Tough times for local economy

The economy in the Northumberland area is struggling.

We're not alone, of course. Things are tough pretty much everywhere, except the oil patches of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and Bruce County, where Bruce Power continues to pump out the nuclear power to energy-hungry consumers.

But this hasn't been a great week for Northumberland residents.

First came the news that General Motors is laying off another 500 workers from its Oshawa plant, and that it lost $2.5 billion — yes, that's billion with a 'b' — last quarter — yes, that's quarter as in three measly months of 2008 — and there's rumblings that the company will declare bankruptcy by year's end without assistance from the provincial and/or federal government.

See ya later, financial security and a once-thriving housing market in eastern Durham Region, as well as the western parts of Northumberland County, which include Port Hope and Cobourg. Job insecurity translates into less spending, which translates into a depressed market, which translates into a recession.

It's a scary thought, but I think people are seeing the writing on the wall.

Then, just yesterday, we discovered that Cameco's Port Hope UF6 operations could be shutting down soon because of a lack of a deal with its uranium supplier. This obviously is bad news for the local economy, as Cameco employs 450 people, and a vast majority have a connection to the UF6 plant. Although the company says it hasn't made any decision about layoffs or whether they'll even close the plant at month's end, it's hard to imagine they'll keep people working when there's no product heading out the door.

The soonest a new supplier could be found is mid-2009, and who knows if that's even possible.

So things aren't particularly rosy in west Northumberland right now. Hopefully something drastic (but positively drastic) can happen to right the ship, because otherwise, the downturn may not end here.