No matter where you go in this province, we all want to be devoid of worries and live a fulfilling life. Everyone in Newfoundland and Labrador wants to be treated fairly, have access to quality education and healthcare, and a good job — that not only pays the bills, but allows for some of the niceties of life.
Pie in the sky? It shouldn’t be.
To achieve this, no one person or group is responsible. It takes the collective effort of business, government, labour, educators and the community sector. Every Newfoundlander and Labradorian needs to be engaged and pulling the oar in the same direction.
It is worthwhile to examine how other jurisdictions have ensured the continuous improvement of the well-being of their citizens.
Scotland and its National Performance Framework aims to create a more successful country, by providing opportunities to its citizens, while increasing their well-being and creating sustainable and inclusive growth.
To achieve the national outcomes, the National Performance Framework aims to get everyone in Scotland to work together. This includes national and local government, businesses, volunteer organisations, and the people of Scotland.
The National Performance Framework is underpinned by a robust system of performance measurements that assess 81 indicators as either improving, maintaining, or worsening. These national indicators ensure a new degree of transparency around the work of government and government agencies, as well as focussing the country on the desired outcomes. Scotland’s success demonstrates the importance of measuring progress.
Scotland took inspiration from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which is the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. The goals interconnect — success is dependent on milestones being attained in each.
The lessons learned from Scotland and the United Nations are transferrable to this province. Interconnection is critical, but unfortunately, we continue to work in silos in Newfoundland and Labrador.
We no longer have the luxury of behaving in this manner. We cannot be one community against another competing for investment. We cannot be one industry against another arguing for preferential treatment.
We can’t have business versus labour or government versus the people. Our province’s economic future is bright, if we can work together to make it happen.
Our province has tremendous assets — natural resources, talented and hard-working people, first class educational institutions — just waiting to be properly leveraged.
Many great things are already happening in this province to improve our competitiveness, and foster growth in many sectors. We need the continuation of those initiatives and new, complementary activities to ensure success for all.
In order to achieve more jobs, higher personal incomes, and population growth, Newfoundland and Labrador’s finances must be more stable and our tax system fairer. The province’s long-term debt must be reduced, and unnecessary regulations must be eliminated.
We need to improve local labour market information, in order to ensure we are preparing the labour force of the future. In, addition we need to attract educated workers and skilled immigrants to Newfoundland and Labrador. We could also benefit from improving the connection between education and careers. One suggestion is to increase opportunities for high school and college students to participate in school-to-work transition experiences. We may also consider requiring community colleges and universities to track graduate placement results.
Let’s provide stronger economic development services than other provinces, including acting cohesively between all levels of government and economic development agencies to attract and grow more good jobs. Let’s remove barriers to entrepreneurship and innovation and do a better job in celebrating the success stories that live amongst us.
Prosperity is possible for all of us. Let’s work together to make it happen.
Janis Byrne is the new chair of the St. Jon’s Board of Trade. She writes from St. John’s.
