From a distance, a map of Nova Scotia’s unemployment rates seems unassuming. Large swaths of light blue seem to cover most of the province, representing up to 10% unemployment, which is in line with our official 8.5% provincial average.

Zoom in closer and you’ll find the province is riddled with freckles of dark blue, representing small communities with up to 40% unemployment. Start reading their names and you’ll see they’re places like Gold River, Indian Brook, Whycocomagh, Chapel Island —known in Mi’kmaq as Potlotek—  and more.

Across the province, unemployment rates on First Nations reserves are much higher than the communities that surround them.

Unemployment Rates in Nova Scotia

This map was created using data collected from the 2011 National Household Survey.  I recommend you try zooming in and clicking on the dark blue sections.

The Membertou First Nations community in Cape Breton is a hub for First Nations culture, training and employment. Between 1995 and 2010, their annual operating budget jumped from $4 million to $112 million.  They completely re-organized and as a result, their unemployment rate dropped dramatically.

Eileen Paul, Manager of the Membertou Entrepreneur Centre says, “the chief and council are big supporters of entrepreneurship.”

The Membertou Entrepreneur Centre was founded in 2005. It helps members on the reserve start their own businesses, find rental space, put together business plans and hire other members from the reserve.

“We do it so we can employ our own people. Chief Terry’s vision is that we become self-sufficient,” says Paul.

Membertou is also at an advantage when it comes to location. It’s only 3 kilometres from Membertou to the heart of Sydney, Cape Breton’s population centre of about 31,000.

On the other side of the province, distance is a much bigger obstacle.

Amanda Francis is the Native Employment Officer for Glooscap First Nation near Hantsport.

“One of the main barriers for us is we’re really rural,” she says, “There’s no public transportation that even comes to the town outside our community.”

Glooscap — Pesikitk’ in Mi’kmaq — is a reserve of just under 400 people. The next closest population centre is Hantsport, a small town of about 1,200 people, 6.4km away.

As a Native Employment Officer, Francis does career counselling, finds funding for employment programs and promotes employment opportunities to members on the reserve.

“Basically everyone on the reserve is my client in some form or another,” says Francis.

The lack of local employment training and opportunities is one problem she sees over and over again.

“Members don’t want to leave. Training is usually held in Membertou, Cape Breton and might be 16 weeks long. What if you have a family? How do you arrange childcare for 16 weeks? You can’t. We have no childcare service here. Then they might get a job after, but have to go to New Brunswick for it,” says Francis.

Distance from Glooscap to Membertou

Imagine trying to figure out how to make this four and a half hour drive without a car. For many members of the Glooscap First Nation, traveling to Membertou is the only way to receive employment training.

Just drive from Glooscap to Hantsport can be tricky. “Hantsport is maybe a 6 minute drive, but it’s a long walk. The last time I took a taxi home it was about $28. So imagine spending $50 for a round trip, just to get groceries.”

The same difficulty applies when trying to get from Glooscap all the way to Membertou for training, “and then you’d also have to find somewhere to stay for 16 weeks,” says Francis.

Right now one of her priorities is finding funding to build and staff a daycare centre, “We had this really crazy baby boom. There used to be only 4 or 5 children running around the reserve. Now there’s about 20,” she says.

Recently they had a rare employment course on construction safety come right to their community. It was done in conjunction with Dexter construction and a couple members completed the course and got hired right away, but Francis sees a gender divide in who is able to complete these employment training courses.

“Starting out, it was about fifty-fifty men and women who came out for the construction safety course. Unfortunately, none of the women completed the training because they had to take care of their children, or take them to a doctor’s appointment, etcetera.”

“A lot of people don’t have anything they can put on their resume, so people won’t give them a chance.”

Balancing motherhood and work is something she’s familiar with. She has three girls between the ages of three and 16.

For years she worked for Michelin Tires in Waterville, until she got pregnant with her third child and decided,  “I didn’t want to raise any more children while doing shift work.”

She moved back to the reserve where she spent her teens and moved in with her grandfather.

“It’s great,” she says, “If one of [the girls] says she wants to paint her room, he says, ‘what colour? I’ll get it.’”

Another initiative she’s looking forward to is the building a truck stop and café along the highway.

“That’s going to create a lots of jobs. It’s going to be great because a lot of people don’t have anything they can put on their resume, so people won’t give them a chance.”

She hopes the building of the truck stop means more people on the reserve will have a shot at that chance.

