Suddenly, something big seems to be adrift. Here in Nova Scotia, after the Trenton railcar works near New Glasgow and the Maple Leaf poultry plant at Canard, now it’s the Moirs chocolate factory in Dartmouth.

All closing. Moving to Mexico, Winnipeg and wherever. How concerned should we be and what can we do about it?

At the very least, there’s a wakeup call here, a summons to dust off our thinking caps lest we turn out to be one of the plucked chickens of the global economy.

The time has come to put the economy on the frontburner in a way that it hasn’t been for some time.

It hasn’t been because, in spite of downturns in some sectors, economic growth has been brisk for some 15 years.

A recent report of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC) points out that this was true for Atlantic Canada as a whole and was mostly due to energy exports to the U.S., although call centres and rising tourism were also important factors.

The fly in the ointment is that exports of manufactured goods and other non-energy merchandise have stagnated since 2000, as exporters struggled against low-cost producers elsewhere, rising energy and transportation costs, increased costs for security at the border, and a nearly 40 per cent increase in the value of the Canadian dollar since 2003.

Nova Scotia has lost some 6,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.

What the Moirs and other closures tell us is that the trend is deepening.

There are other factors, too.

Forestry has plunged because the housing bubble has finally burst in the U.S. And tourism drifts down along with rising energy costs, likely to never rise again to previous heights.

And it’s not just us.

There are questions over the larger North American economy that could give us more jolts. The fact that the world is awash in surplus cash and the stock markets spiral ever higher is not necessarily a good sign.

Some economists suspect a bubble about to burst — especially if pricked by any sudden shock, like an oil-price spike.

What can we do about all this? There are no easy answers.

But at least we’re familiar with the question, since what to do about economic development has been a dominant theme in our history since Confederation.

Let’s say that it’s back.

Of course, the debate over the economy never died out, it just drifted out of the news.

One of its key elements is how to relate to the global economy — should we give in to its every whim, or should we attempt to carve out some of our own space? — since it is now clear that its dangers are as great as its benefits.

Within that question is another: when it comes to grants, programs, tax benefits and other stimuli, where do you put the emphasis?

On large corporations, many of which look increasingly like old-fashioned runaway shops that take the money and decamp, or do you try harder to grow the local entrepreneur, the local co-op, even the local municipal energy project?

Within that again, are the large issues of environment and transportation.

Transportation to distant markets is already difficult from Atlantic Canada, and rising costs will make it even more difficult.

On the other hand, rising transportation costs will make local production for the local market more attractive.

They will also make rail transport more attractive, which could bring significant investments this way if East Coast ports become the landing point for continental trade from the Far East.

Out of the news, the economic think tanks have been chewing on these issues.

NovaKnowledge, a membership-based group that emphasizes innovation and the “knowledge economy,” and which gathers views from businesses across Nova Scotia through debates and luncheons, stresses the basics: the need for better access to equity capital for start-up companies, the need to tailor the education system more closely to the economy, the economic benefits for companies of energy conservation, and others.

APEC suggests that, among other things, exporters create their own supply chains to reduce production costs and become key suppliers in the global supply chains of other companies.

It also suggests placing a new emphasis on efficiency, on forging links with international partners, diversifying markets, and so on.

In a sense, none of this is new.

The question is, rather, how much social, political and business energy we can muster to address what looks like a new round of difficult economic times.