The Rural Voice, 2004-06, Page 29Canada's heartland be taken off life
support and allowed to die a natural
death.
"Most of rural Canada cannot
sustain itself," Solomon claimed the
Panel on the Role of Government
said in a little-known report, though
those who actually looked up the
report on the internet found little
similarity between his version and
the short section devoted to rural
areas. "Rural residents need help to
cover basic needs, from airfare to city
hospitals for their medical needs to
subsidized energy for their homes.
Rural towns need provincial
subsidies to cover up to 90 per cent
of their infrastructure needs. Rural
industries, agriculture above all, need
subsidies. too. If the subsidies
vanished. so, too. would most
farming. logging and mining in
remote areas.
"Last week (when the report was
released) marks a turning point. at
least in one government's perception
of the rural economy... The panel
concluded that much of rural Canada
is economically unsustainable. that it
is futile to try to artificially sustain
rural industry, that population decline
is inevitable. and that the government
should abandon regional
development programs.
"Instead. the panel concluded. the
government should retrain young
people in rural areas who are willing
to move away from their
communities as part of a rural
restructuring and — by implication
— an eventual abandonment of much
of rural Ontario."
While Solomon's extremist views
may seem ridiculous for those
familiar with rural life, the fact he
was given free reign in a major
national newspaper shows the
widening gap between urban
perception and rural reality and it
could influence young professionals
who already think there's no life
beyond Mississauga.
The danger in not being able to
recruit young graduates is that the
current group of professionals is
aging. Dr. Caslick was quoted as
saying the number of new. large -
animal vets is not keeping up with
the number of retirements.
In health care, the average age of
nurses is 43, family doctors, 46 and
dentists, 45. A 2002 study of the
health care labour market by the
Grey Bruce flurori Perth District
Health Council fouid 75 per cent of
health agencies in the region had a
"fair amount" or `a great deal of
difficulty" filling vacancies.
While not as life-threatening as
the lack of medical professions, if
enough accountants can't be found to
do the work in rural Ontario. Reed
says, farmers may
city to get their a
done and urban acc
be familiar with
farming.
rofessionals
p
Rourke. a fo
physician who
to solve the rural
know the solution i
perceptions that
ave to go to the
counting work
untants may not
he realities of
ike Dr. James
mer Goderich
as worked hard
octor shortage,
to break down
keep young
graduates from even considering
locating in a small tou n. He strove
to get young medical ,tudents to do
training stints in rural hospitals to
learn there are interest ng challenges
not just mind -numbingly long hours
in rural areas.
To help rural communities
overcome the problem. The Ontario
Rural Council put together a source
book for rural recruitment. While
some of it may apply only to medical
professionals it may become essential
that many of the same recruitment
practices are applied to other
professionals. While communities are
intensely aware of the medical
shortage, however. they haven't
become aware of the shortages.
The TORC approach includes
marketing the community to share
the information about working in a
rural community and the advantages
rural life may have for them.
The approach advises advertising
the community through web sites.
professional publications and job
registries. Once personal contact is
made the needs and desires of the
candidate need to be investigated and
the candidate needs to be invited to
the community with tours of such
things as local schools. potential
homes and offices.
Having to beg highly -paid
professionals like doctors. lawyers
and accountants may be hard to
swallow for hard-hit farm families
but it's apparently part of the new
reality if rural areas are to maintain
the infrastructure farmers depend
on.0
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