Transcript Resource frontier aging - University of Northern British

Resource Frontier Aging:
Trends and questions from a mature
industrial town in northern BC
Greg Halseth, Neil Hanlon
Rachael 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
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
5,340
5,890
5,545
5,796
5,995
5,206
59,929
67,559
67,621
69,653
74,150
72,406
2,392,790
2,744,467
2,883,367
3,282,061
3,724,500
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
75+
Male
60-64
Female
50-54
40-44
30-34
20-24
10-14
0-4
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
% of total pop
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
In-situ aging of the mature industrial
workforce
Mackenzie - 1991
75+
Male
60-64
Female
50-54
40-44
30-34
20-24
10-14
0-4
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
% of total pop
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
In-situ aging of the mature industrial
workforce
Mackenzie - 2001
75+
Male
60-64
Female
50-54
40-44
30-34
20-24
10-14
0-4
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
% of total pop
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Population Aging
Youth Dependency Ratio (as Percent)
_________________________________________________________________
Mackenzie
BC
_________________________________________________________________
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
62.5
57.3
49.9
46.9
44.3
38.1
33.7
44.5
36.5
31.7
30.4
30.1
30.4
26.5
________________________________________________________________
Source: Statistics Canada
Growing % of Population 65 + Years
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Mackenzie
Fraser Fort
George RD
___________________________________________________________________________________________
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
0.4
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.2
2.3
3.0
3.2
3.1
4.0
4.9
5.7
7.4
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Source: Statistics Canada
Retirement ‘Boom’ Coming
Percent of Workforce - 45 Years and Older
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mackenzie
Fraser Ft.George RD
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
22.8
18.4
20.4
26.5
31.9
38.4
63.7
41.2
38.1
39.8
30.6
49.0
57.3
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) 960-5826
Fax:
(250) 960-6533
Email: [email protected]