Several weeks ago, while standing on an endless stretch of beach in the North Pacific, I watched our ocean lap methodically against the sea-battered timbers of a shipwreck.
That was where I met Haida Gwaii.
I learned on the islands that Haida Gwaii's economy is in the midst of a remarkable transition, and the rest of the province would be wise to pay attention to what's taking place there – it might be coming to a community near you very soon.
As far as major investment decisions go on the islands, to paraphrase one entrepreneur, nothing gets done without the Haida First Nation being on board.
Other key characteristics:
- 50% of the landmass of the islands is protected from development, an area that is more than 1,200 times the size of Stanley Park;
- there are no franchises on Haida Gwaii, virtually everything is locally owned and named;
- cell service is intermittent at best; and
- daily flights and ferry services are often delayed due to fog and rolling storms.
And thus we return to that shipwreck – the Pesuta – a log barge wrecked in the strait and washed ashore in 1928.
In many ways, the bones of the Pesuta represent Haida Gwaii's economic transition – a resource economy once powered by forestry giants that crashed against the islands and beached itself in the collective memory of the people.
Although forestry remains a key driver of the local economy, the ancient forests that produced revenue for the islands are now marketed as tourist attractions.
The commercial fishing sector, once a major employer on the islands, is today sold in the form of world-class fishing lodges and vacations.
And even the Pesuta has become a tourist attraction.
On Haida Gwaii, the economic transition from the old to the new is meandering along somewhere in the middle, affecting the archipelago's tiny population.
Statistics reveal the population on the islands has steadily declined during the past 30 years, to approximately 4,400 people in 2011 from 5,600 in 1981.
The latest census data also shows the population is aging in place.
More than half of the people in the islands' three largest communities are over the age of 40.
The only communities where the majority of the population is under 40 are Haida communities.
This trend mirrors what's expected to happen in the medium term across B.C. as the baby boomer generation continues to age.
Meantime, First Nations communities are showing some of the country's fastest population growth rates.
Add to that the fact that they aren't large enough to replace the hole in the labour force left behind by the baby boomers and we have an interesting economic challenge on Haida Gwaii that will likely be mirrored in other B.C. communities.
At the same time that our population is aging, a broadened interpretation of economic development with a focus on conservation and sustainability is steadily pushing to detach the economy from the land base.
In many cases, B.C.'s First Nations communities are becoming the final authority on development decisions in their traditional territory.
Yet those same communities face income, education and human capital challenges that make it difficult for them to handle all of the economic development opportunities at once.
Last year, Simon Fraser University professor Sean Markey published a paper focused on Haida Gwaii economic development that highlighted a "place-based" approach to economic development, which places intrinsic value on "location, natural amenities, technological and communications infrastructure, population and labour force attributes, built landscapes, cultural heritage."
This type of economy is different from the post-war "space-based economy," he explained, where economic development in rural regions viewed landscapes purely in the context of natural resource wealth that could be extracted and exported.
But how does a region like Haida Gwaii embrace a place-based economy when its population is shrinking and its labour force is aging while local First Nations, who are increasingly in the economic development driver's seat, struggle to build the capacity to properly pursue investment and job growth strategies?
When you add in the transportation issues to and from the islands and the fact that many of communities are completely reliant on expensive diesel-powered electricity, the challenge only grows for Haida Gwaii.
But this archipelago is similar to much of rural B.C.
Without a massive wave of immigration, there's no reason to believe that the population base of our towns and cities will grow exponentially.
Therefore economic development in our region means building a diversified job sector that can serve the existing population and smooth the peaks and valleys traditionally associated with resource-based economies.
As I've written in this space many times before, the $70 billion in major projects proposed in northern B.C. is a generational opportunity – but that opportunity comes amid a social and cultural shift in what the population of this province accepts as positive economic development.
If we continue to detach our economy from the land base, many of the opportunities we have today will slip away, potentially placing the entire region in a situation similar to what's happening on Haida Gwaii.
Maybe that's not a bad thing.
A deeper look at the archipelago's meandering path through economic transition reveals a region that, in many ways, is in the vanguard of sustainable development.
Organizations such as HaiCo, the economic development arm of the Haida Nation, the Gwaii Trust Society, Coast Opportunity Funds, Misty Isles Economic Development Society, the Northern Development Initiative Trust and others are working to build partnerships and collaborate on new and innovative forms of economic development.
It's simply more pronounced on Haida Gwaii than elsewhere because of the islands' location, history, culture, demographics and infrastructure challenges.
In 2012, HaiCo paid $12.2 million to Western Forest Products for the largest tree farm licence on the islands.
HaiCo chairwoman Roslyn Kunin says forestry is still a major focus for the organization, but HaiCo has also bought a seafood processing company in Masset, five premium sports fishing lodges and the Haida House at Tllaal, a high-end resort and restaurant – talk about diversified.
The gradual transition of the resource economy into the hands of locals coupled with value-added "destination" programs is creating a premium brand for the islands that's more in line with Markey's place-based approach.
In some ways, this shift is not all that different from the story of the Pesuta – a log barge-turned shipwreck that has become a destination tourist attraction on East Beach.
Do the islands still face challenging demographics?
Yes, but those challenges are no different than what's in store for many northern B.C. communities in the years ahead as the demographics in our towns inevitably shift.
In many ways, Haida Gwaii has a head start.
The rest of B.C. would be wise to pay attention to this extraordinary archipelago – the people there could teach us a thing or two. •
