By John Walter Dean When I arrived nearly three years ago, the first thing I noticed about Powell River was the lack of people in my age range, the 20-somethings.
It seems that Powell River’s youth graduate high school then leave town for education, work or just a change of pace. That’s fine. In fact, it is awesome that they would spread their wings and expand their young soft minds a little.
However, why shouldn’t Powell River attract some of Canada’s young affluent adults and students? Powell River does attract some young adults and external students, but not to the extent that would help boost our economy and create more jobs.
Due to our unique position here, businesses do face challenges as the only footfall they receive are local customers and very little foreign custom makes it this way. But we can help our economy if we start a campaign to increase the size of the university.
If we expand Vancouver Island University Powell River campus by bringing in degree courses (bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, et cetera) we can attract out-of-town students to study, stay and, most importantly, spend. These students will bring with them their student loans and mom and dad’s money. Economically, we are missing this generation with their disposable income.
This action will also create jobs. First, the university will need to hire more staff to cope with the influx of students, which means more local jobs. Even if some of these positions are filled by someone from out of town, that is still positive, as they will spend their earnings in our economy. Second, due to the students and faculty boosting our economy, new businesses will open to cope with the demands of the students and also the newly employed. New staff will be hired to deal with the larger volume of customers.
Students will also boost the housing market. With students having to rent houses when they move here, they will fill houses that are currently sitting empty.
In 2004 University of Delaware carried out a study on the economic impact of universities on their local economies. It found that full-time students on average spend $1,000 a month and part-time students spend almost double that amount (this does not include rent or tuition fees). It also concludes that universities make a huge impact economically, with some local businesses almost depending on students and faculty for most of their income.
This town has so much to offer students and young adults in the way of activities that if we can bring more popular degrees to the university, we will have a winning combination to attract more young adults to study and live here. This will bring more money into our currently stagnating economy and help our struggling businesses strive and grow, creating more jobs. The housing market will also get a boom with students renting accommodations. This is key to Powell River growing and getting on its feet. Let’s grow this town with education.
John Dean is a local carpenter and writer from the United Kingdom.
