PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. – Anita Tardif needs innovation to transform
the rural Prairies from the job-desert that much of it is.
“There aren’t any jobs for me there unless I want to farm,” said
Tardif, who grew up on a family farm near Ferland, Sask.
“From what I’ve seen in my own family, it’s tough to get by on only
farming.”
Her frustrations were among those discussed by people from across rural
Canada at the rural innovation summit in Portage la Prairie on June 7.
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The summit was a one-day event to allow rural people to discuss how
innovation could affect their sector of Canadian society. It was one of
35 sessions being held across the country leading up to the national
innovation summit that will be held in Toronto in November.
The Portage meeting had participants from every province and territory
in Canada. The problems facing small prairie farm towns contrasted in
some ways with the challenges facing Newfoundland fishing communities
and northern Indian reserves. But there were similarities in the
problems they all face: the loss of young people; the shrinking of
local services; and the unwillingness of people inside their own
communities to co-operate to set up new ventures.
There were also similarities in the suggestions many made for how to
turn things around.
Langham, Sask., farmer Mitch Ozeroff said rural people need to think
beyond their immediate location and support regional development.
Margaret Skinner of Wilkie, Sask., said the problem in rural areas
isn’t in finding a few good ideas for innovation or a few people to put
their money where their mouths are.
The problem is finding enough mouths with enough money to get a project
off the drawing board.
Skinner was instrumental in organizing both the West Central Pelleting
plant that was built in Wilkie and in setting up the community group
that is building a pelleting plant in Wolseley, Sask.
She said neither project would have gone ahead without support from a
wide region.
“If you rely on only the people in one town, it’ll never happen,” said
Skinner.
“You have to find people in a number of communities that are interested
in making things happen.
“It’s a matter of finding the people who will pick up the leadership
and put together a blueprint for how they’re going to succeed in their
particular community.”
Internet access, or the lack of it in many rural areas, was brought up
by many of the participants, and by Andy Mitchell, secretary of state
for rural development, who repeated the government’s promise to extend
broadband access to all of rural Canada by 2005.
But at the end of the summit, Saskatchewan agribusiness promoter Paul
Martin cautioned participants not to look at internet access as a
panacea. Having good access doesn’t mean much by itself.
“Having the hookup doesn’t matter if you don’t use it to create
something.”
He said rural communities need to be less cautious about supporting
their visionaries.
“I call them the crazies,” said Martin. “And we’ve got to cultivate
them. Your assignment is to wrap your arms around those crazies, water
them, nurture them, pamper them, protect them, promote them, because
they’re the ones who make the difference.”
For Tardif, who has seen her home town slowly shrivel as its businesses
and facilities closed, an innovative idea that took root would solve
many of her problems and give her the life and community she wants.
For women, trying to live in rural areas and also have jobs that
support their families and farms is difficult, she said. Her mother,
who lives on their Ferland farm, has to commute an hour and a half each
way for her job as a nurse.
Tardif lives and works in Regina from Monday to Friday, then commutes
to rural Saskatchewan for the weekends.
“I feel the connection down there and I want to be helping there, and
I’d like to get back there.”
