THE farm income crisis shows no sign of abating and producers continue to search for a way out of the quagmire. One solution broached is to throw thousands of warm bodies at the problem.
Immigration as an economic driver of prairie agriculture is nothing new. Canada pinned its future on it more than 100 years ago and the Prairies’ economic and cultural landscape was permanently changed for the better.
Now a new generation of Canadians is pinning their hopes for rural revitalization on a new wave of immigration.
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In a report published this summer, Saskatchewan Agrivision Corp. laid out the problem concisely: Saskatchewan is the only province in Western Canada where the rural population is declining.
The report sees immigration as a way to stem the tide, but the strategy faces a serious obstacle. As the authors write several times in their report: “Immigration is primarily an urban phenomena.”
Even if Saskatchewan can convince immigrants to choose it over Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, they must then be convinced to settle in rural areas rather than Saskatoon or Regina, which is where 75 percent of immigrants to the province now go.
Saskatchewan Agrivision has ideas on how to do this, by changing immigration rules to encourage more foreign investment in rural ventures such as slaughter plants, hog barns and food processing.
The report also stresses the importance of luring more European farmer immigrants to Saskatchewan rather than watching them buy farms in Alberta and Manitoba.
These are solid recommendations that could succeed as part of a larger strategy.
Of course, a new wave of farmer immigration shouldn’t be seen as a magic pill that will cure agriculture’s problems. Enticing European farmers to settle in Saskatchewan may put more customers in the local co-op store and more kids in the local school, but it doesn’t remedy the fact that farmers aren’t paid enough for what they produce.
However, Saskatchewan Agrivision’s immigration report goes beyond attracting foreign farmers, because there is more to the rural economy than agriculture. Immigrant workers would help solve the severe labour shortage faced by rural businesses.
As well, immigrant entrepreneurs would help solve a looming business succession problem in Saskatchewan, where 70 percent of the province’s successful businesses are expected to need new owners in the next 10 years as the current owners retire.
Immigrant investors who invest in value-added businesses would also help expand a sector that is desperately needed on the Prairies.
Immigration alone won’t address farmers’ lack of market power, but it is a vital piece of the puzzle that can strengthen the rural economy and serve as a potent shot in the arm for farm incomes.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen, D’Arce McMillan and Ken Zacharias collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
