ACOA Representative Optimistic About Strait Area's Growth

PORT HAWKESBURY - With a front-row seat for decades' worth of rural economic development in the Strait of Canso, the account manager for the region's Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) office is confident in the current and future potential for community growth and business success on the local level. 

Karen Malcolm first took her post at ACOA's Port Hawkesbury office in 2015, following a short stint with the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce and many years with the now-defunct Strait-Highlands Regional Development Agency. These experiences, combined with her work with the Development Isle Madame Association (DIMA) that was set up to help the island rebound from the collapse of the Atlantic groundfishery, have given her a passion for community development that still exists today. 

Today, she helps to guide community organizations and not-for-profits seeking to access the federal and provincial funding available through ACOA's myriad of programs. Malcolm says she is seeing more confidence in local leadership as the world emerges from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also hopeful that such developments as the construction of green hydrogen facilities at two sites in Point Tupper will help to accelerate the local economy. 

This week's edition of TELILE 24/7 also presents the story of Alison Kersten, a single mother of four who graduated at the top of her class in the electrician program offered by the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) Strait Area Campus. She is now struggling to pay for her second year after being denied two forms of government assistance over the final three months before the 2023-24 academic year began. 

Dropped from the Nova Scotia Works program that provided her with $25,000 towards her first year of studies due to what Kersten describes as "a clerical error," the West Bay Road native was able to gather these funds over the summer due to the generosity of friends and family. However, four days before her second year of electrical studies was set to begin, she was dropped from the province's social-assistance rolls on the grounds that such funds were not available to those pursuing educational options. 

Undaunted, Kersten set up an impromptu day-long yard sale on Saturday, September 2, in the parking lot of the provincial government services building in Port Hawkesbury. She managed to raise $750 during the day and received another $250 in family donations, allowing her to pay her first two months' worth of rent at her West Bay Road property. She has now set up a GoFundMe page and is hoping to stage further fundraisers to allow her to complete what she describes as a necessary second year of electrical training to allow her to better compete for work in the struggling Nova Scotia economy.