening in population, boosted in no small part by significant immigration numbers in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver. The 'worst of times' story ...  declines in rural areas, posing significant political, economic and social challenges for Canada’s future."

And as population declines, there are fewer left to pay for the infrastructure that is needed.

Mr. McNutt quotes Fazley Siddiq, economics professor at Dalhousie’s School of Public Administration and a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as saying,  “It’s a real tragedy, because the metropolitan/non-metropolitan balance that we’ve had has been altered in a way that’s not desirable,” 

“It’s one thing to say that we’re becoming more and more urbanized, a modern industrialized country. Those developments sound positive, and they are in many respects. But behind the mask of that success is a hollowing out of much of the rest of Canada. And if it isn’t happening yet in certain parts of the country, the potential for this trend to get a lot worse is there.”

Dr. Siddiq noted that while urban growth is not without its challenges—congestion, pollution, traffic and infrastructure, housing and schooling—the increase in population brings with it more business activity and a larger tax base, which can support solutions for addressing those challenges. And then there are the positives of urbanization: more career opportunities, a younger dynamic population, housing booms and more."

“A declining population, in contrast, I don’t see too many positives associated with it,” says Dr. Siddiq. “It can be quite traumatic for families and businesses when home prices go down, jobs become increasingly scarce and businesses no longer are sustainable in small communities. So then people leave, leading to another reduction in business activity and home prices. It’s a downward spiraling effect.”

Dr. Siddiq is studying population trends and their effect but in the McNutt article he did not sound overly optimistic: “Our history has been one of an expanding frontier, and economic activity spilling over. That’s why we have the country that we do. But whether we will continue to be able to sustain viable communities, viable populations, in far-flung areas, is something that causes me great concern.”

However, on a more optimistic note the Canadian Rural Research Network in its June 2013 report found that some rural areas are experiencing population growth - the one closest to Cranbrook that is included in top five rural regions in employment growth in Cranbrook  is Camrose-Drumheller Economic Region in Alberta.  Showing employment growth above the national average for 12 consecutive months are  Thompson-Okanagan Economic Region and Cariboo Economic Region in British Columbia.

These regions may be places to start looking at how they are doing it, and they are not too far away.

The task of ensuring a viable future for Cranbrook, may not be easy, given the immense divide that seems to prevail within the community, but as Lyndon Johnson, former president of the United  States used to say when he was Senate Majority Leader, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, "Come, let us reason together." Much progress can be made when the focus is on those things that bring us together rather than those that divide us.

Let's carefully examine Mr. Trudeau's proposals.

In the interests of full disclosure I am not now and never have been a member of the Liberal Party, or the New Democratic Party. At one time I was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party -- eons ago

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

B.C. Boy Justin Trudeau needs to adopt no frills approach meeting, greeting and listening to folks across Canada this Summer

Justin Trudeau in Cranbrook Summer 2013

By Michael J Morris

In the Summer of 2013, Justin Trudeau, the 'B.C. boy' enjoyed celebrity status as he crossed the province on his RV tour of the Kootenays and Okanagan and arrived  in Vancouver where he was surrounded by the media and supporters in the city's West End.

The leader of the federal Liberal Party started his tour in Cranbrook on July 21 with a meet and greet at Rotary Park unusual in politics for its informality. Introduced by Mayor Wayne Stetski, Trudeau then hopped onto the stage dressed in  designer jeans and casual shirt and gave an impromptu speech - a formula that was followed at every stop of the tour with minor variations. 

Two years later, Stetski is the NDP candidate in the Kootenay-Columbia riding currently held by Harpercon David Wilks.

In Creston at Truscott Farms he was presented with a cherry pie, and in Nelson he arrived for the meet and greet  on the city's famous street car with his wife Sophie Gregoire and children Xavier and Ella-Grace.

The no frills approach continued across the province perhaps defining a new political style consistent with the kind of politics Trudeau wants to see in Canada. Based on the reaction from the crowd in Cranbrook and news reports from other communities  he visited, it worked. I just can't imagine Stephen Harper, the prime minister, trying it, although he did wear cardigans at one point.

Some of the shine has gone from Trudeau as the federal election approaches, but he can still attract a crowd and methinks his best asset is the no frills to  get out and meet folks approach across the country.

Hedy Fry, the Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre told The Province newspaper, she believes Trudeau’s popularity is rooted in his authenticity.  “I think he is not like other politicians,” she said. “When people see him there is a deep sense of trust. People just seem to naturally gravitate to him. He is a B.C. boy and British Columbians seem to be warming to him".

Yes indeed, he is a B.C. boy, and although he is the son of Pierre Trudeau, from Quebec, his mother is Margaret Sinclair, the daughter of James Sinclair, a Liberal MP representing Vancouver area ridings from 1940 to 1957, and minister of fisheries from 1952 to 1957. Trudeau also attended the University of British Columbia and taught in the province.

In Cranbrook, Trudeau talked about paddling the Kootenay River with his father and brothers more than 25 years ago, and prior to a meet and greet in Trail, Trudeau and his family hiked to Nelson’s Kokanee Lake, the site where Trudeau’s brother Michel died in 1998 during an avalanche.

Trudeau posed the question along the way: "Why has politics itself become such a dirty word?", in recent years.Answering his own question in part, Trudeau commented that it is always easier in politics to divide, to attack, go negative, calculate where most votes are and practise the politics of division. 

He even admitted elections can be won this way, but he hopes to turn it around despite many advising him that he must go negative.

In Vancouver, in a speech from atop a table at English Bay, Trudeau is reported by The Province as saying, ""What I have seen across the county is people want to reconnect – we want to be once again part of the solution,This is what people are excited about across the country. I’m just an excuse for it. It’s not really about me, it’s about all of you."

In Kelowna, Conservative Party MP Ron Cannan attended theTrudeau meet and greet and told a local newspaper he agreed with several things that the Liberal leader said. "I believe in working together, as Justin advocates.

"What he said, it's hard not to agree with—all comments about balancing the environment and the economy, working together for a stronger future for not only our children, but our grandchildren (as well)." Kelowna-Lake Country voters heavily favoured the Conservative candidate in the 2011 general election; Cannan earned about 57 per cent of the vote.

Good that this MP showed respect and common decency by attending the Trudeau function. Maybe the prime minister will get the message. So far, two years later, Harper still has not gotten it but remains totally surrounded by Steve.

As I was reflecting two years later, on Trudeau's road tour, and the positive reaction, one thing I sensed for sure, and heard it in Cranbrook, and still hear it,  folks are fed up with the present negativity and general goings on in Ottawa in the Office of the Prime Minister and the Duffy Senate affair.

I covered the "Trudeaumania" election campaign in 1968 as a reporter and editor and witnessed it first hand -- but hold on to your seats folks, in my view the son re-ignited the flame on this RV tour. Can he do it again in the Summer of 2015?