"Intrusive Rentier"

I was reading a "Review of the Proposed Prosperity Project..." by MiningWatch and came across the term, "Intrusive Rentier". I had to look it up and find out what it meant.

The report said:

Mining projects are notorious for the creation of an “Intrusive Rentier” syndrome in the communities and regions where they are located. This term is used by Polèse & Shearmur (2006)1 to describe an observed effect in regions dominated by a small number of highly capitalized (and high wage) employers.

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I'm glad someone is thinking of these things. The MiningWatch report also waded into the fact that the "Economic Benefits" analysis provided by Taseko is very one-sided and confusing, and does not include any attempt at true cost-benefit analysis. Everyone knows these things up front, but the lust by a few to make a killing trumps the need for many to look beyond a few years.

The report states:

It is pretty clear that, at least for the first few years, low income renters in the region will be faced with a vacancy rate of less than zero, escalating rents and over‐crowding. Most of these will be single parent women and Aboriginal people, but the pressure will extend to low wage earners across the region.
Eventually more accommodation will be built, and trailer parks hastily thrown up ( with all the regulatory hassles that entails) but that will take years, and after 2012, when the mine starts to wind down, the owners of those units will once again face a dramatic drop in market value.

So What's an Intrusive Rentier?

According to a report from the Centre - Urbanisation Culture Société, Intrusive Rentier refers to a syndrome where where a large employer bids up salary and benefit expectations to the detriment oflocal entrepreneurship. In the case of the Prosperity Mine, it refers to the effects of a single employer paying very high wages to a small group of employees, but enough to skew standards of living and social inequities.

If you live in the South Cariboo and have tried to buy land, you may have noticed another version of this syndrome, but in this case the Intrusive Rentiers are those from the coast that have pushed real estate prices beyond the locals' reach.

You may have also seen this if you live in a sawmill town (while the mills are doing well, unlike right now...), and noticed how one group in town is prosperous and another is almost equally UNprosperous.

Intrusive Rentier's Syndrome. Now you know!