cktimes.ca Archives for Ecowrappin'
Ecowrappin'
ECONOMIC WOES
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
It has been almost 4.5 years since I got out of the wetland restoration and enhancement business. Wow, that went fast! I miss the interaction with landowners, conservation partners, earthmoving contractors and equipment operators, even some regulators. Occasionally I am called upon to dispense some advice or direction related to a private wetland initiative. I like to do this, mainly to keep my expertise from fading with time. I have spent a good part of the last 4.5 years doing survey work---topographic surveys for landscape and development planning; subdivision services layout, commercial buildings layout---involving everything from golf courses and ski lifts to hotel complexes and health spas. We are still fairly busy, but things have slowed down somewhat over the past couple of months.The first sign of an economic downturn is in the housing industry. Three houses in my immediate neighbourhood have been up for sale for weeks. One of them just sold. Two years ago if you put a for sale sign on a house in this neighbourhood it would be sold in two days. I heard that there were 1000 houses for sale here in my hometown of Barrie as recently as two months ago. That number is supposedly down to 700 now. This is unprecedented, but strongly indicative of a housing market that has been over-supplied and over-priced. The price of fuel has had a major bearing on the housing market, at least in this area. The daily commute to Toronto is no longer attractive; not that I thought that it ever was! In fact, I have heard of people selling their homes here and moving back in closer proximity to their Toronto employment.
The second sign of economic downturn is in the automotive industry. Witness the latest furor in Oshawa. The SUV and light truck industries are going in the tank. Many people bought trucks for convenience, personal transport or prestige purposes. These vehicles suck up a lot of fuel. High fuel prices resulted in a significant drop in truck sales leading to an oversupply. General Motors saw the light and elected to close its truck operation in Oshawa. The wailing of unions and meddling of politicians have held, temporarily at least, the axe at bay. I expect this is costing us all something in the way of an income tax bite. Then again, if free market forces and the law of supply and demand ran unencumbered throughout this country Bombardier would have ceased to exist a long while ago.
Another negative force on the economy is something that you have seen me belabour in this column for some time now---bloated, expensive, inefficient public service administrations and their tendency to ensure their stature through dogmatic over-regulation. Now, I am all for making sure things are done right and in the right places. But tardy, often misguided or inexperienced action on the regulatory front slows the economy in the best of times. When times get bad the impacts are multiplied. Unfortunately, economic downturns hit private enterprise and the average wage earner the hardest. Those on municipal or provincial payrolls continue to draw their high wages with little fear of job loss, especially if they are unionized.
Those of us that have been around for a couple of decades have seen this all before. Economic booms and economic busts, though bust is probably an exaggeration. Slowdown is the more operative word. I suppose it brings everything back to a reality or balance, a cleansing if you like. Runaway greed and corruption are checked somewhat, though these are usually reined in for only a short time. A few people, usually too few, have to get off their gravy train and work in the land of ěreality checkî (reality cheque?) for a while. The greater number of us, me included, keep slugging away, doing our best to hold the personal and family status quo. I think that that is the way it should be; only I would like a lot more of the population to join us.
I was born on the Bruce Peninsula on July 20, 1951 and raised on a farm just south of the village of Lionís Head, which is located about halfway up the peninsula on the Georgian Bay shoreline. I graduated from Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology in Barrie in 1973 as a Resources Engineering Technologist. I was hired by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) in April of 1975 as the first DUC employee in Ontario. Throughout almost 29 years I was involved with the implementation of more than 500 wetland projects and project complexes in southwestern and south central Ontario. Some of these habitat projects included important waterfowl and migratory bird habitat along the eastern shoreline of Lake St. Clair. Just three weeks short of completing 29 years with DUC, I accepted an early retirement opportunity effective March 31, 2004.
