The Ontario Federation of
Agriculture is letting rural communities know they could apply for a share of
$15 billion of Ontario investments in infrastructure outside of the Toronto
area.
And on the same day, the
University of Guelph issued a news release about a report by three of its
professors who say rural Canadians have been neglected and “it’s time to
reinvest in rural Canada.”
“Without question, we’ve been ignoring rural Canada,” said Al
Lauzon, a professor in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development
(SEDRD), who helped write the “State of Rural Canada” report. SEDRD professors
Wayne Caldwell and David Douglas are also authors.
The report was produced by
the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF) and the Rural Policy
Learning Commons, an international network funded by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The study – issued during
the Building Community Resilience conference in Summerside, P.E.I. – is
intended for policy-makers seeking to better understand and work with rural
regions and people. “We also hope it will help get rural on the federal
election agenda,” said Lauzon, who is the president of CRRF.
The Ontario Federation of
Agriculture’s news release says “there are endless ways for
how and where this $15 billion dollar investment should be divided to build up
communities all across the province.
“OFA’s formal submission to the Ministry of
Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure contains two key parts --
four guiding principles for any new infrastructure project, and OFA’s specific
recommendations for how the dollars should be allocated outside the GTHA.
“The four guiding principles are: minimize
the loss of prime agricultural land, ensure rural Ontario businesses and farms
have access to comparable services and infrastructure as their urban
counterparts, use the proceeds from the sale of Hydro One to fund
infrastructure in rural communities, and consider the needs of modern
agricultural equipment with transportation infrastructure.
“We believe these important principles should be
addressed with any new infrastructure funding program, ensuring agriculture
does not pay the cost for community improvements.”
Rural Canada
is vital to the nation’s economy, the university report says, citing food
production, resource extraction, energy generation, clean water and air, and
carbon sequestration.
But Canada has run down
capital invested earlier in rural regions and has allowed community development
to erode, the report says. Rural areas have also taken a back seat in policy
development.
“Fundamentally, we have
forgotten to invest in rural areas and small towns,” Lauzon said.
“We have work to do, at all
levels, if we want a sustainable future for rural Canada in the 21st century.”
Challenges in rural Canada
include an aging population, workforce shortages, and gaps in human and
financial capital, says the report.
But rural Canada responds
in innovative ways to low-cost global competition, and is addressing such
issues as sustainability, food security, and balancing resource development and
economic diversification.
Rural communities are
re-imagining themselves to fit new aspirations and service needs, and they lead
in reconciliation and wealth-sharing with aboriginal communities.
“There is a lot to learn
from rural Canada,” Lauzon said. “People often forget how rural communities and
regions contribute economically and culturally to Canada.
