Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - What happens when the mines close?

According to David Leadbeater, a professor of economics at Laurentian University in Ontario, the outlook isn't good.

David Leadbeater

"(With) non-renewable resources there's a beginning and there's an end," Leadbeater said during his talk last Thursday at Northern United Place, hosted by Alternative North.

By studying census data for communities where mines have closed, such as Elliott Lake, Ont., Leadbeater found that communities that buy into "the glitter and glamour" of mines suffer economic and social consequences when the mines close. Most communities lost 6.5 per cent of their population over a five-year census period.

"This is not a question of rural depopulation, he said. "These are highly productive mining communities."

A massive decline in employment leads to housing problems and family breakdowns, said Leadbeater.

Elliott Lake, with a population of 13,000, has a 50 per cent unemployment rate.

"In Elliott Lake the sum of all incomes plummeted by nearly 50 per cent after the mines closed," said Leadbeater.

His study also found that though incomes dropped, the cost of living in the town stayed the same.

"The road is downward and it's downward drastically," he said.

Leadbeater said that after mine layoffs those still working take on more hours and become wealthier, widening the income gap between the working and the unemployed.

"One part of the population carries the burden of most of the loss," he said.

Leadbeater said that the "trickle-down theory" of the economic benefits mines provide to the entire community isn't accurate.

"That's bad economics, it doesn't work that way," he said. "The gap actually widens and when the crash happens, the gap widens even more."

And Leadbeater said that with increased productivity, mines are in operation for shorter amounts of time. He said that mines now have life expectancies of eight to 17 years.

"It's like moving a mountain in a week," he said.

Around 35 people attended the lecture.

Shelagh Montgomery with Alternatives North said that the talk wasn't mean to be anti-non-renewable resource development, but that the group wanted to educate people about what happens when mines close.