EDITORIAL & OPINION — Building a road to nowhere — The Devco disaster

It was inevitable and overdue, yet it is impossible not to sympathize with the 1,000 coal miners who will lose their jobs when the Canadian government finally pulls the plug on Cape Breton Development Corporation (Devco) and its money-losing coal mines in Nova Scotia. Ottawa’s plans to close one of the two remaining mines by the year 2000 and privatize the other have been met with anger, grief and fear — reactions which underscore the folly of politically driven make-work schemes, and the difficulty of breaking the cycle of dependency they create.

Three decades ago, more than 13,000 workers toiled in the Cape Breton mines. Today, Devco has only one customer for its overpriced coal — a provincial power corporation. Even so, many of the remaining 1,670 miners came to believe the mines would always be there, along with Ottawa’s largesse, if for no other reason than to alleviate the high unemployment that plagues Cape Breton and many other parts of eastern Canada.

Unfortunately for the miners, times have changed dramatically since 1967, when the government took control of the coal project and made it a public enterprise. Back then, the notion that politicians could and should create jobs and stimulate the economies of depressed regions was in full bloom. Today, governments of every stripe have learned that such efforts are costly and, more often than not, futile, and that the economy is best left to the private sector.

Keeping Devco alive in an increasingly competitive market was no easy task. For more than three decades, Ottawa invested $1.6 billion of taxpayers’ money and undertook numerous initiatives to make its mines economic. But this goal was never met, and, with the productivity of the mines still well below industry standards, it became obvious that they were too weak, too old and too inefficient to survive in the real world.

Given Devco’s dismal performance, the federal government had no choice but to do what it did. To its credit, Ottawa is trying to make the transition as painless as possible, with generous severance packages and retraining programs worth an estimated $111 million. Even so, many of the miners feel betrayed. They are venting their frustration on any politician in sight, with Premier Russell McLellan taking most of the abuse for a matter over which he had little or no control. All mines have a finite life, and these ones have been on life support for decades.

The miners and other Cape Bretoners dependent on the mines are worried about their future. This is understandable, given that the local unemployment rate is a staggering 19% and many of the previous attempts to diversify the economy have been expensive failures. While it is sad to see coal mining and a way of life come to a torturous end in Cape Breton, the time has come for the local people to assume control of their lives. Federal politicians intend to work with the province and local communities to set the agenda for how $68 million in economic development funds should be spent.

Union leaders and many of the miners believe that these funds do not come close to compensating for the massive damage that will be caused by the closure and privatization. But does throwing more government money at problems really ever solve them? Looking at Devco and the false sense of economic security it created for thousands of workers and their families, that question is one most Canadians will probably answer in the negative. There are solutions, but Cape Bretoners, not Ottawa, will have to find them and put them into practice.