Stephanie Maynard, a 21-year-old Quebecer and a member of the newly funded National Rural Youth Network, has little hesitation in identifying the public policy initiative that would be most helpful to rural young people.
“A policy that would ensure more distance education or the improved access to higher education so that rural youth don’t have to move away from home to further their education would be my top priority,” she said in a May 9 interview.
“That would encourage young people to stay in rural areas and perhaps with a better educated population, jobs would follow.”
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It is the kind of blunt advice Andy Mitchell, the federal cabinet minister responsible for rural issues, can expect to receive from members of the rural youth network.
It was created, with some supportive federal funding, a year ago. In early May during a national rural youth conference in Orillia, Ont., Mitchell announced a $25,000 boost to the council to help it develop an on-line communications network and to consult with rural young people.
“I expect to receive specific advice from the leaders of this network about what governments can do to help rural youth,” Mitchell said in a May 8 interview.
“At the conference, I saw a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of determination.”
He said the more than 70 young rural residents invited to the Orillia conference were anxious to make a difference.
“They see themselves as the leaders of today and not of tomorrow,” he said. “They have no patience for waiting. They are very solution oriented.”
A 13-member council, representing each province and territory, was chosen at the conference to collect rural youth views and to present them to government. The national network includes 165 people from across the country between the ages of 18 and 29.
Each person invited to the Orillia conference brought a proposal for a local project.
Maynard said many dealt with job creation in local areas, job skills development or helping rural young people cope with substance abuse problems.
“The real issue for most people is the need for jobs and opportunity in rural areas and rural communities,” she said.
“If rural areas are going to prosper or even survive, there has to be an incentive for young people to stay. If they have to go away to get an education, they are apt to like the big city or to find more work opportunities there and not return home.”
Although she was raised in the countryside around Montreal, Maynard is attending the University of Ottawa.
“There has to be a reason for us to stay in rural areas, to go back home,” she said.
