photo: Red Clay Bluegrass Festival

By Jean Kenny, West Prince Graphic -The Union of Public Sector Employees expressed shock when it heard the provincial government was moving a dozen jobs from Charlottetown to Tignish.

The department of transportation’s paint and body shop, presently located in Milton, will be moving into a new building to be constructed in Tignish as part of the rural development plan.

Current employees will have a longer drive to work but government compensation will defer the cost at least temporarily.

Moving the shop to the new location in Tignish is good news for that community and any new jobs will be welcomed. But the plan doesn’t sit well with everyone.

“To expect these people to be driving two hours to work is not fiscally responsible. This is just ludicrous,” Shelly Ward UPSE President was quoted as saying in a CBC news report on February 25.

Well, ludicrous or not, there are some people excited about the move and one of them is the village chairman, Gerard LeClair.

He takes exception to the UPSE president’s words and wonders why sending something to Tignish is considered a waste. He’s been working hard to get things moving in the village since taking office and sees the move by the Liberals as a start at revitalizing the aging community.

Why is it an investment if something is established in the city, but a handout if it lands in Western PEI, he asks? And he has got a point. It wasn’t called a handout when the department of fisheries packed up shop and moved to Montague. Although it’s rural PEI, it is still an easy commute to the big city.

Tignish has been in the news a lot lately. A paint and body shop, already staffed with most of its full-time employees on the job, isn’t as big a hit as the new West Prince Regional Training Centre coming to Alberton, but it’s a start.

Who knows, the free sporting incentive being offered by the village might be enough to convince some of those employees to end their long commutes and settle in the community.

Jean Kenny, editor West Prince Graphic

Parents who will now be able to enroll their children in sporting events free of charge and get a portion of their minor hockey registration paid for are delighted with the news. How can they not be? It will save them money.

The move will get more children participating in sporting events and more parents out to watch them. Sometimes a little incentive will go a long way and the village chairman sees it as a chance to breathe new life into the community.

It could look like a handout, but in reality it’s an investment in the future of the community. Other areas would be wise to consider something similar to get their residents involved in the community.

The Union might see the paint shop moving to Tignish as a handout, but the Village Chairman sees it as an investment and the start of more good things to come.

Jean Kenny is the Editor of the West Prince Graphic.

Check out the 10th Anniversary Red Clay Bluegrass Festival in Tignish this summer August 13-15