OUR FAMILY recently attended the funeral of a great aunt who had died at age 98.
Born in another century, she saw changes which have revolutionized the way people live and work. For those of the younger generations, she was a constant, someone who was always there.
I hope I may be excused if I use my great aunt and her passing as a metaphor for what is happening in our rural areas. Over the years, many things we had taken for granted, looked on as constants in our own small universe, are passing on: hospitals, schools, churches, elevators.
Read Also
Late season rainfall creates concern about Prairie crop quality
Praying for rain is being replaced with the hope that rain can stop for harvest. Rainfall in July and early August has been much greater than normal.
For instance, if anyone had told me even a couple of years ago that by 2005 – less than 10 years from now – the whole of west-central Saskatchewan would have only 10 or 11 grain delivery points, I would have told that person to think again.
The prediction is part of a recent report produced under the direction of the West Central Municipal Government Committee, a group with representatives from 31 urban and 28 rural municipalities in the area from the Alberta border on the west, the South Saskatchewan River on the south and east and the North Saskatchewan River on the north.
In 1995, recognizing “that pending changes in federal transportation legislation, including the loss of the Crow Benefit, would result in much more rapid consolidation of the rail branch lines and the country elevator network,” a subcommittee was formed to determine potential impacts.
The report has four key conclusions: If rail line abandonment and elevator consolidation continue as predicted, the area will have only 10 or 11 grain delivery points in less than 10 years; this consolidation will result in higher volumes of truck traffic on roads; the proponents of major grain elevators have not included potential road impacts or proposals to mitigate these road impacts in their business plan; more money will have to be spent on roads.
No judgment is made as to the viability of the communities which will not have elevators in 2005. The authors point out that “time will determine how accurate these predicted future scenarios are.”
Disclaimers aside, I suspect the report is pretty accurate. A lot of people will look on it as a death knell for many communities in the area. It doesn’t have to be.
The future of these communities will depend not on whether they have elevators after 2005 but on the ability and farsightedness of their municipal leaders and the entrepreneurial spirit of their citizens.
