Urban youth painted a picture of their utopia and wound up describing what most rural communities already have.
Keleah Herron, who led a workshop at the Saskatchewan Youth Summit exploring where and how youth want to live, found that city dwellers craved a sense of community within the larger city.
They wanted a full range of business, recreation and cultural services a walk or short public transit ride away, she said.
More than 600 delegates, largely younger than 30, gathered in Saskatoon Feb. 3 at the first ever summit, organized by the Saskatchewan government to find ways to attract youth in the province.
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Herron, general manager of the Southwest Regional Economic Development Authority in Swift Current, Sask., said rural youth were largely pleased with their strong community spirit but needed basic services and core funding to sustain them.
“We know how to get things done and how to work together and are very proud of that,” said Herron, who was raised in Saltcoats, Sask.
“In order to keep going, we need our basic services met.”
Rural youth cited shopping and services in town as priorities for residents and access to technologies like high speed internet for attracting business and investment.
Glentworth, Sask., was cited as one growing community where people are returning to raise their families in a safe setting, live in an affordable house and walk to the grocery store.
The town and the southwest region have participated in Action Southwest, a collaboration of community groups seeking to attract and retain business and people, and make improvements in the quality of life for the region.
Swift Current business owner Scott Lamb wants to see incentives for small businesses that choose rural areas, calling it “a kind of thank you for staying in the province.”
“It’s an acknowledgement that you are staying here and doing something nice,” he said. “You need something to get a business off the ground.”
Youth should be encouraged to foster and grow their own ideas, said Lamb, who supported programs like mentoring to help cultivate future workers.
Lamb, 23, established an excavating business in Swift Current last spring because of his ties to farming and service clubs in the region. His close relationships have opened up jobs for his company, which will add a second employee this spring.
Taren Lynn Trew grew up in Consort, Alta., and hopes to raise a family in a small town one day with her Saskatchewan-born husband.
“It was a curse and a blessing that I had 300 parents,” she said of growing up in Consort.
“I couldn’t even get home to admit to my dad I’d done something wrong before he already knew about it.”
She praised her hometown’s efforts to engage families, citing Consort’s co-ordination of adult education programs with child care and youth activities.
Such programming is needed to attract youth.
“We already have unique communities, but we don’t have the rest to keep them alive,” said Teran.
Dan Wilson, originally from Unity, Sask., said his town’s participation in Communities in Bloom has reaped big rewards. The town got together and involved groups like the schools in planting flowers to make the town more attractive and in the process helped cut down on vandalism, he said.
“It makes people feel like they’re contributing,” he said.
Wilison would like to see more long-term funding to sustain basic services and provide good wages for workers.
He cited the town’s current problem finding enough money to hire a lifeguard for the pool.
“Funding swimming or recreational hockey brings in not just groups, but families,” he said. “It’s a domino effect.”
The allure of cheap housing, little road traffic and short commutes are among reasons many are returning to smaller communities and leaving behind the hectic pace of life that exists in such places as oil-rich Alberta.
Trew compared the price of her former home in Regina at $89,000 with one available in Coronach at slightly less than $10,000.
“Life without a mortgage is a big draw,” she said.
