The Rural Voice, 1989-12, Page 24DIALOGUE
RURAL SOCIETY in the 1990s
If solutions to the structural problems in rural
Canada laid bare in the 1980s aren't clear, at least
the debate is lively. At a recent conference held by
the Canadian Agricultural and Rural Restructur-
ing Group (ARRG), bureaucrats, academics, and
rural citizens took some steps on the long road to
supporting and sustaining rural society. They
hope their meeting will be the first of many
discussions along the way.
G
by Gord Wainman
overnments finally appear
willing to recognize warnings
by "gloom and doomers" of the ser-
ious social fractures in rural Canada
brought on by the 1980s farm finan-
cial crisis.
And at a mid-October policy
seminar in Saskatoon, bureaucrats,
academics, and rural citizens indicated
that they were ready to do something
about it.
"We've seen over the 1980s the
worst financial crisis and financial
problems we have experienced since
at least the 1930s," said Wayne Jones
of Agriculture Canada in Ottawa.
The Sustainable Rural Commu-
nities policy seminar, organized by
the Canadian Agricultural and Rural
Restructuring Group, was told that the
problems spread beyond farm gates
in Canada, the United States, and
Europe. They are also fracturing the
larger populations of farm -dependent
communities.
But it's not just the farm commu-
nities suffering, the executive director
of the Canadian Association of Single
Industry Towns told the meeting.
"The decline of rural and remote
regions is frontier cancer, eating at the
heart of our nation and its ability to
create wealth," said Denis Young.
Young's group represents more
than 4,000 forest, mining, fishing,
and farm -dependent communities,
one-third of them in serious trouble.
They represent 3.5 million people,
more than the population of Toronto.
"If a third of Metropolitan Toronto
were in decline it would be a national
crisis, but you never hear about the
third of these rural communities being
in crisis in Canada," Young charged.
Sadly lacking, said Young and
others, is a coherent rural development
policy in Canada, a policy that encour-
ages entrepreneurs and puts the power
for change into the hands of rural
people.
Huron County planner Gary
Davidson told the meeting he saw
many similarities between the decline
of rural communities in Canada, in
Europe, and in the United States, and
added that the squeeze won't ease up
in the near future.
"Rural communities in Canada
will be operating in a very chaotic en-
vironment over the next decade. The
question we have to turn to is what
do we have to help them respond,"
Davidson said.
The Canadian Agricultural and
Rural Restructuring Group, formed
to promote research and debate about
the impacts of global restructuring on
rural society, is part of an international
network of Western Europeans and
Americans funded by government and
private foundations.
"A fragmentation of policy and
programs is one major reason why
many rural communities in Canada are
not sustainable," the group said in a
news release about the meeting.
The main conclusions from the
three-day seminar were summarized:
1. This is a period of increasing
provincial interest and activity in rural
development policy. Further assist-
ance could be provided by a national
rural policy which affirms the impor-
tance of rural life and economy in
Canada and makes a clear commit-
ment to sustaining rural communities.
2. Rural communities are very
diverse, not only between different
primary resource areas, but within
sectors and regions of Canada. Rural
programs need to be flexible to allow
for the great variety of conditions in
rural Canada.
3. Many rural communities have
a strong interdependent relationship
with agriculture: farming depends
upon local communities for services
and additional employment, while
communities depend on agricultural
incomes for much of their economy.
Rural policy needs to be consistent
with, but separate from, agricultural
and other policy areas.
"The decline of rural and
remote regions is frontier
cancer, eating at the heart
of our nation and its ability
to create wealth."
4. Rural communities depend on
people. Rural policy should recognize
the importance of capacity -building in
individual, organizational, and com-
munity resources (people participa-
tion).
5. Rural policy should be based on
the accumulated lessons and extensive
experience of rural and community de-
velopment in Canada and elsewhere.
6. Comparative research on
the experience of sustaining rural
communities in Canada and other
countries is required.
7. Research on new indicators of
22 THE RURAL VOICE