The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Is the rural West at death's door? Few would dispute the fact that rural communities are in decline, said Canada West Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Jason Azmier, but a look at the causes of the rural "problem" also offers strategies to creating a roadmap for rural redevelopment. His latest report on the rural West, called Fighting the Odds: Rural Development Strategies in Western Canada, was recently released. "Canada's rural areas," he said, "have been negatively affected, especially in the last decade, by the loss of jobs in the mining, forestry and farming industries due to technological advances. But some rural communities have fought back and are succeeding at rejuvenating their economies." Azmier said there are seven basic reasons for the decline in rural communities. "A shortage of employment opportunities, a deficiency in infrastructure, which increases the cost of services to residents and lowers the tax base, and lower levels of education are the crux of the rural 'problem'," he said. "Add the urban areas competitive advantages in the areas of immigration and their gains from rural youth looking for jobs and education in the big city, and you have the recipe for decline." But, he said, defining the problems also offers strategies governments and rural communities can use to buck the trend. "For example," he said, "the focus needs to be on employment creation strategies, such as encouraging local entrepreneurs and cooperating with other areas to create investment opportunities. Rural development is about finding the new pathways by which more rural communities can start engage in the emerging economic opportunities that are currently fuelling the growth of western Cities. "The death of the rural West," he said, "is not inevitable. For many communities, the decline can be reversed. Rural areas possess underutilized natural and environmental advantages that represent unexplored new markets and new products. But if we are to reverse the trend, the first step will be convincing the public, both urban and rural, of the importance of rural re-growth to the economy as a whole."
