Another Great
'Build It And They Will Come' Project
I realize that I am grossly under qualified to have been considered for the new Economic Development Council which has been put together to strategize the best course for Nanaimo's economic future. However, this is my blog so I put forward the following suggestion and observations which support my brain wave.
Over the past decade or so, the largest sustainable growth industry in Nanaimo has been Mining The Retirees. The way it works; you attract older people from the rest of Canada with promises of mild winters and lots of liquor stores and even our very own casino. All that is required is to liquidate their real estate holdings elsewhere and come to Nanaimo where you can buy a new condo and still have cash in your jeans.
Brilliant! They don't burden the local school system as their kids are long since educated nor do they put any other costly demands on the city. They don't take jobs away from anybody as they have good pensions and have invested wisely over the years.
My new idea meshes perfectly with the current strategy of 'building it and they will come'. We have this state of the art convention centre which attracts people from all over, who will be smitten with our fair city and will make immediate plans to sell out elsewhere and retire here. Adding to this overall stroke of genius is the idea of building a cruise ship terminal with the same end game strategy; attract well to do old people to visit here and they will not be able to resist our charms.
Now, for my coup de gras .... we build a Geriatric Theme Park complete with moving sidewalks, walker accessible water slides and many other delights that will prove irresistable! There will be Geritol on tap, right beside our mountain fresh water! Brilliant!!!
Nanaimo began it's journey as a mining town, and now seems well situated to carry on this fine tradition, instead of mining coal, we can now mine retirees!!
The growth industry of the future!
While admittedly a brilliant stroke :-), I sadly fear that this venture may soon backfire as severely as the conference centre as those private pensions shrink with the market and those public pensions are either inflated out of value or repudiated. There is nothing safer than honest labour and we should be aiming in that direction.
ReplyDelete