Opinion: City needs to be attractive to young people

By Medicine Hat News Opinion on February 6, 2020.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Among no shortage of discouraging news about the future economic outlook of Alberta arrives a report that those in their early 20s are increasingly leaving Calgary.

This comes after several years of unusually high unemployment in the town that was the very picture of a rapidly growing, bustling young city, full of money, activity and a destination for opportunity seekers.

An apparent exodus of 20- to 24 year-olds is being discussed in some quarters as a statement not only about the state of the oil and gas industry, on which Calgarians seem singularly focused, but also shifting expectations of the ever-important Millennial generation.

It’s hard to make generalized statements about an entire demographic cohort or a multi-faceted problem that’s still developing.

But, the obvious question is that if Calgary can’t compete for young people – after making leaps and bounds to upgrade its so-called vibrancy over recent decades – how can smaller centres in Alberta?

For some time now, Medicine Hat has held some status as a great place to retire, but it’s also been a cause of anxiety.

Retirees are fine folks, but the larger prize is younger people and young families who start businesses, earn working incomes and buy houses.

How to bring them here is an economic chicken and egg.

“Jobs” is an easy answer, and too easy considering population growth is increasingly counted on as an economic driver.

“Quality of life” is another, but does Medicine Hat have the amenities that young, increasingly cosmopolitan people want? Or the job opportunities?

It’s perhaps the great unasked, unanswered question beneath all of Medicine Hat’s economic development discussions that so far have revolved around getting back what made this town great.

More often than not, rural or very small centres that face contraction battle against the closing of a post-office, grain elevator or school in an effort to hold on to young people and young families.

Emigres from those communities wind up in places like Medicine Hat as a first step out, or a comfortable place to retire.

The reverse is true also.

There are urban transfers who prefer the lower cost of living or housing, lifestyle, or sense of community in smaller centres.

A new city hall strategy is to highlight such stories, and we all remember tales about the sons and daughters of Saskatchewan, moving back to live mortgage free before the Alberta housing market collapses in 2008.

And, like us and everywhere in the country, Saskatchewan too is getting older as the large number baby boomers continue to move along, creating heavier competition for young residents.

Local effort in this regard includes a new strategic plan at Medicine Hat College, and a new effort by city hall to coordinate new industry to educational opportunities to workers should be ready soon.

However, even investing millions of dollars to bet against it won’t make it come true.

A new long-term city development plan suggested two years ago a major rethink in housing, transportation, commercial zones and other areas that will see great upheaval from technology and demographic changes in the next 30 years.

The running debate at the municipal planning commission, however, was that new industry, and more suburban communities, would bring in young families, thereby avoiding any need to evolve.

It’s generally accepted that younger people like a more accepting environment, a more cosmopolitan experience and more global viewpoint. That’s the anecdote, at least, and you can argue they’ll figure out the value of living in a smaller centre eventually.

Medicine Hat can’t and shouldn’t wait several decades to find out if that’s true, however.

The discussion that should have started years ago, needs to happen today.

(Collin Gallant is a News reporter. You can contact him by email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com)