Musquodoboit Harbour & Area: A Growth Centre vital to our quality of life in HRM

A rural lifestyle (“living in the country”) offers many advantages. Choosing to live rural is different from choosing to live in an urban centre or in its adjoining bedroom communities. Economically speaking, the Eastern Shore offers a good quality of life and many benefits for residents.

“Growth centres” (towns, villages) emerge as they are a bit farther away from cities. They are vital for the quality of life of its rural residents. Over the past few decades, due to geography and settlement, three larger historical rural growth centres have been identified along the Eastern Shore:

• Musquodoboit Harbour
• Sheet Harbour
• Sherbrooke

Rural issues across Canada are not unique; however, they are different from the issues experienced in urban areas.

In 1956, rural Canada represented 30% of the population. Currently only 20% of Canadians choose to live rural, and that number is dropping at an alarming rate due to a lack of jobs and infrastructure in those areas. With declining infrastructure and the closing of small businesses, more and more of our youth are moving away from their communities, as a result new people don’t move in, and retired and/or widowed people feel increasingly isolated.

Many of Canada’s rural communities contribute largely to the GDP of our nation through an abundance of natural resources, though not all rural communities are blessed in the same way. Regardless, rural communities must have the the proper tools to succeed. There is a strong argument to be made that investing in “human infrastructure” (including plentiful potable water and sanitation) helps people choose to remain in/move to rural areas. That fact will bear economic benefits for all Canadians.

Each settlement in our vast rural area of HRM, no matter how small, relies on services available in our rural growth centres. Once services are lost in our towns and villages, they are usually gone forever, which further contributes to the steady decline of our rural way of life.

Shift Rural. A new way of thinking

Learn more about issues affecting rural Canadians and remote communities here.