OTTAWA – The federal government must do more to make it clear that rural issues are important to national policy makers, a group of rural development specialists told MPs recently.
They urged federal support for creation of national or regional rural policy institutes that can study and propose policies and projects to keep rural areas going.
“The central government needs to declare its intention of supporting rural Canada,” Tony Fuller, from the University of Guelph’s school of rural planning and development, told the Commons natural resources committee two weeks ago. “What we lack is national leadership.”
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Richard Rounds, from Brandon University’s rural development institute, said with university centres already in place across the country, government-supported rural policy centres would not cost Ottawa much.
Fuller suggested businesses which benefit from rural customers, such as banks, should also be willing to pay for the institutes.
Along with the University of Saskatchewan’s Jack Stabler, the rural specialists appeared before the committee to suggest a combination of national policy supports and locally directed projects.
They saw problems as wide-ranging as a lack of risk capital, a poorly educated rural population and negative attitudes about rural Canada that are passed on from parents to their children.
They offered solutions as wide-ranging as more training and education, more incentives for rural investment, more co-operation between federal and provincial governments in economic development policies and better infrastructure.
Stabler said the future of rural Canada is in stabilizing regional centres, rather than trying to save every small town.
He told MPs that as an area in need of investment capital and affordable credit, rural Canada is damaged by high interest rates.
“The single best stimulation to the rural economy would be to get the debt down and get interest rates down,” said Stabler.
The Commons committee held public hearings in Ottawa through the spring. In the fall, it will hold public hearings in the regions, including the Prairies.
MPs are examining the role of natural resources in sustaining the rural economy.
