Acorn Press Canada

ISBN 1-894838-24-6 / 978-1-894838-24-5 / 288 pp / 6 x 9 / $29.95 CAD

BRIDGING ISLANDS:
THE IMPACT OF FIXED LINKS

Edited and with an introduction by
Godfrey Baldacchino

Excerpts from Chapter 2 by Godfrey Baldacchino and Annie Spears: "The Bridge Effect: A Tentative Score Sheet for Prince Edward Island"

The Setting, and a Double Irony

Whether and how to bridge the Northumberland Strait separating PEI from New Brunswick and the Canadian mainland has perhaps been the most keenly debated and most traumatic event in the modern history of Prince Edward Island, Canada's smallest province. In an island renowned for its vibrant cultural community, the historic mega- development project became a reference point for critical expression, a bouncing board for a self-conscious representation of the space of the island, and embodying powerful myths of place. A fluid gamut of island-based writers, poets, artists, musicians, songwriters, craftspersons, filmmakers, and performers interpreted "the fixed link" with their aesthetic and countercultural sensibilities.

It is somewhat ironic that, today, "the Confederation Bridge" has been appropriated as a local cultural icon, embellishing provincial automobile license plates along with the more established "Birthplace of Confederation" and "Anne of Green Gables" themes. Its merchandise competes with postcard images or fridge magnets of rural countryside in island gift shops and information kiosks. You can even order your own "bridge gear" directly from the bridge's website at www.confederationbridge.com.

The Confederation Bridge is today actually portrayed and marketed as an essential island artefact, suggesting that the strident resistance to, and painful accommodation of, the massive structure into the island psyche is a thing of the past. Yet, in spite of the seriousness, and occasional emotional outbursts, with which "the matter of the bridge" was debated, its actual impact - economic, social, political, environmental - on island life has not been the subject of serious and systematic study. It is thus just as ironic that so much debate took place about the imputed impact of the Confederation Bridge (referred to simply as "the Bridge" to "the island") before it was built and completed. Only a few scholarly or technical reports are known (so far) to have been undertaken after the bridge's completion; appraising whether the various prognostications made before the bridge was opened have been proven true or false; and reviewing in a scientific and level-headed manner what has been the actual scoresheet of the impact.

. . .

Conclusion

In summary, and if a nine-year span of post-bridge operational data is long enough, it appears that the Confederation Bridge did not (so far) have the significant impact that many feared, or hoped, it would have on Prince Edward Island society and economy. The status quo has proved more resilient than expected, for better or for worse. Various indicators have not changed significantly in the time epoch under consideration; of those that did, many of the changes have proved transitory: there are indications that, while there may have been a tangible break in several variables in or around 1997 and 1998, there also appears to have been a return to the original, "pre-bridge" trend within a few years.

In tourism, the bridge has proved a double-edged sword: making the island closer, but at the same time less exclusive; in property, the bridge has accentuated (but not triggered) a rush for oceanfront lots and supported an upward push on property price increases; in commerce, the bridge may have contributed to some expansion in provincial exports; however, the rate of economic expansion over 1992-2000 is steady and does not necessarily manifest a bridge effect; the bridge coincided with an expansion of some economic sectors of the economy (trucking, "big box" retail), while contracting others (local retail, ferry workers). The bridge has made a positive but minor contribution to attracting and retaining newcomers to PEI. No direct effect of the bridge on crime rates, or on shoreline erosion, is noticeable. The increase in total vehicle and passenger traffic is (from the variables considered) the only one that displays a lasting major break in 1998; but even this does not appear to have translated into lasting shifts in any of the major economic indicators we have reviewed. Finally, the bridge may have exacerbated the decline in the overall health of the Northumberland Strait ecosystem, possibly with higher levels of particulate matter in suspension.

This is as much as one can surmise on the basis of measurable data. We are fully aware that we cannot postulate what might have, or have not, happened to and on PEI had the bridge not been built and the PEI-NB ferry continued running. We are also conscious of the fact that our preliminary analysis leaves out some rather large intangibles, including longer-term perspectives of the bridge's impact and economic viability, which would include a sober discussion of its decommissioning around the year 2097.

One of these intangibles deals with the sense of island identity. Do islanders today feel any different about their sense of place, attachment, and affiliation to PEI than they did before the bridge? Has the bridge eroded the locale specificity of island life; or has its construction and operation, as well as the vitriolic debate which preceded the physical project, actually bolstered islanders' consciousness about who they are and what is different, and worthwhile, about their way of life? (We find evidence of both in the chapters contained in this book.)

A second intangible deals with the prospects of Maritime Union, an issue which was considered in the 1860s and which still comes up every now and then. Wouldn't it make economic and fiscal sense to merge the Maritimes into just one province, which would still have a population of less than 2 million? Now that Prince Edward Island is a geographic peninsula of New Brunswick, it is more difficult to argue that it deserves to be, and remain, a separate province due to administrative and logistic convenience. In the eighteenth century, had PEI not been an island, it is very unlikely that it would then have been carved out as a separate province. Indeed, its island status did not preclude Prince Edward Island from having been administered (along with New Brunswick) as part of Nova Scotia until 1769. Presumably, PEI would have most to lose from a Maritime Union that would see it forfeit its "jurisdictional resourcefulness." But the existence of such a convenient route to Moncton makes the island province more vulnerable to renewed pressure for amalgamation.

The reference to Moncton begs a comment: Greater Moncton enjoyed a 3.7 per cent population growth in the intercensal period of 1996-2001, the largest for a census agglomeration in Atlantic Canada. With its international airport, train, and road network and bilingual workforce, is it perhaps Moncton which has emerged as the strongest, even unintended beneficiary of "the bridge effect"?

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