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Originally Posted by someone123
What does this actually mean? I guess this applies to the whole thread; "sphere of influence" is incredibly vague. Maybe it means commuting, maybe it means work trips or what place smaller branches report to, maybe it means shopping, where people are likely to migrate or have relatives, etc..?
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I knew I would ruffle some Haligonian's feathers with my map.
Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
Most of the publicly-run stuff like health care and education is provincial. A disproportionate number of private companies in the Maritimes are based in Halifax too, and the regional offices for national companies tend to be there. So if you're working in Amherst there's a higher chance you'll have some kind of work ties to Halifax than to Moncton.
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While there is a provincial bias in the provision of health care, I can guarantee you that many Cumberland County residents choose to have their brain surgery, cancer treatments and advanced diagnostic imaging studies in Moncton than in Halifax. The reason? - the quality is just as good as in Halifax and proximity and convenience can count for a lot, especially for loved ones making hospital visits, or for frequent appointments for follow-up care. The Maritime provinces are very good at paying the out of province medical expenses in their sister provinces, so this is not an issue. I suspect that the "trade balance" in health care between NB & NS is pretty much a wash. There are not many NBers that actually go to Halifax for advanced care as we are pretty much self sufficient as a province in terms of health care resources. This would balance the Cumberland County residents who seek health care in Moncton (Cumberland County having only a fraction of the total NS population). As far as work ties to Halifax, Amherst & Springhill are nothing more than small shire towns, and there wouldn't be too many local branch offices in those towns for companies based out of Halifax. As I said, anything north of the Cobequid Pass tends to be ignored by greater Haligon. Moncton as a commercial city is at least as important to Amherst as Halifax is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
For the general shopping and tourist type stuff it's possible people in towns like Amherst prefer to go to Moncton. Then again, Moncton is 1/3 the size and has a lot less in the way of shopping and entertainment options (particularly you consider only what an Amherst-sized town wouldn't have). Moncton is also very suburban; that is a plus for some people but not great for those who want more of a city experience. If the two cities were exactly the same it would make sense that people would go to whichever one is closest but they're not. I'm guessing a lot of people in Moncton do regular road trips to Halifax to visit things they don't have in their own town.
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I don't disagree with these comments, but I would point out that a person in Amherst will likely be able to find the things he wants to buy 75% of the time in his own town, 95% of the time in Moncton and 98% of the time in Halifax (the rest he will buy on line). What this generally means is that he might take the 45 minute drive into Moncton once every 3-4 weeks to go to Costco or Home Depot to get things done, but might only do the two hour drive down to Halifax 3-4 times a year to get the most specialized stuff. Being a little smaller than Halifax can also work in Moncton's favour for small town shoppers as the city is easier (and less nerve wracking) to navigate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
The most accurate way of looking at this, I think, is that there is a hierarchy of cities around the country. To some degree this is broken up by the independence of provinces and how far they are from each other, but within the context of the Maritimes, Halifax is the major city. Below that, Moncton, Saint John, Sydney, Fredericton, and Charlottetown are regional cities (with Fredericton and Charlottetown having a certain special status as capitals). Below them there are the major towns like Bathurst or Truro (many of which are shire towns for counties). At each level there are different functions; people don't drive 4 hours to Halifax to buy groceries. Then again, the wider Halifax commutershed of 1 hour has about 1/3 of all the people living in the Maritimes. Above Halifax there is Toronto.
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I agree absolutely with this analysis. I would humbly suggest that while Halifax's influence in NS is overwhelming (although a little muted in Cumberland County and in Cape Breton), once you get beyond southeastern NB you don't see too many Maritimers making spur of the moment trips to the "big city". If somebody from the Miramichi decides to visit Halifax, it's a big trip, usually occurring on the weekend , and entails a couple of nights in a hotel. They might do this once or twice a year. This level of contact is pretty minimal and really puts a pretty narrow veneer on any claims of being within a sphere of influence........
As for Fredericton having a "special status" conveyed upon it as a capital in terms of it's "sphere of influence", I think this only applies in the political realm, or if you are a civil servant. I have lived in Moncton now for 28 years, and I can honestly state that I can count on the number of fingers on one hand how many times I have had to travel to Fredericton purely because of it's status as a capital city. The fact that Halifax and Charlottetown are so dominant in their own spheres of influence has more to do with the fact that they are also the largest cities (by far) in their respective provinces..........
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