Mayor Jim Parsons: Facing challenges, opportunities in Atlantic Canada
Corner Brook Mayor Jim Parsons knows his community, like many others in Atlantic Canada, face a myriad of challenges. Demographic shifts, labour shortages, and ageing infrastructure are all issues for communities across Newfoundland and Labrador.
Facing those challenges, and embracing the accompanying opportunities, were the topics of conversation when Parsons sat down with Municipal World CEO Susan Gardner at the 2019 Federation of Canadian Municipalities Conference in Quebec City.
Corner Brook’s Ageing Population and Deteriorating Infrastructure
Today, a third of Corner Brook’s population is age 60 or higher. This poses numerous challenges, such as escalating labour shortage, particularly in the retail and service sectors. Together, an ageing populating and deteriorating infrastructure is something Parsons said is always on council’s collective mind.
“Our city is about 60 years old. The infrastructure is of older than that of course – the town is amalgamated. We have things from state-of-the-art, brand new to 70, 80 years old. It’s like playing Wack-A-Mole sometimes,” he said. “We have a very professional staff that does a great job at prioritizing, but there is never enough infrastructure money. We are very diligent in taking advantage of new federal, provincial programs, but it is very challenging.”
Embracing Community Opportunities
While the challenges may seem daunting, Parsons explains in the video how Corner Brook is also looking to pursue a number of ongoing opportunities.
Corner Brook is fortunate, Parsons said, to have a core business tenant in the community, the Corner Brook Pulp & Paper Mill. A part of Corner Brook “from the very beginning,” the mill has undergone $16 million in upgrades in recent years – about $11 million of that coming from a federal grant and some $5 million from the owner, Kruger Inc.
Being home to a campus of the Memorial University of Newfoundland is another advantage for Corner Brook. About 10 percent of the city’s population is made up of students, so Parsons said the community takes advantage of the accompanying innovation and research aspects that come from that institution, alongside the core manufacturing presence.
“The good news is that we are getting matches made up; we’re seeing them work together – research and development,” Parsons said. “We get the old and the new together, combine those things with our beautiful scenery and tourism, other industries in Newfoundland that are steady and you can count on. We think that the future is pretty bright.” MW
✯ Municipal World Insider and Executive Members: You might also be interested in Ken Coates’s article: There’s a story to be told … Remembering and marketing what makes small-town life attractive. Note that you can now access the complete collection of past articles (and more) from your membership dashboard.
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