Ashley Sambrook says that women need to be offered support to gain the confidence to leadPhoto of Ashley Sambrook (by Sandrinette Maniania)

In May of 2015, Ashley Sambrook was sitting at Starbucks with her girlfriends, when the idea to start the Rowe school of Women in Business Association (WIBA) emerged. The goal was to confront the issue of Dalhousie University lacking a support group for women studying Business, which other universities had already implemented.

Sambrook represents the growing number of women majoring in Business, Management, and Public Administration at the University level. Data from Census Canada shows that in 2011 there were twice as many females as males studying business education in Halifax.

This is a 2011 Census map showing the number of women studying business education in Nova Scotia

The number of women pursuing careers in business has increased over the years, as has the number of women assuming senior positions in the global community.

In an era where Hilary Clinton is running for president of the United States of America, and the COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, is a woman, there seems to be less limitations as to what is achievable in terms of success.

At only 21 years of age, Ashley Sambrook holds the position of president of the Commerce society at Dalhousie University. She will be going into her last year of Commerce in the fall, and plans on making a difference before she graduates.

Photo by Sandrinette Maniania

Sambrook says, “I think you need to have enough female players and enough advocates and then you’re gonna see that, change will happen.”

She believes that ever so often females are underestimated, but if given the self-assurance and a safe haven they can impact society.

Mary Kilfoil, professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and founder of the lean initiative at Dalhousie, says she’s noticed a change in the number of female entrepreneurs over the years. The field was once dominated by men, but with the growth in women entrepreneurs acting as role models and mentors, females are becoming more and more comfortable taking on executive positions.

Kilfoil explains that a few years back, she conducted a study in the Atlantic part of Canada that verified that women entrepreneurs in the advanced technology sector were less likely to have mentors, and also faced challenges networking in comparison to their male counterparts.  As a result, these factors impeded women’s’ ability to prosper within the business setting.

Kilfoil doesn’t find it surprising that the women are doubling in numbers in Halifax, as she sees that there are more females in leadership roles helping support and advise women in business.

Sambrook says that being mentored has aided her in advancing and improving her ways of networking, which she believes is vital to growth within any organization.  She states that having the right adviser can help a woman realize her potential.  More importantly, she looks to her mother as a source of inspiration as she has watched her working sweat for years, and admires her passion and perseverance as a woman.

Kilfoil emphasizes the importance of having women figures leading within communities.  She still feels that it is harder for women to network as there is still that ‘innuendo’ when a woman calls up a man to suggest meeting up for a coffee to talk business.  She says “believe it or not, there’s still that stigma.”

Director of corporate Residency for the MBA Program at Dalhousie, Dan Shaw claims that in his 12 years of experience, the top students in his class have mostly been women.  He says, “boys take longer to actualize their potential, women are more organized in their study habits, and usually have better outcomes.”

Shawn says that he sees more women studying business at the undergraduate level.  He says that research analysis demonstrates that the number of women determine the Return of Investment (ROI) of a company.  In his observation, organizations with women working at senior positions are doing well.  He says, “it always works when an environment is more collaborative and transparent.”

The Centre for Women’s Business Research conducted a study in 2009, on the economic impact of Women- owned businesses in the United States, and concluded that more jobs were being created to sustain development.

Sambrook looks forward to a future where females can continue to empower one another, in the hopes that men can also be included as part of the conversation.

Unemployment is at a five year low in Truro, NS.

The town’s Chief Administrative Officer, Mike Dolter says the area has seen a lot of change over the years. He says it came in stages.

“Rather than any one single major change there has been a lot of incremental changes as business are doing well and continue to expand,” says Dolter.

Statistic Canada’s Labour force survey estimates that unemployment has fallen by 28 per cent over five years. The numbers are calculated based on 2011 Census boundaries.

The survey estimates that unemployment has dropped in New Glasgow (15 per cent) and Cape Breton (three per cent) over the five-year period between 2011 and 2015.

2011 National Household Survey

Truro’s unemployment rate is now below the provincial rate.

According to the 2011 National Household Survey, that wasn’t always the case. The national survey place Truro’s unemployment rate at almost 13 per cent, while Statistics Canada recorded the provincial rate at 9.6 per cent.

Nova Scotia’s Unemployment Rate

Source: 2011 National Household Survey

Growth

“We’ve seen an expansion of our industrial park, and we’ve seen a number of business locate there,” says Dolter.

