Rural Newfoundland and Labrador downplayed by Provincial Government

Sue's News

Loyola why is the Department of Finance and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador lowballing (fudging) the contribution to the GDP by rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
Labrador I think you should be particularly interested in this.
You see when we are fed info from the greater St. John's and that info is used in economic plans and service delivery we should all question the numbers.
I hear people ask quite often, "why is rural Newfoundland and Labrador not a priority for the Williams government?"


In either case back to Loyola S
The Conference Board of Canada released a report on Hub Cities in Canada - July 2006.
The report is called "Canada's Hub Cities, A Driving Force of the National Economy"

Iwill post the link here but you may have to sign up to get the report. It is free!

Note 4 page 10 of 32 says,

"Although the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial government and the City of St. John's argue that the St. John's GDP accounts for 47 per cent of the Newfoundland and Labrador GDP, The Conference Board of Canada believes that the correct figure is actually 36 per cent. The difference in figures is mostly due to divergent methodologies used for calculating the share of the province's offshore oil output attributed to St. John's GDP. In the Conference Board's calculations, this share is determined by the number of mineral fuel output workers residing in St. John's as a proportion of the province-wide number of workers in the mineral fuel industry. It has been argued that this methodology is wrong because it does not account for the fact that several St. John's residents leave St. John's to work on the offshore platforms. But this argument does not hold since the Conference Board uses Statistics Canada's Labour Force data to compute it's GDP estimates at the CMA level, data that are computed by place of permanent residence rather than place of work. A permanent resident of St. John's who works on the offshore platforms will therefore still end up in the St. John's employment count and be captured in the Conference Board's GDP calculations. Moreover, the Conference Board believes it is wrong to assume that workers involved in the oil-related services industries of St. John's should boost the CMA's share of provincial oil output; these workers belong to other GDP categories. This is a flaw in the methodology used by the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial government and the City of St. John's."

This methodology is serving to boost St. John's while downplaying the numbers and contribution of rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
We must now question the numbers our government is using to promote outmigration from our rural areas to centralized regions such as St. John's.
Using these numbers is manipulating the rate at which rural Newfoundland and Labrador is flocking to regional centres, thereby justifying flawed economic policy.
Attention Rural Newfoundland and Labrador you are being screwed by this administration.

St. John's and the provincial government - Danny and Andy are counting anybody who comes to St. John's to take a helicopter to the offshore as townies whether you live here or not.
What's next boys, if anybody from rural Newfoundland and Labrador travels to St. John's to take a flight anywhere you'll capture them as workers in St. John's?

Beware Rural Newfoundland and Labrador! Danny and Andy are coming after you!