The rural "precariat"

The steady replacement of full-time employment by part-time or contract work is one of the most unpleasant features of the modern economy. The so-called "precariat" of workers in jobs that offer little security and no opportunity for forward planning is generally seen as an urban phenomenon. In truth, however, it can also be found in rural areas, albeit in a somewhat different form. The way in which some rural areas are adapting to the new reality may point the way forward for those condemned to live in cities.

Our own area, on the Canadian side of the Niagara frontier, provides a useful example of what can be done as employment patterns change. And as it happens, our short driving vacation this month took us to two other areas facing similar challenges: the Finger Lakes region in New York State, and Prince Edward County (PEC) in eastern Ontario.

Each of these regions has long had a strong agricultural base, with a relatively mild climate particularly suited to soft fruit growing. Niagara also had a long history of metal-bashing, much of it related to the auto industry; there was less of this kind of thing in the Finger Lakes or PEC, though the former was a major supplier of salt to the entire US (from Seneca Lake) and the latter had some significant pulp and paper activities.

Much of this has been swept away. Metal-bashing in Niagara has been decimated. The old-style agriculture is vanishing from all three regions. Niagara and PEC each had as many as forty canneries a couple of decades ago, many of them providing union wages and benefits. Not a single one remains in either place.

What's replacing all those jobs? In a word, booze. The same climate that encouraged the growth of peaches and plums has been found to be ideal for the production of wine. Both Niagara and the Finger Lakes have a hundred or so wineries in operation, and PEC, despite a tougher climate, is not far behind. Distilleries and craft breweries are springing up alongside the wineries.

As the wineries draw in the visitors, so more small businesses are opening up to take advantage of the traffic.  Artisanal cheesemakers; specialty fruit and vegetable growers; organic farmers; restaurants; bed-and-breakfasts (we have over a hundred of those just in our own small town). Summer weekends see endless processions of visitors from nearby big cities looking to take advantage of this new bounty while polishing up their locavore credentials.

Of course, none of this is a substitute for the stable, high wage industries that have left. Wages are much lower, and a lot of the jobs are highly seasonal: even here in Niagara, where the Falls are a year-round attraction, a lot of businesses struggle to make it through the winter months. Even so, the precarious employment now offered at the wineries and elsewhere is better than nothing, especially as there are precious few signs that governments, either in the US or Canada, intend to lift a finger to help.

What's also clear is that the growth of small businesses like wineries beats the do-nothing alternative. The third stop on our round-the-lake tour was Gananoque, on the St Lawrence River. The "Thousand Islands" region may not be a tourist destination on the scale of Niagara Falls, but it's an important attraction. A newspaper report while we were travelling noted that the town of Alexandria Bay, NY was heaving with tourists this year, whereas Gananoque, just across the river, was faring poorly, despite the weak Canadian dollar.

There's a reason for that: Gananoque is a dump.  There's a gaggle of tawdry motels on the edge of town as you come in off the highway. The downtown area is a shabby mess of boarded-up storefronts and takeout joints. The cruise boats come and go hourly from the dock, but aside from a restaurant and tacky gift shop operated by the cruise company, there's nothing around to entice people to part with their cash.  It's evident that most people come into town, take the boat cruise and then hightail it to somewhere more appealing.

Would that we had done the same, but we'd prepaid two nights' hotel. Still, that allowed us some insight into what's wrong with the place. Over dinner we got chatting with two couples who lived locally. They cheerfully admitted that they liked things just as they were, and told us that the locals routinely rose up in arms at any suggestion of new initiatives to improve the town -- although there is, of all things, now a small casino out by the highway. We hadn't been in Gananoque for more than thirty years; three decades from now, if the locals don't wise up, there may not be much of the town left.