This article is a
repost originally published by 'Rural' elsewhere in 2006
We, the rural
population, are in my view, rapidly being viewed as irrelevant by
both much of the urban (particularly large urban) dwellers and many
of our Provincial and Federal Leaders. We have seen of late very
little attention given to our farm families despite a few vocal
rallies at Queens Park and Ottawa, many of the urban population and
indeed our leaders have the view that if you cannot compete in the
“global market” dominated by the multinationals then you
should simply quit! The “clean water” initiative to
protect source water is at first glance a great move but if one looks
closer we see that Conservation Authorities and rural municipalities
are expected to regulate and police the new rules with little or no
funding from upper levels of government. There is at this point no
indication of how our cash strapped farmers , as willing as they may
be to protect our streams, can afford the time or money to comply
with these changes. Many small communities are already struggling
with the increased testing and filtration required for drinking water
systems. In the past few years the formula regarding tax incentives
for both farm and forest land have been changed to put an increased
burden upon our local municipalities (and thus our rural taxpayers)
to pay for this. Many programs mandated by the provincial or federal
government are being funded in whole or in part at the municipal
level and this often disproportionally impacts the less populated
townships. There is much more, but in short, there is an ever
increasing move to download the costs of programs and changes that
benefit all citizens to the rural areas that have to implement them.
The above is hardly a
surprise, we are after all governed by an electoral system that
favors the majority and much as our representatives may endeavor to
make rural points of view known when these changes come before
parliament, but they too are a minority. If we look at some figures
from StatsCan it can be seen just where things are going………
Across Canada the
“rural” (StatsCan defines rural as centers with a
population of less than 1,000 or with less than 400 persons per
square km) population is just 20% of total population. In Ontario
that drops to 15%, here in the Grey Bruce area it is slightly above
50%, which is why I suppose we are known as a rural area, but note
that nearly half of our residents are in fact urban dwellers.
If we look at those
that really comprise the working rural folk and attempt to make that
area outside the urban areas productive and of benefit to us all, the
story gets worse.
Farm families comprise
just 2.4% of our total population and 1.6% in Ontario and the numbers
are steadily declining total numbers being down 10 – 15% since
1996 (5 years, all the above being from the 2001 census being the
last available info)
See
http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/
for more information.
It can be thus seen why
many of our political leaders who rely upon the MAJORITY to vote for
them in order to get into power do not give much thought or effort to
supporting rural and farm communities despite their importance to the
health and sustainability of our Country.
How can we change
this………………
Firstly communication,
we must educate both our leaders and the urban population as to the
importance of the well being of our Farms, Forests, Streams, Natural
and Open areas and those that care for and own them. Most Farmers and
rural landowners are very conscious of the heritage that they own and
try and maintain in a sustainable and ecological manner as much as
possible, but unless their income and lifestyle is sustainable they
cannot sustain that which they care for. We must tell them that the
Family Farm is crucial to the survival of many small rural
communities, each are interdependent. We must tell our fellow
citizens that the multinational corporations that would have control
of our food supply from seed (or birth) to market to processing to
retail, MUST have some limits put upon them. We must tell governments
that regulate (and the corporations that compete with) the small farm
cooperatives and farm gate / farmers markets out of existence that it
is these places where the best product and value can be found and
that every one gains not just the “middlemen”
We must support our
rural communities by shopping at such places and encouraging what few
independent food stores left to “buy local” wherever
possible. Use those small local businesses whenever possible so that
our cash stays in and supports our community, avoid those “big
box” stores (easy to say but harder to actually do) whose
profits not only do not stay in the community but often do not even
stay in the country. Encourage and educate those tourists from the
big cities who come to see our beautiful countryside, show them the
crops, the cattle, the forests and the flowers, tell them how we care
for this land that future generations may continue to enjoy the
abundance that it provides. Tell them that we cannot continue to do
so if we cannot sustain our community’s economy, if we must all
travel to the city to find jobs for ourselves or our children or if
our ability to care for our environment is compromised by a lack of
resources.
We must start to beat
our own drum and LOUDLY, we must get the attention of all those that
would forget about us, not by demonstrating at Queens Park or
blocking highways, but by constantly telling what we do for the area,
Province and Country, even if that is only maintain a small forest to
clean the air or a visiting garden to provide escape from the city.
We must understand that by its very definition rural folks will
always be in a minority (not everyone can, or wants to, live outside
urban areas) and thus we can only change things by garnering support
from those that do live in urban areas that understand the importance
of sustaining our rural communities.
We must not become the FORGOTTEN MINORITY.
“Rural” is
a local rural landowner and a retired Electrical / Mechanical
Technician who maintains a small forested area under a Managed Forest
Agreement and who has lived in rural areas in Canada or Britain all
his life. Although not a farmer, he has a great deal of respect for
what they do and believes that we must move towards self sufficiency
not away from it, both individually and collectively.
