Envision “Degrowth” for Prince Edward Island
A wise Islander, Dr. Ralph Hazleton, once said, “The economy is too important to be left to economists.” As a small island with a small population and limited land and freshwater resources, Prince Edward Island faces significant challenges with respect to economic and social development. The degrowth community presentations and workshops—to be held in Souris, Charlottetown, Breadalbane and Summerside between September 13 and 18—will introduce community leaders and interested citizens to the AHAH! process, which has been used worldwide to stimulate human-scaled, community-based economic activities.
A combination of workshops and presentations, hosted in collaboration with the Building Community Resilience Conference (10th North Atlantic Forum and 27th Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation Conference, September 16-19, Summerside) will be held at the following locations and times:
- Sunday, September 13, 2-4 pm at Souris Strikers Ski Lodge, Souris Line Road
- Tuesday, September 15, 12 noon in the Main Building Faculty Lounge, UPEI
- Tuesday, September 15, 6-9 pm at Murphy Community Centre, Charlottetown
- Friday, September 18, 11 am-12.30 pm at Loyalist Country Inn, Summerside (Building Community Resilience conference presentation, http://pei2015.crrf.ca)
The AHAH! process asks participants to share their understandings of what is truly important to people, how their own work connects to the wider economic system, and what resources and opportunities are available for transforming the local economy to meet actual needs while improving environmental health, community well-being and quality of life. We hope that by engaging community leaders, we can start the ball rolling by introducing some ideas, tools, and information that can help you and your community council or organization to develop ongoing processes and projects.
These interactive sessions will be led by FairTrade Canada founder Bob Thomson, who serves on the Executive of the People’s Social Forum and received the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression Integrity Award in 2013. Mr. Thomson, who attended the first degrowth conference (Paris, France, 2008) and introduced the concept of “convivial degrowth” to Canada (Montreal, 2012), has seen the international movement gather momentum from a few hundred participants to a few thousand (Leipzig, Germany, 2008) in recent years.
A global leader in community-based, co-operative development and social justice, Mr. Thomson will assist Islanders in answering the question: “How do we reduce our societal and industrial metabolism to a point where it is sustainable?”
“A planned way down in terms of physical consumption can be a way up in terms of people, community and culture,” explains Mr. Thomson, who holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, and has worked with degrowth groups in various parts of the world.
Our task as workshop participants will be to take a clear-eyed look at our situation, to discover how we might build alternative economies in a way that benefits individuals and communities as well as our environment. We hope that area residents, community leaders, and local organizations will join us in welcoming Mr. Thomson and work together to imagine and plan a bright future for our Island.
The degrowth sessions are sponsored by the Atlantic Council for International Cooperation, Council of Canadians PEI Chapter, CUPE PEI, CUPE Global Justice Committee, SSHRC, and the UPEI Faculty of Arts. For more information regarding the movement on Prince Edward Island, please contact Marian White (Council of Canadians) at (902) 368-7337.
For further information about Mr. Thomson’s presentations or about the Building Community Resilience Conference, please contact Emily Thomas, Conference Co-ordinator at naf@upei.ca or (902) 566-0909.
