The federal government will consider whether immigrants should be
encouraged to settle in rural areas as one way to stem the trend to
urbanization in Canada, says Canada’s rural minister.
Andy Mitchell, secretary of state for rural affairs, said he plans to
talk to immigration minister Denis Coderre about how to do it.
“As recently as 1971, about a third of in-bound immigrants went into
rural areas,” he said. “Now, almost all in-bound immigration is going
to our large urban centres, so that’s an issue. The talent, the new
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ideas, the energy that new Canadians bring should be part of the rural
Canada experience as well as the urban Canada experience.”
He said it also is important to convince Canadians that rural Canada
offers a chance to make a living, as well as a good environment, lower
crime and other benefits. “Our objective has to be to make sure that
people see they can have a good economic future in rural Canada,” said
Mitchell.
He said government policies that range from infrastructure investment
and loan programs to a promised extension of high-speed internet
connections are part of the answer.
But rural communities also must decide what their strengths are and
what help is needed.
However, Mitchell insisted that recent census figures showing Canada as
one of the world’s most urbanized countries – close to 80 percent of
Canadians live in communities larger than 10,000 – has been over-played
as a decline of rural Canada.
“The reality is that the population of rural Canada overall actually
increased between 1996 and 2001,” he said. “What is really happening is
that urban Canada is growing at a much faster pace than rural Canada.
But rural Canada is not emptying out.”
He acknowledged that in some cases, including Saskatchewan, rural
numbers actually have declined.
Mitchell said the census results are not a condemnation of the success
of government rural policies. The urban-rural imbalance would be even
worse if the government had not “recognized the importance of executing
its policies in a way that is sensitive to rural Canada.”
In most areas, the rural population is growing. Close to 60 percent of
new small businesses are started in rural areas. He said the future for
rural Canada is to plug it into the “knowledge-based economy” that
allows Canadians to prosper.
