Moncton: Portrait of Maritimes Pivotal City
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Moncton: portrait of Maritimes pivotal city Abstract: Recently heralded as a model of economic success, Moncton appears to be on the right track for one more recovery. Indeed, Moncton’s history is one of a succession of booms and busts in relation to technological changes. Blessed by a central location, Moncton has been a shipbuilding site and a regional railway center, which, capitalizing on its bilingual population asset, is now a regional service purveyor and a important player in telecommunications. However, its eventual re-positioning on the North American urban system depends largely on directions to be taken by regional key decision makers. Résumé: Identifiée comme un modèle de succès économique, Moncton semble à nouveau être sur la voie de la croissance. La jeune histoire de Moncton est en effet caractérisée par une succession de périodes de croissance et de déclin, fortement influencée par les innovations technologiques. Grandement favorisée par une position centrale, Moncton fut un chantier naval, un centre ferroviaire régional, et est maintenant, grâce à la composition ethno-linguistique de sa population, un centre regional de services et important acteur en telecommunications. Toutefois, son éventuel repositionnement au sein du sytème urbain nord américain dépend encore d’importantes décisions que prendront certains acteurs régionaux de premier plan A central location Moncton has been blessed by history and by its geography. From the small local agricultural settlement it was in the beginnings, it has become the center of the Canadian Maritime provinces. For that matter, it has been nicknamed “the Hub City” around which revolves a host of cities and communities. As Canadian economy developed and its urban system became more interconnected, Moncton is crucial location became increasingly apparent. It has been the main ingredient for its growth. Technology, or its evolution, played a key role in Moncton’s fortune: sometimes favoring growth, some other times precipitating shifts to a new economic base. Although its site favored, at first, agricultural settlement, Moncton’s situation has certainly been the most important ingredient for growth. Being located at the furthest navigable point on the Petitcodiac river, it became an important shipbuilding site. Later, its central location within the Maritime provinces made it the focal point of the transportation industry. Figure 1: Greater Moncton region and selected characteristic features These site and situation characteristics have combined to confer to Moncton, by all standard, the status of a Canadian medium-sized city. In a way, it brings to its inhabitants the advantages of a big city, without its drawbacks: crime, traffic, anonymity, air pollution, etc. Recent publicity campaigns have capitalized on the quality of life that Moncton has to offer. Moncton is also pivotal in the sense that it has become the flagship of a new information-based economy highly observed by other Maritimes cities. Moncton has become, to a certain extend, a model of economic shift, diversification, and revitalization. Whereas Saint-John is still a highly industrial city, Halifax and Fredericton, administrative capitals, Moncton appears ready to embark the new millennium. Some demographic projections tend to illustrate this as Moncton is expected to experiment continuous population growth while Sydney and Saint John show considerable decline (see Ren and White, 1995). However, such optimism should not be blind, some monitoring and directions are needed to keep the region in focus. What follows is a synthetic portrait of Moncton that aims to describe and explain its geographic configuration and the dynamics that have influenced the present pattern. Shifting demographic trends: planner’s nightmare... or challenge? The Greater Moncton Planning Commission produced, in 1975, a strategic development plan. That project relied on available data at that time, and data however reliable, that reflected trends of that era too. These were still booming years following World War II, an era marked by comparatively high household and family formation, fertility rates and the accompanying burgeoning of ever spreading suburbia. According to prediction derived from official data, Greater Moncton was expected to reach, what seems in retrospective a highly optimistic estimation, a population of 170,000 people by 1990. However, as was the case throughout North America, what has happened has been outrageously different: population totals about 110 000, and most significantly is the far greater variety of household arragements that now exists, and that requires different housing needs. Implications of shifting trends and economy and the fragmented ecumene of a dispersed city Most of the infrastructure has been done according to these projections and resulted in costly and still unused facilities, especially the servicing of land planned to welcome new housing. They also partly explain the ease and willingness of permitting subdivisioning on fringe land, thus creating “new frontiers”. As demographic trends indicated a considerable decrease in population growth rate, planning authorities began to encourage fill-in by relaxing inner city planning policies since large tracts of serviced urban land are still available for development. Annexations have also contributed to this loose layout of population. In order to increase its tax base, the cities have embarked in a fashion of annexing adjacent settled areas at first, but their need to grab new tax payers made them go even further. That has characterized most North American cities, Moncton included. Reaching more distant households also means increasing costs in supplying them with basic services. The city of Moncton has spread its tentacles westward but mainly northward along Mountain Road. Dieppe and Riverview have also gobbled a few communities respectively but have recently resisted the Greater Moncton amalgamation plan proposed by Premier McKenna. English re-settlers and French migrants Because of the presence of marsh land, creeks and terraces throughout the region, topography has played an important role in setting up Greater Moncton’s human geography. The crossing of Hall’s Creek was possible only further North from its intersection with the river for a long time, keeping Moncton’s spread mainly westward. More recently, Main street extended into Dieppe by crossing Hall’s Creek and large tracts of marsh lands. That crossing allowed Dieppe to escape from its rural tradition and become an important magnet to increasing numbers of Acadian migrants leaving the countryside. Urban English Monctonians have tended to move North, West, and, more recently South, across the River, while rural Acadians, to the Eastern fringe. These population movements gave Moncton an interesting, even stimulating, linguistic character to place her at the crossroad of 2 cultures. Riverview is almost essentially English speaking, Dieppe is 70% French speaking, and caught in the middle, is Moncton with an approximately 70% English speaking population. Table 1: Language spoken at home, Moncton region, 1996 French % English % Population Dieppe 12320 8380 68.0% 3650 29.6% Riverview 16500 365 2.2% 16075 97.4% Moncton 58630 14475 25.6% 42695 72.8% Greater Moncton 111790 29320 26.2% 80415 71.9% Statistics Canada, 1996 Census Paradox of the French language: fragility and economic strenght? Reactions to surrounding and isolation in an “English sea” have been varied. The increasing use of English, either by assimilation, or by “englishization” of Acadian French in developing of the notorious “Chiac” is a preoccupying concern. Some studies have warned the Acadian population of rapid assimilation rates. Although the standard French appears to be threatened, paradoxally, the increased occurrence of English people speaking French is the new strength heralded throughout North America to market Moncton as a pivot in the changing economic environment. Moncton’s social climate has appeased since the turbulent 1960s when Acadians rights were baffled by the English majority. A large proportion of French population is already bilingual as a willingness to be integrated in Moncton traditional “English world”, whereas most of the English population has remained unilingual. However, this trend has started to change with the recent generation. Moncton’s population has indeed become increasingly bilingual. French immersion in English schools is producing “bilingual young adults”. Then, it is fair to say that confrontation of the 1960s have been replaced by co-operation in the 1990s (table 2). Table 2: Knowledge of official language, Greater Moncton, 1991-1996 1991 % 1996 % English only 56790 53.3% 58960 52.7 French only 3855 3.6% 2845 2.5 Both 44650 41.9% 49920 44.7 Statistics Canada, 1991 and 1996 Census A fluctuating economic base: From railway lines to telecommunication lines.... The fate of Moncton has been largely influenced by its positioning in shifting economic trends. Its capacity of adjustment to changing technological eras has to be regarded as its best asset. One particular building is a good indication. Heritage Courts: an historic illustration of Moncton evolution The history of the present Heritage Courts provides a very good illustration of Moncton’s evolution throughout the different technological and economic eras and strategic location. Located immediately South of the city core, it once stood at a stone throw from both railway and maritime transportation facilities. The river is no longer