Hard to change folks unless maybe some big thing is on the doorstep..

That is a really interesting article. Personally I don't believe NS will ever be anything other than what it currently is. The majority population don't support change of any sort. The majority of immigrants work that out after a few years and look to move on to other Provinces. I lived in NS for over 5 years and I remember much talk about change but none actually happening.

I sort of suspect it's like NZ - the people that want change/are open to new opportunities leave, meaning the conservative ones stay and breed, so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or not. I'm totally guessing.

I agree with this. That is the key- people don't want it to change.

The "from away" thing I mentioned earlier- I heard this from younger, not older, people.

Best of luck to those who stay there.

Playing devil's advocate, maybe they have a point.

There are plenty of people in Vancouver - the born and bred ones, not the new arrivals - that prefer the Vancouver of 30 years ago to the Vancouver of now. And arguably, they have a point. 30 years ago they could afford a beautiful character home on the west side of Vancouver, the traffic was fine, you could allegedly get everywhere in 20 mins...some of the people who bought in Surrey/Langley decades ago could get downtown in no time at all from their acreages. Now they're trapped by congestion.

There's lots of good things about growth but lots of downsides too - if we're honest.

I love the Vancouver of today, but some people have definitely lost out in all the change.

It's the same in San Diego and probably a lot of other city's. I like aspects of the city today, but in a lot of ways 20-25 years ago was far more ideal. Most of the growth was just cookie cutter homes that added more congestion and really did no overall improvements for the region.

I didn't know Vancouver of 20 years ago, but it appears they allowed massive condo expansion without really building the infrastructure to handle the increased density.

I do like Vancouver, but its not a city someone with a moderate to lower income can enjoy, not worth the suffering to say you live in Vancouver, although if our income matched the cost of living, we would live there no problem, downtown in a condo, the ideal place to live in my view.

I would love to visit Vancouver, it's on the list

I think the part of the article that made the most sense to me having lived here in NB for 5 years is the people. As the article says they are resistant and in some cases afraid of change. This region will not change anything until it has to. A lot of the best and brightest up and leave to points west for better prospects.

On the subject of the attitude to foreigners I have frequently encountered negative and derogatory comments about TFWs and them taking jobs from Canadians. The biggest point that they seem to miss is that the employer hired them!! A lot around here will complain about TFWs yet work in low skill low paid jobs with no ambition to do anything more. There is a certain victim mentality among a lot of the people here, it does seem to be worse in the smaller towns. I wonder if this is true in other parts of the country?
Worse still a lot work in seasonal work and claim EI for the rest of the year. I agree with the article that the provinces need to boost the immigration numbers and add to the tax base.

I am happy enough here right now but I have no intention of spending the rest of my life here. I dont have any children at the moment but something I have thought about is that the education system here seems to be appalling. The worst in Canada. Half of working age adults in NB are said to be functionally illiterate!!! I say this having an ex girlfriend who was a school teacher. I do wonder what prospects my children would have growing up here. I also seem to remember reading that NB was the poorest province with with the highest levels of obesity.

Well, one thing is for certain. Anyone who had property in Van 30 years ago has probably made a sh*t load of money in that time.

Same cannot be said about 99% of the maritimes.

Around here the issue with TFW's is that employers somehow were able to get TFW's in low skilled low paying jobs when there were suitable local applicants, Tim Hortons in my town was/is a good example, myself and others I have spoken to have applied to them in the past and never got calls for an interview, so when a company like that can bring in TFW's and totally ignore and not hire people already in Canada, that is a problem and people do have a legitimate complaint.

The other side is some people are willing to learn and be re-trained into a better skilled job, but are unable for whatever reason to pay for school and still have to work full-time which eliminates a lot of financial aid options and keeps them from going to school to gain skills, not everyone can be a full-time student but can't pay for school out of pocket, and can't get sufficient financial aid to go.

Then there are people like myself who can't work full-time, and on disability and instead of having programs to help people like me get a gainful skill and become independent, they penalize instead. If I do go to school in the fall, any loan amount I get for living expenses is deducted from disability as income, and creates major financial hurdles.

Small town people have unique situations in most provinces due to lack of educational opportunities, can be a long distance from some towns to attend school beyond grade 12.

My town is small and while we have a university, its a private liberal arts college that runs around 35,000 a year for tuition. There is a satellite campus for Capilano, but it unfortunately only offers a few select classes, not designed to obtain a degree, but for people wanting to take a class or 2, the subjects covered can be very random each semester.

It can be quite difficult in Canada to obtain an education, the cost and lack of financial aid is a big big hurdle and a lot of people do want to get more skills, but financially can't do it due to cost.

I know two young families, from here that have moved because of the cost of education. In both situations they have gone to Alberta because the education will be provided along with a salary from an employer. Here, for the same thing they would need to go on EI and then pay for that education. Its ridiculous and needs to change!
Having worked in an organization stifled by many old farts that are not interested in progression as it may upset the balance of their own pampered lives, I truly believe that lot need to retire. They have nice fat pensions and will make way for younger more dynamic leaders that are driven half crazy by the frustration of it all.
Thank God I am now in a decent progressive company that allows me to see the really smart people that do live and work here. I can now see that there are quite a few organizations like this that exists with smart educated people in them. It's almost like there are two very different sides to Nova Scotia.

If I could get a job, work enough hours, and then get laid off through no fault of my own and get EI, then there would be a ton more options, being on EI really opens a lot of doors education and training wise.

But then the province of BC will claw back on disability payments, which would cause issues.

Its just annoying they don't offer disabled folks more training and educational opportunities to gain more independence and maybe make enough to not need disability income any longer, but they don't want to, but its likely cheaper to just pay the disability benefits then to provide training funding.

Do you honestly believe though that if you zip forward 10 years, things will be much different? That they're will be plentiful, good jobs for your children? I would hope so, but seriously cannot see it. When you move away and see how progressive other places are and how quickly they go from talking about change and then actually implementing it, you can see just how stuck in their ways NS really is.

Honestly Amy I don't know. I do know that we are fortunate in our jobs etc and the kids are doing well and are happy. It's taken so long to get to this point that I am not sure that I have the energy to change it all up and effectively start again right now. I do know that if our children choose to move out west we would go with them. I do also know that if things change for us here and go downhill then we would most definitely consider the move. Right now we are happy. I have no intention of fixing what isn't broken.

There's a lot to be said for just being happy.