INTERVIEW WITH

HARVEY WEBBER

Mr. Webber is a local merchant who has been heavily involved in the economic renewal endeavors for Cape Breton and the rest of Atlantic Canada. Mr. Webber continues to sit on many committees which share his vision, of improving the economic condition of our island. Mr. Webber is always willing to share his knowledge with those who have a genuine interest in the economic condition of our region.

ER Could you please enlighten us on the Atlantic Canada Plus Movement that took place in the early 1970's?

HW I grew up in a retail family where I understood the economy of Canada to be slanted against the Atlantic Region. It was Central Canada who was to prosper from our local people. We sent billions of dollars to Ontario and other major centers to obtain goods we required. In other words, we were sending far too much money into Central Canada when we were quite capable of producing products here in Atlantic Canada that was equally good or better than our competitors. If we buy what we ourselves make, grow, catch, assemble or manufacture we then leave a big portion of that dollar in the Atlantic Provinces. This was the basic premise behind the Atlantic Canada Plus Movement.

I feel that the public truly cares if a product is Atlantic produced or grown. There was a field test done in major local grocery stores where Graves products received a five to six percent increase after placing a sign stating it was Atlantic produced.

In essence, we the merchants, had to consider that in order to be competitive we had to offer products that were of equal value, service and pricing if our consumer was to support our endeavor of the Atlantic Canada Plus Movement.

I was responsible to survey the big businesses in our local area to see why they purchased from National distributors outside the Atlantic Region. I was told that the product ordered came directly from head office. They were unaware of the merchandise they would receive until it arrived. My main focus then was to meet with the top officials and place pressure on them to check their distributors to see the percentage of products shipped from Atlantic Canada. This applied pressure caused some of the leading chains to consider purchasing products from Atlantic Canada. Today we have the Think Cape Breton First Movement which I am proud to be a part of.