Critique of Stellarton Strategic Plan

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 Critique of Stellarton Strategic Plan

I. SUMMARY

Stellarton is a town located in Nova Scotia, which is between the towns of

New Glasgow and Westville.1 The Stellarton strategic plan not only provides

great benefits and challenges for Stellarton; but also illustrates the effective

strategies to improve the community economic development in Stellarton.

According to the community economic development approach, the Stellarton

strategic plan is mainly based on the below school development approach to

promote the economic development in Stellarton. However, a few parts of the

plan would be considered to the above school development approach. In

addition, the plan considers gender issue in several parts, but it still needs to

provide more polices and strategies which involves gender.

II. INTRODUCTION

The major purpose of the Stellarton Strategic Plan is to improve the

“revitalization of the town of Stellarton”. The plan is based on the community

economic development approach and the background of Stellarton, and it

would mix the abundance resources in the town to promote development

effectively.

In the Stellarton Strategic Plan, the most important project is to “develop the

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http://www.stellarton.ca/
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Main Street and the Stellarton Business Area of the town”.2 Some issues such

as “façade programs, potential funding options, establishment of a Downtown

Business Association and revisiting existing relevant bylaws” have been

identified as priority.3

The plan is not only for the place, but also focuses on the people. It would

improve more high quality services and beautiful community environments to

all residents and visitors to the town.4

III. DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

In terms of regional development theory, It shows that the plan be mainly

based on the development from below school, but it also consists of a few

issues which uses above development approach.

The Stellarton Strategic Plan is preferred to the development from below

school. First of all, the most important project of the plan is “the revitalization

of the downtown core”. This strategy does not exist in the federal or provincial

programs, and it aims at improving its own local economic development.

Moreover, according to the statistics of the plan, the town of Stellarton has

faced the problem that “most individuals are moving to Downtown from rural

areas”. Therefore, it would be priority to develop Downtown and Business

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http://www.stellarton.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=75
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Ibid
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http://www.stellarton.ca/images/stories/stellartonstrategicplan.pdf
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Area based on its current situation. These strategies would develop its

centers or cores in order to create regional autonomy, so it would be the

below approach in regional development theory.

Second, in terms of the strategic plan, the Business Area would be harnessed

to attract investment. The town of Stellarton has many existing businesses,

such as Sobeys and Empire Company, and it also has an existing Business

Area. In order to improve business development and attract more people to

move in, the plan would exploit a new Business Area and combine it with the

existing one. The plan would harness both old and new business areas based

on the town’s unique resources and opportunities. For instance, the plan

would provide subsidies and promotions to existing business companies in

order to encourage them to participate in the new business area. Moreover, it

would use its own communication and graphic design companies to manage

the old and new business areas. In addition, it also proposes to establish an

Energy Park to attract business investment and cooperation. Therefore, I

would recommend that these strategies, which takes control its institutions

and harnesses its business area to improve the development, would belong to

the below development approach.

Third, the plan would create new “sense of place” by mixing the selected

unique recourses. Because in the town of Stellarton, there are abundant

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resources, such as the Museum of Industry, Nova Scotia Community College,

and the Heather Motel and so on. The plan would encourage partnerships by

combining these resources effectively and create the conference committee to

manage the proposed partnerships. For instance, the plan would rebuild

Heather Motel between the Energy Park and the Needs store. Moreover, the

plan would “improve the partnership between the Museum, the Community

College, the Motel and the Town” in order to “generate synergy influence” of

economic development. These strategies indicate that the plan would utilize

its regional resources in order to attract more business investment and

improve economic development. I would argue that it would use the below

school approach.

Last but not least, “the residential development and connections strategies” in

the plan are defined based on Stellarton’s local culture and landscape. First,

due to its small landscape and the decreasing population, the plan would

develop the quality of housing and improve the infrastructures to attract more

people to move in. Second, it would also provide more pedestrian and bicycle

connections. Because the Community College had more part-time and full-

time students, who are the huge consumers in the town of Stellarton, the

transportation connections would help them to go to Downtown conveniently.

Third, the plan would “create strong identities for the neighborhoods”, which

based on its small geography. I would argue that these strategies, which

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improve infrastructures and landscapes for the betterment of the town, belong

to the below school.

To brief, the above projects are the major projects in the Stellarton Strategic

Plan, and these are all using the below development approach. Therefore,

according to above analysis, I would recommend that the most projects of the

plan are based on the below school development approach.

