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Hassan Arif
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Two items essential to our province's future are a healthy economy and a steadily growing population - the former, for the generation of new jobs and opportunities and the latter so there is a sizeable labour force to contribute to the province's tax base. Attracting investment and migration to New Brunswick by effectively promoting this province is vital.

It is important to remember and build on New Brunswick's unique advantages - smaller communities and cities, picturesque rural areas and beautiful natural scenery that all make New Brunswick a desirable place to live.

We should not aim to be, or pretend to be, like Toronto or Alberta.

Each of these places has its advantages. Toronto, like many large urban centres, is a diverse and multicultural city that is a powerful economic engine of this country. However, Toronto is also crowded, congested, and hectic, with vast tracts of suburban sprawl, cookie cutter subdivisions, and unsightly box store developments.

Life in Toronto, and other large urban centres, is not suited for everyone.

In Alberta, the tar sands are a strong source of economic growth; however, they are also an ecological catastrophe. Carbon dioxide emissions are off the scale, boreal forests in Northern Alberta are being destroyed, and nearby local water supplies are contaminated. These are all the consequences of a development that was hasty and done with little thought to the ecological consequences.

When we promote our province to prospective migrants and investors, we should emphasize its advantages - smaller cities and towns that provide a stronger sense of community where people know each other and help each other out. This is an alternative to the urban lifestyle without the congestion and hectic pace of life of larger urban centres. New Brunswick also has scenic vistas that offer picturesque natural beauty with beautiful places both to live and for recreation.

A further advantage of New Brunswick is the low cost of housing and property. Whereas in a large city even a small house with a postage-stamp lot can be prohibitively expensive, in New Brunswick one can buy a scenic multi-acre lot and a sizeable house for a comparatively affordable price.

These are advantages that make New Brunswick a desirable place for Canadians seeking to escape the congestion of urban life, and for those immigrants who may prefer a small town or rural setting to a more urban place. These are all advantages we should seek to build upon, promote, and preserve.

Preservation means taking steps to limit urban sprawl, so that forests are not unnecessarily cut down for cookie-cutter subdivisions and sprawling box store developments that waste space and are unsightly.

In Vermont, a jurisdiction I wrote about earlier this year, centralized development has been favoured over sprawl in an attempt to preserve that state's natural beauty.

Vermont is also worth a look by policymakers because it is a small, low population jurisdiction like New Brunswick, but has become an attractive place for investment and has achieved a population growth of 10 per cent over the 15-year period from 1990 to 2005.

Vermont has become an attractive destination for people seeking to escape the urban congestion of New York City and Boston. Also, modern communications technologies have made Vermont an attractive place to set up businesses, as employees can enjoy the benefits of living in a small town/rural area and are able to easily tele-commute with larger urban centres.

Here in the Maritimes, Prince Edward Island's natural beauty has been the cornerstone of a successful tourism industry that has been a major boost to the island's economy for decades. A growing bio-technology sector has contributed to economic and steady population growth in that province as well.

Through an aggressive commitment to environmentalism, which P.E.I. proudly promotes even on its licence plates, policymakers on the island have sought to preserve their province's natural beauty.

Another interesting success story to look at is that of Park City, Utah. Park City is a community of less than 10,000 people located in the scenic mountains of Northern Utah. During the 1970s, it faced economic devastation when the local mining industry collapsed. However, local leaders were innovative and sought to reinvent the town promoting it as a tourism destination through the development of several ski resorts. In the summer, these resorts are attractive destinations for hiking and mountain biking. Park City also became the site of the internationally renowned Sundance independent film festival, which is today a major component of the local economy.

Park City's natural beauty as a mountain town became the basis of that community's economic revival and transformation into a prosperous tourism destination and cultural centre.

Vermont, Prince Edward Island, and Park City are three examples that policymakers in New Brunswick can look to in learning how to promote our province's natural beauty and small town, rural character. There is no reason why New Brunswick cannot become an attractive destination for those seeking to escape the urban lifestyles in Toronto and Montreal, and for immigrants who would prefer an alternative to big city life.

Hassan Arif is a graduate of UNB Law School and received his MA in Political Science at Carleton University. He resides in Fredericton.