The Hole in Nanaimo's Grand Experiment
An election-year reckoning with doughnut economics
Nanaimo loves a good story about itself. And for the past five years, city hall has been selling a particularly appealing one: that this mid-sized Vancouver Island port town, population 110,000, is a pioneering model for the future of economics — the first municipality in North America to adopt “doughnut economics” as the guiding framework for all civic planning.
It is a grand story. The only problem is that nearly one in eleven working Nanaimo residents can't find a job.
With a municipal election approaching, residents deserve a clear-eyed look at where this experiment came from, who drove it, what it has cost, and whether the numbers tell the same story that the press releases do.
Points to Ponder
1. Should a 5–4 council vote have set Nanaimo’s governing direction for the next 25 years?
2. How much has actually been spent on consultants, reports, frameworks, scorecards, and awareness programs?
3. If Nanaimo’s unemployment rate is among the worst in the country, why is job creation not the urgent priority?
4. Five years later, why is the city still developing the measurements to prove whether the experiment is working?
Bottom line: Nanaimo taxpayers deserve more than slogans, awards, and consultant language. They deserve clear costs, clear measurements, and clear results.
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