He says there’s also been a number of new businesses move within the town area itself, particularly in Robie St., an area of town that has “developed significantly.”

“Some of this is in the retail sector, but we’ve also seen some higher level technical  positions open up as well.”

“Our major employers have been hiring lately as well, within the last couple of years. So, again, they’ve been expanding,” says Dolter.

He points to Scotsburn as an example, and says the operation is doing “well.”

Dolter says the company brought jobs to Truro, after it moved its headquarters to the area in 2014.

Growth isn’t common in rural and small town Nova Scotia, even though over 40 per cent of the province’s population lives there.

Rural Report

According to the 2011 National Household Survey, 43 per cent of Nova Scotia’s population lives in a rural area.

The 2015 State of Rural Canada Report mapped the population change in the province over the four year period. The map shows that Halifax and Hants are the only two counties in Nova Scotia that had a population growth.

The report found that the further away an area was from the ‘capital region,’ the ‘greater the population loss’ in the province between 2010 and 2014.

“Ongoing Effort” in Truro

Dolter says the challenge is real, but location has helped Truro.

“Being close to Halifax, we’ve seen that some of our businesses are doing business in Halifax, but staying in Truro to conduct that, which has certainly been an advantage,” says Dolter.

He says planning is “an ongoing effort” to make sure the area’s “ready for business and that we’ve set the right conditions for business to come into the town and employ people.”

“We have a continued plan to work with the county and chamber of commerce and looking at ways to improve,” he says.

Dolter says part of the plan has been hiring economic development staff to “attract” and “welcome business” to the region.

“Being prepared, we’ve tried to ensure that the land is ready for business and they are ready to move in,” he says.

Getting people to favour bicycles for their daily commute remains an uphill struggle for city hall. A report released last year followed up on 2011 census data and found Halifax’s percentage of bicyclist commuters to be three percent. A two-percent growth in that period.   

“We’re a highly auto-dependent community compared to other Canadian cities,” says Professor Ahsan Habib of DalTRAC, the research group behind the study. He acknowledges the city’s bicycle numbers are modest. “There are some positive indicators. But it’s a very small portion of the modal split composition. We need to really look at it.”

To compare, on a provincial level, 76 percent commuted by car.  

Protect to better serve

The Active Transportation Priorities Plan was launched in 2014 and sketches the municipality’s goals for increasing bicycle riders in the city until 2019.

“To really make an impact, we need to attract those people who are not comfortable biking on roads,” says David MacIsaac, Active Transportation Supervisor with the municipality. “Everything we hear from the public suggests that we need comfortable, safe-feeling and sometimes protected bicycling facilities that need to be connected.”

However, the plan only calls for one protected bike lane before 2019. A goal it has already met with the bike lane on Rainnie Drive.

“We definitely feel there needs to be more done with that,” says Kelsey Lane of Halifax Cycling Coalition. “Sixty percent of people who are interested in riding a bicycle are hesitant, because they’re a little bit fearful. They will get on a bike if they have those protected bike lanes, but not otherwise.”

She feels the municipality should get into gear.

“I hear a lot from the city that we need to have slow progress and we need to do it step by step, but the reality is that there are tons of ways to actually put in those protected bike lane projects right now, today,” she says.

MacIsaac says the city is moving forward and looking at other possible sites for protected lanes. They’re looking at Hollis Street, University Avenue, as well as South Park Street and Brunswick Street.

For the Halifax Cycling Coalition, it’s essential a network be formed.

“These routes that they’re protecting need to be connected as well. They need be on the corridors people will want to use,” says Lane.

The Coalition is satisfied with the plan overall – now there just needs to be done something about it.  

“There’s been some good initiative, but we need to go further. There’s definitely much, much more that we can do,” says Lane. “It is really a pretty good plan, it’s pretty comprehensive, and there’s a lot of work put into it. So now let’s not wait so long that we have to make a new one.”

Provincial cutbacks

At a provincial level, reduced funding has meant cutbacks for Active Transportation work groups.

“One of the positions that was cut was our Active Transportation policy-specific position,” says Julian West of the Ecology Action Centre. Previously five staffers strong, the transportation department now consists only of West.

West says it has meant a lot of programs have ceased, like helping schools develop Active Transportation plans to ensure children may safely ride to school, as well as consulting municipalities on Active Transportation strategies.