Nevertheless, the plan also concludes a few projects which belong to the

above school development approach. The plan not only improves the

development of Downtown and Main Street, but also expects the surrounding

areas to catch up with this development in the future. For example, the plan

notes that the “existing riverfront Business Area would be branded and

promoted as the most successful business part in Canada”. The Business

Area would bring more profits to the town of Stellarton and drive the economic

development of other areas around it. Furthermore, the plan would promote

the development of Downtown and improve the gateway, which is a channel

that links downtown to elsewhere. And it also exploits undeveloped areas near

Downtown for residents to live. So it would attract more people to move into

suburban areas surrounding Downtown, and they could do businesses and

consumptions in Downtown. Therefore, these strategies would be the above

school, because it not only booms economic prosperity in downtown, but also

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pushes the economic increases in surrounding areas.

I would recommend that the town of Stellarton is a small and thriving town and

has abundant resources. Moreover, it also had stable population and

economic situation. According to its characteristics, Stellarton would not follow

federal or provincial programs, but identifies its unique resources and creates

its strategies in terms of itself. In the plan, the most important purpose is to

“revitalize the Downtown core” and improve local economic development, so

the plan would focus on the below development approach. However, a few

issues of the plan would not only improve the “Downtown core” but also

improve the rural areas around the town. So these issues would be based on

the above approach in order to help the town of Stellarton to be a progressive

community.

IV. GENDER

Gender means that “the socially constructed roles and responsibilities of

women and men”5. Because the different characteristics between men and

women, they have different social responsibilities. For example, more

manufacturing or industrial jobs are occupied by men than women. But

women are more likely to be stay at home parents. Therefore, gender has

become an important issue when considering the community economic

development; and the community strategic plan would influence men and

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Leong, Land and Biasutti, 2004
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women differently.

Actually, in the Stellarton Strategic Plan, there are several issues which would

consider gender and provide more benefits for women than men. First of all,

the plan would provide more services positions getting through by expanding

the motel and establishing more restaurants and stores. It also would

encourage “boutique retailers to enter into the Business Area” through “giving

promotions to retailers and rebuilding the façade of the buildings”. Moreover,

the plan would provide the retail study and training for residents, which

includes “providing opportunities and packages to the missing retail stores”. I

would recommend that these issues provide more benefits to women than

men, because according to the Statistics Canada 2006, in the labor market,

women are more likely to work at service-sector jobs such as waitresses or in

retail. In my point of view, these service jobs would give women more

opportunities and decrease their unemployment ratio. Moreover, the boutique

retail stores would not only support women to work in small businesses, but

also satisfy their daily needs and improve their life quality.

Second, the plan would improve the quality of housing and residential

environment. For instance, it would add more infrastructures such as

pedestrian and bicycle connections, and improve the neighborhoods’

connection system. Moreover, it would also improve the quality of housing and

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apartment units. These issues would provide more advantages for women,

because women are more likely to take care of their children, do households

and go shopping than men. The plan would provide more pedestrian

connections and change peoples’ social behaviors to walk instead of driving.

Therefore, in my opinion, it would give more convenience to women. Because

women would take more time on raising their children and doing household

work, the pedestrian connections would make their going to stores and

picking up children easier and safer. And it also helps them to save time on

transportation. Moreover, the high quality of housing and apartment units

would make them live comfortably and happy.

However, many projects of the plan have not considered or mentioned gender

issues. Actually, most women are more likely to taking care their children and

families, and some of them miss work because of family responsibilities; so

most women are less likely to work in industrial or manufacturing jobs.

Obviously, according to Statistics Canada, more business or industry jobs

such as engineers, workers and even managers are held by men than

women. But the major parts of the Stellarton Strategic Plan are improving

business development, industrial park development and downtown building

façade renovation. Therefore, these issues would provide more jobs and

opportunities for men than women. I would recommend that these parts of the

plan would provide more benefits for men than women. Moreover, I would

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points out that it could provide more projects based on these business

development strategies, such as skills training programs, lower credit loans,

community projects to women, and these would provide more benefits for

women.

In addition, the plan lacks sufficient support for low-income residents.

According to the Statistics Canada 2006, the women’s salaries are more likely

lower than men, and most women are living on poverty wages. But the

Stellarton Strategic Plan lacks focus on this problem. It is planning to attract

more business activities and improve the residents’ environment, but it

ignores providing support to people in poverty. For instance, the plan does not

mention community infrastructures such as health care centers and day

cares. Moreover, it has not improved employees’ benefits such as health

insurance and pension plans. Therefore, I would argue that the plan should

enhance the perceptions of gender issue.

. CONCLUSION

To sum up, the Stellarton Strategic Plan aims at improving the economic

development of the town of Stellaton and providing high quality services for

people. The plan mainly gets through taking control its unique resources and

improving partnerships, co-operations, business development, Downtown

renovation and residential development to achieve its regional goals. Most

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strategies in the plan follow the below school development approach, but

several parts use the above approach. In addition, although some parts of the

plan have considered providing benefits for women, it still needs to pay more

attention on gender issues.

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