If you don't like ranting and opinion pieces then I suggest you read no further. I don't normally use my blog for this kind of thing but today I'm in a bit of a mood. Now I sit on a municipal council so I would, technically, be considered a politician. I don't like it however when political parties use the media and research papers to put spins on various issues. This mornings issue was the shrinking workforce in New Brunswick. A UNB professor penned a report that stated that the aging workforce in NB is likely to cause more hardship than the current deficit. SERIOUSLY??? It went on to say that the large number of retiring baby boomers will leave the province hurting. SERIOUSLY??? Further it stated that our poor immigrant retention levels will further hurt us. SERIOUSLY??? Lastly it stated that our youth out migration is costing us drastically. SERIOUSLY??? I wonder if the opposition critic or the reporter who wrote the piece read the report. If they did, then I apologize and my issue is then with the writer of the report.
For a number of years NBers have been stating there are no jobs and that, no doubt, has led to the youth out migration and the likely reason why immigrants don't stay here. You can not state though that our aging population is going to hurt us. As they retire then jobs become available and likely the youth will return and immigrants will have a reason to stay here. With the return of the youth and new ideas more businesses are likely to start up and with them new jobs.
Aging and the replacement of the aging is a life cycle that has been happening for many, many, many, generations. While I'm not an economist, I do believe that the cost of health care for the many seniors may be difficult, but many seniors when the retire may choose to do so elsewhere, and many more will likely die peacefully, and suddenly, costing us little. If the large number does create a problem then I think we owe it to them to insure they have their pension and not waste it on silly job creation and immigration programs that are in effective. To me, the report in the paper was simply someone looking for more funds to be allocated to his file so he could pay himself and his buddies a bigger salary so they could create more spin and develop more issues for the seniors.
Just for the readers who stuck through this one....I could be way off on this but had to say something. Thanks for reading.
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