One initiative that remains underway, says West, is the Halifax Regional School Board adopting an Active Transportation Charter, to be sent out in September.

“It’s not exactly a policy, but a charter would at least be a set of guidelines that’ll provide schools something to aim for. It’s not an HRM-driven initiative, but it’s definitely something positive happening in the HRM,” says West.

A room of one’s own? Not for many Nova Scotians.

According to the 2011 National Household Survey, citizens are outnumbering bedrooms in the province.

The survey classified nearly 14,000 Nova Scotian households as unsuitable based on the number of people compared to the number of bedrooms.

Health Effects

A study from the Canadian Paediatric Society looked at the health effects of living in crowded quarters.

“Crowded housing is associated with a wider and faster spread of communicable diseases, such as lower respiratory tract infections and gastroenteritis. Children and youth living in crowded housing conditions were also found to experience more psychological distress and helplessness, and to not perform as well in school,” the study states.

The study also looked at the effect high housing costs have on homes.

“High housing cost is one of the most frequently cited causes of hunger. Unaffordable housing is linked to food insecurity and inadequate childhood nutrition,” according to the society’s study.

High housing costs are a problem for Nova Scotians, according to Jim Graham, program coordinator of the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.

‘Incomes just can’t keep pace’

Graham says people in the province are struggling to keep up with housing costs.

“The pressure created on your total income for housing is huge because of low wages, high taxes and high utilities,” Graham says.

According to the housing association, 40 000 households in Halifax spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing costs.

Graham says landlords aren’t to blame for the high cost to keep a roof over Nova Scotians’ heads.

“There hasn’t been a government investment in new affordable housing stocks since 1991,” says Graham.

Graham says this has created a gap between housing costs and income.

“You’ve got 25 years of that gap growing and growing and growing,” Graham says. “Incomes just can’t keep pace.”

Graham says this is especially hard on those with the lowest incomes.

“They are at the point now where they can’t afford market rent,” Graham says. “It’s got nothing to do with whether market rent is reasonable or unreasonable. Its got to do with the fact their incomes are stagnate.”

Graham says senior citizens, whose government supplements are not keeping up with inflation, fall into the low income category.

“It’s not that landlords are charging too much,” Graham says. “It’s the fact that the bottom incomes just can’t keep pace.”

‘What’s been going on for the last 25 years is not working’

Graham says the country needs to make changes to help Canadians afford a place to live.

“Clearly what’s been going on for the last 25 years is not working,” Graham says.

Graham says the province would need to match new funding from the Liberal Government to see changes at home, but says Nova Scotia is in need of a long term plan.

“You’re not going to solve the problem of 40,000 households with one year’s program,” says Graham.

The government has increased funding for the affordable housing program in the new budget but the housing association believes a sustained effort is needed to fix the country’s housing problems.

“In the great scheme of life it’s not a lot. But it’s something,” Graham says. “There needs to be a national housing strategy which this government has promised to build. So there is hope.”

French language is dying in some First Nations communities because schools refuse to teach it.

According to Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey results, three native reserves in the Nova Scotian counties of Inverness, Richmond and Victoria had the lowest number of residents who speak English and French, Canada’s official languages. The data shows that the communities of Whycocomagh, Wagmatcook and Chapel Island have only five people each who know both languages.

Joe Marshall, the Executive Director of the Union of Nova Scotia Indians, said English is the most spoken language on these reserves, but that is causing concern for the community.

“A lot of them [students] want to learn to speak English because they feel it’s the language that will improve their education and help them find jobs,” he said. “And in some cases, they refuse to learn their own language, which is Mi’kmaw.”

Eleanor Bernard is the Executive Director of Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey, a Mi’kmaw education resource centre, in Sydney. She said French isn’t a priority for students on the reserves.

“Why would we want to learn French?” Bernard said. “Our Mi’kmaw language is dying, so we have a very huge concern of that and we’re trying to retain what we have and revive it.”

Since the arrival of Europeans and other settlers in 1534 and the establishment of residential schools in the 1880s, First Nations languages have been at a rapid decline. Children at residential schools were forbidden from speaking First Nations languages and those who disobeyed faced physical and emotional punishment.

Nova Scotia has Canada’s largest population of Mi’kmaw people at 60 per cent, with the second largest population in B.C. at 28 per cent. However, a 2014 report by the First Peoples’ Heritage, Language and Culture Council revealed that only four per cent of the First Nations population in B.C. could fluently speak the language. 59 per cent of these fluent speakers are 65 years old or older.

