By Melanie Jackson
msjacksonpei@gmail.com
The landscape of Prince Edward Island is changing, and not just in the geographical sense of the word.
As more and more young Islanders migrate to western Canada in search of jobs, the scenery inside our rural communities is transforming as well.
Industries that built our province, like farming and fishing, are disappearing with the aging population that forged them as their way of life.
It’s a trend that hasn’t gone unnoticed by a group of community leaders and businesspeople, like Paul MacNeill, publisher of Island Press Limited in Montague.
On Oct. 3, MacNeill welcomed a group of like-minded individuals to the Georgetown Conference, a gathering playing host to 250 community activists, businesspeople, artists and residents – young and old – from across Atlantic Canada.
The three-day conference is MacNeill’s brainchild. He envisaged it as a gathering place for ideas, discussions and solutions to address the disintegrating rural communities in many parts of eastern Canada.
Although the Georgetown Conference is the first of its kind, MacNeill’s vision of revitalizing rural P.E.I. isn’t a new idea.
Georgetown resident and business owner Peter Llewellyn shares in MacNeill’s notion that Islanders must take responsibility for their own future. They must be the ones to ensure rural communities across P.E.I. not only survive, but thrive.
“Everybody is always pointing at the other guy,” Llewellyn said. “It’s either you’re responsible or you’re at fault.”
Like MacNeill, Llewellyn feels it’s not government’s responsibility to sustain rural communities and, instead, residents need to take action.
“We spend far too much time on sitting down, wondering who’s at fault,” said Llewellyn.
We need to have a vision and we need to know how to implement it, he said.
“It’s problem solving,” said Llewellyn, a former mayor for the Kings County Capital where he grew up. “We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again.”
Llewellyn said the key to revitalizing rural communities is seeing beyond traditional industries and creating new ideas and new businesses.
“We’re falling into the trap of trying to manipulate what we know, instead of something new and innovative. I just want people to come to our communities,” he said.
“They buy houses. They drive cars. They buy groceries. They’re the people we’re trying to attract.”
It was the beauty of rural P.E.I. that attracted Stacy Toms to the Island 12 years ago during a vacation with her husband.
The couple from Ontario purchased a home in Georgetown after just a few weeks on the Island, and four years ago they made that home their permanent residence.
About a year and half after that, Toms, who comes from a family of restaurateurs, and her husband Richard, an artist, took a leap of faith and opened up an art gallery and bakery on their property.
“When we first bought the house, and before we had a business here, we’d watch tourists come in and leave,” said Toms. “At the time, there wasn’t too much in Georgetown for tourists.”
However, Toms said with the opening of Llewellyn’s gift shop, as well as a local inn and restaurant, more and more people began making Georgetown a destination, and not just a stop along their travels.
Tom’s shop, Maroon Pig, is open year-round, catering to not only tourists but locals alike.
Her Georgetown neighbours have been supportive and have played a key role in their three years of successful operation, she said.
“It was definitely our best summer yet,” said Toms. “But probably half of our business this year were Islanders.”
Combined with local support, Toms said government could be doing more to support rural communities, too, by investing in small businesses like hers and helping turn ideas into profitable ventures.
“The first couple of years are iffy. You don’t know how things are going to do, and I think that’s where the investment needs to go,” she said. “No business makes money in the first year, so it’s nice to have that backup.”
It’s that kind of investment and faith in Island entrepreneurs, particularly on the part of government, Llewellyn thinks will breathe life back into rural P.E.I.
“As leaders we need to say to people, ‘What’s your idea? How can we support it?’,” Llewellyn said.
“Business is about people. We have to start looking at the people who have the drive to make the impossible happen.”
First appeared on The Surveyor Online - October 3, 2013
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