Good for the gander, good for the goose.

• Author: Robinson, Dave
• Position: ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING

Are you old enough to remember Van Morrison's "Days Like This"? The song has a wonderful line about days when "all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit." It was one of those days when I stumbled on a study from Harvard that answered some questions about Northern Ontario for me.

We all wonder why some resource-rich regions like Alberta and Saskatchewan do so much better than other resource-rich regions like Northern Ontario. And why some communities without resources--think of Singapore and Denmark, and Holland--do well and others basically go nowhere. And why do some boreal regions, like Sweden, Norway and Finland become rich, creative powerhouses while young people flee others--like Northern Ontario?

Now I know some people think Northern Ontario is doing pretty well--and we darned well should be. We are in the early stages of the biggest worldwide resource boom ever. Treadmg water in this economy is probably easier than sinking.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

But it is a real puzzle that a region as rich in resources as Northern Ontario isn't developing. In fact, population is declining over most of the region, and especially in the west of the province. There are lots of talented people: why can't we run the region as well as the Finns or the Norwegians?

The Harvard Project on Indian Economic Development set out to identify the factors critical to the economic success for Indians in the USA. Obviously, some of the lessons should apply to our Canadian First Nations, and they do. Less obvious, but just as important, the lessons apply to all of Northern Ontario.

In "Sovereignty and Nation-building: the Development Challenge in Indian Country Today," Stephen Cornell and Joseph P. Kalt looked at some surprising successes.

The Mississippi Choctaws, for example, have become one of the largest employers in the state of Mississippi. Thousands of non-Indians migrate onto the reservation every day to work in the Choctaws' manufacturing, service, and public sector enterprises.

The White Mountain Apaches have a timber operation that is one of the most productive in the western United States. It regularly outperforms private operators like Weyerhaeuser. Apache enterprises have become the economic anchor of the economy of east-central Arizona. Towns there look to the Apaches as the motor force that pulls them through the winter, and as a major player in the regional economy

In Montana, the tribes of the...