Incentives to relocalize

Recently there has been a growing awareness of the benefits of relocalization. The OED, for example, inducted the word Locavore into its austere pages. When you think about it, this makes perfect sense. We are all more or less egocentric. Part of our identity is tied up with the geographic space we inhabit. We both define, and are defined by our environment. So it stands to reason that we would be more invested locally than in some other place. Take jobs for example.

People who may not be inclined to think about local diet, or community development, are often very concerned with job protection. Where I live in Saint John, New Brunswick, people know what its like to lose employment to the global economy. Shipping, fishing, and forestry were all important employment industries at one time in the province. Now they are each in various stages of decay. This past summer over 1,000 workers in the forestry industry lost jobs because the market was no longer competitive. Industry isn’t so fickle that it pulls out one day if the canadian dollar gets too strong. But, history has proven, industry does pull out. What is left for the men and women who have done no other job besides, and who find themselves near to retirement with nothing to do. They move. The boom in Western Canada is drawing many Maritimers away. I may be one of the only people in the country to have moved in the opposite direction.

So I got to thinking: how can local economies be stabilized? Diversity is a good way. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, as the saying goes. If we could strengthen local economies by encouraging home grown business ventures to start up, then in time people would not have to flee their community to find work. I suggest using incentives, perhaps like tax incentives, to get people to shop locally. To counter the unfair advantage that huge box stores have over mom and pop operations, government should offer tax credits (or something like that) to people who can show that they purchased goods from local producers. This discourages cross border pillaging (which is a problem for many Canadian cities close to the 49th), and in time will create healthy, enduring communities.