“Community spirit” doesn’t come close to summarizing the career of the Hon. Marilyn More, but it would be a good place to start. A lifelong community organizer, activist, volunteer, school board trustee, and now provincial politician, Ms. More lives and breathes Nova Scotia.

Her career started in education as a junior high teacher, and for years she served at the municipal and provincial levels on Nova Scotia’s school boards (indeed, being the first woman elected to a school board in Nova Scotia, in 1978). Her long-standing roles with the Rural Volunteers Project, the NS Falls Prevention Initiative, and Community Links – a provincial organization promoting healthy communities and quality of life for Nova Scotia seniors – stress the community development and volunteerism that have characterized her career.

A successful shift towards provincial politics in 2003 saw the MLA for Dartmouth South – Portland Valley serving as the NDP’s Caucus Chair and Chair of the all-party Legislative Standing Committee on Community Services. Broadening her involvement in development, More sat as a member of the Public Accounts and Economic Development Standing Committees. Following her re-election in 2006, More was appointed by Darrell Dexter as the first female Party Whip in Nova Scotia.

Two successive re-elections have, however, brought her back to education. This time, however, it is as Nova Scotia’s Minister of Education in the newly formed majority NDP government. But her responsibilities do not end there: More has also serves as Minister of Labour and Workforce Development, and Minister of Volunteerism.

This is a busy woman. When I spoke with her in July, More was still in her office at 8:30 pm, and you could hear the phones ringing in the background.

Our conversation was wide-ranging, but throughout, you had the sense of a person with a canny understanding of how small communities fit into “the big picture.” She spoke with pleasure of the NDP’s recent election victory, and her sense of the average Nova Scotian’s “readiness for change,” how “folks from all ages – people in their 70s and 80s – and all classes were voting for the NDP for the first time.” Her deep roots in local and provincial communities have made her intently aware of the problems of maintaining the labour and professional workforces in Atlantic Canada.

As a member of cabinet, she will be tackling directly the NDP’s election commitment to “Ensuring more young people stay and build a life in Nova Scotia.” I spoke with the Hon. Marilyn More on July 6, 2009.

Alex Willis: At the recent 2009 East Coast Connected Atlantic Business Summit, participants – both panel speakers and attendees – stressed the need to shift away from terms like “job shortages” to instead reconsider the importance of “skill shortages.” Will this shift in focus affect your priorities as minister?

Marilyn More: We’ve just announced that our focus is going to be on what I’m going to call “upskilling.” We’re going to put a lot of time and energy into the skills training of people who are actually currently in the workplace, and we’d like to work alongside employers while doing this. And we think that by encouraging young people, and people of all ages to stay behind in their home communities, that we can revitalize them from the ground up. By creating jobs in those communities, we can then focus on skill upgrades.

One thing that we understand is that there’s not an employment divide between rural and urban Nova Scotia, but more of an interdependence. We can’t do without each other, so we’ll be working collaboratively to address that.

AW: University and college education is an area that Nova Scotia clearly excels in, nationally. Thinking about your comments about the “urban-rural divide,” however, what are some of the issues of local access, or domestic access to higher education, in Nova Scotia?

MM: We currently do have ease of access to both community colleges and universities in Nova Scotia, in that they are spread from one end of the province to the other. But I think one of the main issues in terms of access would be the need for affordable tuition. This has certainly been a strong interest of ours over the years, and we’re going to be working with universities and colleges to ensure that programs are as affordable and practical as possible.

AW: Another priority which was identified at the 2009 Atlantic Business Summit was the need for Atlantic Canada to “think globally” when it comes to economic development. Now, you’re someone who has spent a lot of time on school boards. How do you balance the efforts to keep young people in province, early on, with the need to compete on a global level?

MM: One way is definitely to promote excellence of education, so that our young people, when they graduate, are as competitive as possible. Now, it’s only natural that some will go away for post-graduate studies and specialized training. But what we would like to do is attract them back to the province, once they’re ready to settle down and raise a family, and want to establish a career in one locale with a commitment to that place.

AW: I’m getting the sense that community development plays a strong role in your plan as Minister of Education. Can you speak a little bit more about the links you wish to establish between community development and education?

MM: I think it’s very important to consider that people in communities have the expertise and the knowledge to solve their own problems. It is largely a question of facilitating these needs to find the solutions, to give them the tools, skills, and information that they need to solve these problems.

My background is actually in community and social development, so I’ve seen this process and need over the years. I realize that there’s no simple answer to all the pressures that various communities are facing, but I still think that people who live there are best able to define the solution and work together. So, I think it’s the role of government, not to get in their way, but to help them reach those solutions. Community-specific approaches will really help to revitalize rural regions especially, I think.

AW: Atlantic Canada as a whole faces challenges in maintaining and growing its skilled labour workforce. One way of addressing this is through immigration. What is the relationship of your office with the province’s domestic and international immigration strategies?

MM: We’ve got a direct connection, especially thinking about international students. Many of our school boards promote international students coming in and taking part of their secondary school programs. We also have some international schools that use Nova Scotian curricula, especially in China, and strong international studies programs at our universities. These are some of the ways we can attract international students, to show them the lifestyle and economic opportunities of our province. If they appreciate our lifestyle here, we encourage them to settle down, start a business, and raise a family.

AW: One of your roles in Cabinet is to serve as Minister of Volunteerism. You’re someone with a long personal history of volunteer participation. East Coast Connected very much values the act of volunteering. How do you see the act of volunteering as helping to facilitate someone’s professional or employment development?

MM: They’re great learning opportunities. I’ve learned as much from my volunteering experience as I have from formal education! You learn new skills, you meet interesting people, you work together in teams to address complex issues and crises...It’s a tremendous opportunity for people of all ages. I actually sponsor a scholarship for middle school and high school graduates in all the schools in my constituency to promote volunteerism.

I think Education and Labour Workforce Development are excellent partners, so I’m really glad to see this mix of ministerial responsibilities. I think there are opportunities in all three areas to aid one another.

AW: It certainly struck me as an unusual combination of responsibilities, at the outset. But thinking about the overlap between volunteering and skills training, there would seem to be a lot of overlap.

MM: Definitely. I think it is an interesting and exciting mix of potential partnerships there, and everyone’s quite excited. Actually, on July 1st, we transferred significant monies, programs, services, and clients from the EI program, from the federal to the provincial responsibility, through the Labour Market Development Agreement. Many people on the Labour Workforce Development side were, not so long ago, were employees of the Department of Education.

AW: Well that should make transitioning into your new job significantly easier.

MM: It certainly will! [laughs]

AW: So, if you could name one thing to attract ex-patriot Nova Scotians, or Atlantic Canadians, back to your province, what would it be?

MM: We need to get the message out that Nova Scotia has a thriving economy, and is an excellent place for families of all ages. Anyone who was raised here and has had experience elsewhere, well, we’d just love to welcome them home.

AW: Thank you for speaking with me today, Ms. More.