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Transcript of Resource Frontier Aging: Trends and questions from a mature industrial town in northern BC Greg...
Resource Frontier Aging: Trends and questions from a mature
industrial town in northern BC
Greg Halseth, Neil HanlonRachael Clasby and Virginia Pow
Resource Frontier Aging
Introduction
Resource Towns
- post WW II
- change pressures
Mackenzie, BC
- population change
Policy Questions
Discussion
Resource Towns: Post - WW II period
• Change from transient work camps to permanent towns
• Two tensions transformed planning:
- Liveable environment for workers
- Keeping company costs down• Canadian model is Kitimat, BC
- created in the 1950s for ALCAN’s new smelter
- designed by Clarence Stein famous for greenbelt suburbs such as
“Radburn”, NJ
Stein’s “Vision” for Kitimat
“The purpose of Kitimat is the industrial success of the plant. That success will depend on the degree that workers are content, that they like living in Kitimat. Unless the town can attract and hold industrial workers, there will be continuous turnover and difficulty … The workers must find Kitimat more than temporarily acceptable. It must become the place they … are going to make their own”.
Stein (1952, 3)
Kitimat Quality of Life Principles
1) to build a diverse economy
2) to provide a wide range of housing options
3) to use neighbourhood design ideas to create a functional community
4) services for town of young families
Change Pressures I: Maturing Industrial Towns
• Uncertainty
- failure to move beyond staples production• susceptible to boom-bust
• Jobs
- end of new job growth• limited new in-migration
- workforce settles into demarcated jobs• youth out-migration
• Aging
- under-used services for youth
- stress of unmet service needs
Change Pressures II: Restructuring
• Economic- global competition
• downward pressure on costs- corporate sector concentrating
• labour shedding technologies- job reductions through capital substitutions
• job losses via seniority lists
• Social/Political- public sector retrenchment
•service reductions/off loading to voluntary sector
Implications of these changes for community?
• Partnership with District of Mackenzie and UNBC’s Community Development Institute
- scope and scale of needs for an older population
• Community-based research
- interviews, focus groups, survey• Services inventories
No net population growth
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Date Mackenzie Pr.George BC_______________________________________________________________________________________________
1976 5,340 59,929 2,392,790
1981 5,890 67,559 2,744,467
1986 5,545 67,621 2,883,367
1991 5,796 69,653 3,282,061
1996 5,995 74,150 3,724,500
2001 5,206 72,406 3,907,738_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Source: Statistics Canada
Population Fluctuations (% change)
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Mackenzie BC
______________________________________________
1981-1986 -5.9 5.1
1986-1991 4.6 13.8
1991-1996 3.5 13.5
1996-2001 -13.2 4.9
______________________________________________
Source: BC Stats, Statistics Canada
In-situ aging of the mature industrial workforce
Mackenzie - 1981
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0-4
10-14
20-24
30-34
40-44
50-54
60-64
75+
% of total pop
FemaleMale
In-situ aging of the mature industrial workforce
Mackenzie - 1991
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0-4
10-14
20-24
30-34
40-44
50-54
60-64
75+
% of total pop
FemaleMale
In-situ aging of the mature industrial workforce
Mackenzie - 2001
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0-4
10-14
20-24
30-34
40-44
50-54
60-64
75+
% of total pop
FemaleMale
Population Aging
Youth Dependency Ratio (as Percent)_________________________________________________________________
Mackenzie BC_________________________________________________________________
1971 62.5 44.5
1976 57.3 36.5
1981 49.9 31.7
1986 46.9 30.4
1991 44.3 30.1
1996 38.1 30.4
2001 33.7 26.5________________________________________________________________
Source: Statistics Canada
Growing % of Population 65 + Years
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Mackenzie Fraser Fort
George RD___________________________________________________________________________________________
1971 0.4 3.0
1976 0.6 3.2
1981 0.7 3.1
1986 0.8 4.0
1991 0.9 4.9
1996 1.2 5.7
2001 2.3 7.4__________________________________________________________________________________________
Source: Statistics Canada
Retirement ‘Boom’ Coming
Percent of Workforce - 45 Years and Older______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mackenzie Fraser Ft.George RD
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
1971 22.8 41.2
1976 18.4 38.1
1981 20.4 39.8
1986 26.5 30.6
1991 31.9 49.0
1996 38.4 57.3
2001 63.7 77.7______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Source: Statistics Canada
Community and Policy Implications
• Number of retirees:
- doubled between 1991 and 2001
- expected to double again between 2001 and 2011
- friends and family
community attachment; small town life
• Infrastructure• Facilities• Services• Community
Policy Implications: Infrastructure
• Roads
- crossing lights
- winter snow and ice clearing
• Sidewalks
- wheel chair access
- winter snow and ice clearing
• Parking lots
- winter snow and ice clearing
Policy Implications: Facilities
• Recreation Centre
- high quality, but geared to youth• Schools
- closures leave unused community assets
- learning opportunity for aging population
• Seniors’ Housing
- town of detached single family houses
- no seniors’ housing• flexibility as people age
Policy Implications: Services
• Health
- higher use levels among elderly
- role for technology to equip small clinics
• Wellness
- outreach services to assist people to stay in own homes longer
- meals, house cleaning, yard work
• Shopping
- access and product range
Policy Implications: Community
• Time
- retirement ‘bubble’ yet to come
- most new retirees will be fit, active, well• Civil Society
- voluntary sector can play a key role
- need support• access to local gov’t space & services• meals, house cleaning, yard work
Community Development Institute (CDI)
3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, Canada V2N 4Z9
http://www.unbc.ca/cdi
Dr. Greg Halseth, Acting Director Phone: (250) 960-5826Fax: (250) 960-6533Email: [email protected]