Community building, as a concept in Canada, may be losing its way. Debt is being accumulated by all orders of government and is mostly focused on building fire halls, roads, bridges, and public transit systems. To pay for it all, debt has become the cocaine for politicians. The casualty is the concept of community building.
Investments in recreation and cultural events (and related facilities), powwows, tournaments, community gardens, community halls, farmers markets, outdoor festivals, and winter carnivals are being left to the non-profits to scrounge for and compete for crumbs of money. When these community-building assets and events compete with a new fire hall, those voices advocating for building a real community are not heard.
While our fast-paced life demands more roads, bridges, and roundabouts, the importance of community gatherings may be lost, unless leaders across Canada recognize what is truly happening.
Community-building facilities such water slides, pools, pickleball courts, and skateboard parks are taking a back seat to funding broadband capacity, and roads to move cars and trucks more quickly so we may increase the speed at which we live life.
Canada is also investing in adding building security technology. Those same security systems and security guards make people-gathering more difficult in our communities. Places such as libraries, town halls, art galleries, and school gymnasiums are locked most hours of the week and now there are fewer places for the knitting group, the quilters, or the “creative class” to gather. Security guards have either displaced or replaced the gatherings.
So much emphasis is placed on children being highly protected, that playgrounds are empty, ball diamonds are unused, while soccer and football pitches only host organized games. The BMX tracks are locked tight so no child can experience spontaneous bike play. And the pandemic has changed our gathering tendencies — indoor shopping has been replaced with ordering online, meaning we don’t need to gather at the grocery store. Add to that a significant percentage of workers staying home to work, meaning gathering at the workplace is now also in decline.
As we think about building communities in the coming years, the security guards at malls, schools, and city halls are an additional layer of deterrence for gathering of any sort. When a few youths are seen together, they are often dispersed by the nearest security guard who is hired to send people scattering away.
The ease of gathering has many benefits. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of having no easy place to gather is that troublemakers will find other locations and ways to do so. These gatherings occur in the many unlit corners of our communities. In Canadian cities, unkempt and dark back alleys have become a nefarious place to gather, instead of communities providing options for well-lit areas and positive things to happen.
Community building as many once knew it is under threat. Of course, decades ago, the barn-raising events, church-building work bees, and community hall shindigs were a hallmark of building Canada. And over the second half of the 20th century, recreation growth substituted for those old-fashioned approaches. Today, the replacement for community building appears to be spending money on asphalt, bricks, mortar, and cell towers. Community building has lost its way.
Nolan Crouse is a former St. Albert mayor.
