The top photo in this article could have been taken in the town where I grew up, Glace Bay, or the region near Stellarton where my ancestors lived and worked, or the town of tragedy, Springhill, where I instructed at the community college for a semester, but this image is from the village of Inverness.
One common denominator of these places is coal mining and the characteristic miners’s houses. The history of coal mining in Nova Scotia is the story of robber-baron capitalism, union resistance to poor wages and dangerous working conditions, and class struggle. Coal mining is not a primary source of employment in Nova Scotia anymore. The persistence of the mining houses in the streetscape of Inverness may be an indicator of another form of employment that requires maintenance of class separation and service of the privileged by those with less political, social and economic capital. In my youth, the riches underground were extracted by miners, processed into rails by steel workers and the profits enriched the foreign companies who abandoned Cape Breton in a flash when the market reduced their profit. The natural resources on the shores of Cape Breton have been shown capable of returning profits from golf for the owners of the course and service wages and security as the “economic benefit” for the less privileged class. We can do better by focussing on preparing the people of Inverness to be guides and provide services to visitors based on the natural history and beauty of the region, eco tourism, and the culture of the area. Economic development based on short term profit to outside owners and minimum wage service employment while the business stays is not in the long term interest of Inverness or any other community.
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