I’m a city slicker, and though most of my career I’ve worked in small towns — and loved it — I think I may always be a city slicker.

I grew up one of the largest cities in the Maritimes, and I had no idea where my food came from (I guessed the wheat came from the Prairies and the fish from the Atlantic Ocean), and never gave a thought to where the wood to build houses came from.

Then I grew up, and at my first job in Peace River, Alberta, I learned where some of the canola and wheat and beef comes from.

In Prince George, I learned where some of the wood comes from.

In Agassiz, I learned where some of the corn comes from.

And here in Williams Lake, I’ve learned where some of the beef, copper, logs and log homes, and more of the wood comes from.

Williams Lake is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of communities across Canada that produce resources and whose economy depends on the production and sale of those resources.

For better or worse, that’s where we are. When a recession hits and nobody is building houses anymore, our forest industry takes a hit devastating to lumber companies and their employees and their families.

We have enough troubles and pain without people who don’t live here tsk-tsk-ing over our “cyclical industries” and our “regrettable addiction” to “a boom and bust economy.”

In early May, Mining Watch Canada program co-ordinator Ramsey Hart came to Williams Lake from Ottawa and visited with local First Nations, the Council of Canadians and the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society — not the Chamber of Commerce or any business or political leaders — and told the Tribune: “I think the questions need to be debated or discussed in a more rounded way,” he said. “Does Williams Lake want to continue to base its economy on volatile commodities?”

By all means, let’s debate. What will replace forestry and mining as the backbone of Williams Lake’s economy?

Tourism is one example I hear.

The City of Williams Lake, the Cariboo Regional District, and the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association do wonderful work in promoting our region to the entire world, and bringing tourist dollars here.

But do tourists pay millions in payrolls and in taxes? No.

And tourism is about the only example I hear.

Nobody seems to be able to answer the question (and I can’t either): how does Williams Lake survive without its industries?

David Williams of the Friends of the Nemaiah Valley (who lives on Vancouver Island) hasn’t answered it either.

He says Williams Lake has become addicted to a boom and bust economy.

“That’s regrettable,” he told Tribune reporter Erin Hitchcock.

“That’s really too bad, but I don’t think the people of the Chilcotin should be made to pay the price for that.”

Regrettable is not the word families suffering from job loss here in Williams Lake would choose to use.

And pay what price? Haven’t we all benefited from our industries and the jobs they provide?

Or the tax money they put into the City and CRD coffers?

Or their contributions to charities and community organizations?

Wouldn’t we all stand to benefit from the millions Prosperity would pump into our economy?

People need to work. Economies depend on the sale of goods and services.

Wood, log homes, beef, copper, gold — these are all the goods we produce and sell here.

Who are Hart and Williams to tell our community what it should produce or how it should generate the taxes needed to provide services like hospitals and fire departments and police and parks and recreation facilities?

Prosperity, as a columnist pointed out earlier this year, buys Williams Lake time to find new goods and services to produce and to increase tourism.

But as long as people need wood for their homes, beef to put on their dinner tables, copper and gold for their wiring and electronics, Williams Lake will produce it.

And sell it.

The city has been through booms and busts before, just like every other resource community in Canada.

I believe we’ll get through this bust, and I believe Prosperity will be a big part of that.

And until Hart or Williams — or anyone else who complains about our big, bad industries — comes up with another way to keep Williams Lake vibrant, maybe they should remember that hundreds of families depend directly on those people who cut and mill logs or mine copper, and the ripple effect doesn’t take long at all to reach the rest of us.

All of us.

Hopefully some good ideas will come out of the City’s Imagine Our Future process. See the Tribune Weekend for a story on what it’s all about.

We’d love to hear your suggestions on what could supplement or replace these industries in our city and region. Send them in to editor@wltribune.com.