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

Kitimat Neighbourhoods

Kitimat’s Shopping and Service Centre

New Resource Towns (Since 1950s)

Mackenzie Neighbourhoods

Mackenzie “Downtown Core”

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

Mackenzie, BC

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: halseth@unbc.ca