And they call this progress? Consequences for young people of living and working in resource-extraction communities

Abstract

Communities dependent on natural resource extraction (e.g. oil/gas, mining) are routinely exposed to rhetoric that associates notions of progress (including health and social welfare) with a booming economy. These places frequently experience demographic and social disruptions associated with reliance on resource-extraction sectors (e.g. the influx of young male workers and money, increasing rates of drug/alcohol consumption, infrastructural shortfalls). However, research regarding the problematic health and social impacts associated with resource-extraction booms are markedly absent from contemporary research pertaining to high-income countries. This paper investigates how an economic boom is perceived to affect young people's health and social well-being in Fort St. John, a booming oil/gas community in British Columbia, Canada. We conducted ethnographic fieldwork (8 weeks), including in-depth interviews with 25 young people (ages 15–25) and 14 health and social service providers. Participants identified education, addictions, and housing as key areas where the negative consequences of living and working in an oil/gas community have affected them the most. The findings illustrate the fallacy of the colloquialism that ‘the only drawback to a boom is a bust’. While the issues presented have substantial public health implications, they are generated by – and can be addressed via – sectors outside public health. Partnerships between resource-extraction companies, public health, and community organizations offer innovative and feasible opportunities to address these problems.

Keywords:

• resource extraction
• oil and gas
• addiction
• education
• housing
• social impacts
• youth health
• socio-economic
• population health
• drugs

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the BC Medical Services Foundation. This work would not have been possible without the youth and service providers who enthusiastically participated. Thanks also to the Northern Health Authority, the North East Native Advancing Society, and the community organizations and clinics that participated. Goldenberg holds a Trainee Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and Shoveller, Koehoorn, and Ostry each hold a Senior Scholar Award from the same organization. Shoveller also holds the Canadian Institute of Health Research's Applied Public Health Chair in Improving Youth Sexual Health. Ostry holds a Canada Research Chair in the Social Determinants of Community Health.