According to the Mi’kmaq Education Act, originally drafted in 1988, a reserve has the power to create laws and programs in relation to the primary, elementary and secondary education in its community. However, the educational programs must be comparable to other schools in Canada so that students can transfer to different institutions without difficulty.

Bernard said Mi’kmaw language immersion programs have been introduced to schools in Mi’kmaw communities as well as provincial schools to help revive the language. She stated that French would never be an option at the schools and even if it was, they refuse to teach students the language.

“If a student(s) [are] adamant about taking French, they can do it through the provincial program or through virtual schools,” Bernard explained further. “But there hasn’t been anyone who has been concerned about it. No one has come forward and said they want to take French.”

The Chief Administrative Officer for Digby, Nova Scotia Tom Ossinger has seen his home town through it all.

From its heyday as a major producer of scallops to the lull in the fishing industry during the late 2000s to now, in what he hopes is the start of a new beginning for Digby.

“Things are starting to recover,” he said. “I think there are going to be more jobs for the fishing industry.”

As one of the major counties in the Annapolis Basin, Digby, Nova Scotia has a median income of $19,814, according to the 2011 national household survey.

The national median total income is $28,018.

During the time of the survey, Ossinger said, the economic force of the town ground to a halt after two fishing plants closed down.

Ossinger said that he saw a lot of people taking advantage of food banks and thrift stores.

Residents, including Corinne Warner, kept their heads up and even began to look forward to afternoons spent at Frenchy’s thrift store.

“I shop there because it’s a fun place to go,” she said. “So if anyone in the area tells you they shop there, it is not because they are poor.”

The rest of the Annapolis Basin fares better than Digby in terms of median total income. Neighbouring Clare, for example, has a median total income of $23,623 while Yarmouth right below it is at $21,421.

This map illustrates the median total income of the different subdivisions in Nova Scotia. The white areas of the map are either very low median total incomes or areas in which there was a gap in the data. The majority of Nova Scotian subdivisions are in the third tier of $20,047 to $26,730. Digby is in the second tier and has the lowest median total income in the Annapolis Basin. Zoom in to see Digby in the map. 

Even if there were hardships in Digby, nobody ever talked about it, Ossinger said.

“We’re just trying to do the best we can.”

Part of the reason for Digby’s low income is the amount of seniors that live in the area who rely on fixed incomes such as retirement funds and pension.

Digby’s elderly residents make up approximately 20 per cent of the town’s population, compared to the national percentage of 15 per cent, according to the 2011 national household survey.

Young people also leave Digby to pursue other opportunities outside the fishing industry and retail work.

In Digby, there are only 575 people aged 20 to 29. That’s a little less than half the population of residents in their 60s, which is 1190.

In order to help the poorest residents make ends meet, the town offers low-income rebates to people over 18 years old.

Around 2010-2011, Ossinger said council voted to increase the rebate from $225 to $250 in order to “relive the stress on property taxes” which used to swallow the $225 whole, leaving residents without money to pay for groceries.

As for the rest of the population, the chief administrative officer for Digby said he began to notice an alarming trend when it came to looking for work in the service industry.

“They’re very selective of the jobs out there,” he said. “They think the job is beneath them.”

Ossinger recounted one story he heard a little while ago about a single mother who would rather live on social assistance than work because most of her wages would go toward paying for babysitters while she was on the job.

The 2011 national household survey was conducted during a lull in the fishing industry in Digby, NS. As Tom Ossinger suggests, the high senior population of Digby is one of the factors of the low median total income for individuals. 

But things are different now. Things are starting to look up.

“You’re going to see that median income rise, there are a lot of people applying for work,” Ossinger said.

Two fishing plants, NeoFisheries and Nautical Seafoods, have announced funding into Digby’s scallop production facilities in February 2016.

Investment in scallop production has a ripple effect on other industries in the town, such as tourism and retail, given its importance to Digby’s local character. However, young people may still find it tough to stay in Digby.

“Friends of my children are having trouble finding a steady job,” Warner said. “But I know of many places that are hiring.”

Folks who live in Digby have seen their share of ups and downs, but the general attitude of the residents has unwavered since Warner arrived in the area 30 years ago from Ontario.

“The attitudes of the people I know are that you have to make your own success,” she said. “No one is responsible for that except yourself.”