Pretty coloured maps!

The princerupert.com portal has an interesting link to a provincial statistics package that shows the Northwest part of the province is one of the highest “at risk” parts of the province. We are apparently a heavily dependent part of the province for social assistance and find ourselves one of the more poverty stricken areas of the province.

Using a colour coded map of the province, the folks at BC Stats track a number of key socio-economic indicators for the province and paint our corner of the province as one heavily troubled area. Dividing the province up by either Regional Districts or Local Health Areas and unfortunately for the Northwest whichever version you choose to explore, the data comes up bad for the area.

The categories include Human Economic Hardship, Crime, Health problems, Education concerns, Children at Risk and Youth at Risk.

In all but the Crime category the Northwest is listed as the Worst in the province, in all other categories we are featured as a dark red splotch on a map with the more populated southern regions featuring a more sedate blue hue, indicative of a more vigorous economy and better results in the key categories surveyed.

It’s of interest to note that these statistics, if combined with the Fraser Reports recent report cards on education in the Northwest might give an indication as to the kind of stresses that families in the Northwest face. While not looking for excuses in any kind of educational debate, simply put, if Northwest families are facing as many problems as this data suggests, then it’s no wonder that the youth of the community would be having problems with their studies.

These results probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone living in the area, the economic meltdown the area has suffered over the last five years was a Petri dish for deep troubles down the line and judging by the Stats BC package those troubles have taken root.

The key is to see what the Government will do with its own data, there’s obviously a need for some kind of positive intervention in this area of the province. A simple look at a map full of red splotches, will give them an indication that in parts of the “heartland” there remain some very troubled communities just hanging on as best they can.

Of course it very well could be a matter of out of sight, out of mind. The far Northwest corner of the province is as far removed from the centre of power in BC as it is from the splotches of blue in the more affluent and ecoonmically vibrant portions of the province.

Their troubles will be ignored at the peril of the Government of the day, whether it is Federal, Provincial or Municipal. It’s an awful lot of red you see when you look at these maps from BC Stats; it’s only a matter of time before the residents of the area begin to see some red as well.