If what's been reported in the Cape Breton Post is true, today is a very bad day for the tech sector in Cape Breton and an even worse day for the employees of TechLink Entertainment. While we haven't seen exact figures posted yet it seems that somewhere between 50 and 60 people in Cape Breton, all directly involved in the tech sector, are now unemployed.

There isn't a positive spin to be put on this for TechLink or its employees, and any attempt to do so would be crass. This sucks. For all the criticisms that will be thrown towards the company regarding how it was managed and how the government was involved, first and foremost, we need to recognize that in a lot of ways what separates these individuals from us in these circumstances is pure luck. Even in a strong, balanced economy, none of us are totally secure. Having genuine empathy in this situation is of paramount importance. For all of our ideologies and views we're all more similar than not. We're all trying to do the best we can for ourselves and our region.

And our region needs the help. Even at the most conservative of estimates, following todays events we're still looking at millions of dollars of payroll being pulled out of our local economy. This will be felt throughout the region. It will be felt in our housing market, in our stores and restaurants, and everywhere else in ways we can't even fully grasp.

But we, more than most, should be able to grasp the complexity of this situation and its impact on us. After all this isn't the first time that this region has lost one of largest employers in a specific sector. The last time this happened that specific sector was essentially wiped out and our economy collapsed. We suffered decades of local economic recession. The demographics, social dynamics and economic elements of our region were completely thrown out of whack and in many ways have yet to recover.

That won't happen this time. That's not how the tech sector works (and, admittedly, it's not big enough to have that much of an impact on the region. We haven't put all of our eggs in one basket, nor should we.) The last time this happened many of the individuals who lost their jobs had to leave to find work. It can even be argued that the cultural atmosphere fostered by big industry, and the legacy it has provided us, has resulted in a great many people opting to train into fields where they know they will have to relocate to make viable use of their skills. This time can be different. There's still a sector to employ them. Furthermore, a great many of the positions they hold are able to work remotely. The can either find employment elsewhere in the world and stay here or they can start companies and find clients all over the world, and stay here.

This applies primarily to programmers, salespersons and marketers. Individuals who worked in management and hardware will be less able to work remotely. But the overall diversity of the employee base is a tremendous asset in this situation. We don't need to find 400 jobs for people who did similar jobs in a region where those were the only jobs that were available. We need to find a handful of jobs for people who can write code, we need to find a handful of jobs for people who can sell things, we need to find a handful of jobs for managers, etc. All in a region where you can do those things in a number of different existing companies, and all in an industry where a great many of the individuals who have suffered a major setback today can opt to start their own companies.

We need to mourn the loss of this company and lament the uncertain future faced by a great many of our neighbours today, but we should also celebrate the incredible amount of technical skills and talent that is now available to other employers in our region. We need to celebrate these individuals and view them as available assets or upcoming entrepreneurs.

It would be better if TechLink had stayed viable, continued to grow and passed its own successes on to its employees. Unfortunately that isn't the case. The next best thing would be for as many of these people as possible to continue working here with a minimum amount of retraining and downtime. The last thing we should do is treat this situation the same as when the steel plant closed. It's not.

In the long run, this situation will point to the fact that the tech sector is viable and sustainable even in the face of major setbacks. Additionally, the local tech sector is better positioned now than it has been in a long time to help mitigate the negative impact of these developments on our region.