Sudden (economic) Impact

On the September 17, 2009 Council agenda, Deputy Dog Hill makes the following statement in a letter to a ratepayer:

“In the latest “public communication” (from Highlands) that accompanied the video, it was stated that there would be about 450-470 jobs in total created. While many people may not like this comment, that is a significant number of jobs for our community and with the job losses that have occurred could be a welcome “lift” for many families.”

Did the Deputy Mayor take the initiative to question any of the highly paid guru’s at Highlands open house in July on these “local jobs”? I and others did and we found that they are not so much “local jobs” as “localish” jobs, if you count a bean counter in Boston as local.

These 450-470 jobs, according to Highlands staff, include the jobs:

processing the payroll out of Boston
manufacturing of the steel for the railroad
construction of the railroad
experts and consultants hired by Highlands throughout the application process
Lowndes and Daniher’s jobs are included in that count
overseas in construction where the aggregate will be used
manufacturing/repairing the massive pumps needed to keep the hole dry
the “rehabilitation” of the mine, which will not occur for many, many years if at all

I could go on, but I think everyone, except perhaps Council, gets the point. The only way there will be 450-470 local jobs from this mine is if they use pickaxes, shovels and pit ponies.

Think about it. Strada has extracted about 100 acres of gravel and has three (YES that is 3) FULL time “local” jobs. The rest are seasonal trucking jobs who’s drivers are mostly out of the city. I have never seen any of these individuals stop and purchase groceries or lumber at a local store in town on their way to OR from work nor do they contribute to the community, because well, they don’t live here.

Then there is the job loss. I would THINK that for every acre of prime agricultural land taken out of commission, jobs in the agricultural field are lost. Now I am not a math major, in fact basically I am only a Major Nuisance (and salute when you say that), but by my calculations, if Highlands is currently farming 7,000 acres and employs 70 people, that means it takes one employee to farm 100 acres in the Highlands hierarchy. When 2,400 acres of formerly prime agricultural land are mined, that would mean a loss of 24 full time agricultural jobs. Right?

So why would our elected officials, both local and County, gamble on our future and water for jobs that will be elsewhere on the planet and absolutely NO benefit to Melancthon or Dufferin County?

Just ....mining for the truth.....