OTTAWA — A new Senate report says the federal government should make saving rural Canada one of its top priorities.
The Senate committee on agriculture recommended Tuesday that Ottawa create a rural affairs department with its own minister to champion rural issues at the cabinet table.
The report entitled BEYOND FREEFALL: HALTING RURAL POVERTY runs to over 400 pages but is well worth reading. It has far more in it of interest (to rural folks at least) than the MSM has reported. A report of that size is hard to summarize so I have shamelessly picked some extracts that were of interest to me and posted them at
http://saugblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/senate-report-on-rural-canada.html
The full report is available in PDF format at
http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/2/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/agri-e/rep-e/rep09jun08-e.htm
Senate says rural Canada lacks voice, needs its own minister
13 hours ago
OTTAWA — A new Senate report says the federal government should make saving rural Canada one of its top priorities.
The Senate committee on agriculture recommended Tuesday that Ottawa create a rural affairs department with its own minister to champion rural issues at the cabinet table.
The Senate report also suggested moving 10 per cent of the federal public service away from cities and into smaller regional areas. It also called on the government to encourage immigrants to settle in rural areas rather than cities
The report concedes these measures alone won't alleviate the economic hardships ailing many of the six million rural Canadians.
"Simply creating a new institutional framework in Ottawa or moving back offices to rural Canada are not likely, on their own, to remedy the problems of rural poverty and rural decline," it says.
The committee recommended the government bring back its $550-million Canadian farm families options program for at least three more years. The two-year pilot program, which ended in March, gave short-term financial support to low-income farm families.
The committee also urged the government to compensate farmers and rural landowners who do their part to preserve the environment.
Other recommendations include improving broadband Internet access in rural communities, boost funding for transportation infrastructure and developing a national forestry strategy.
The Senate committee spent two years studying rural poverty and rural decline.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jA9s1lRxD4lrkN91EPHa-BgItvnQ
