Dec. 21, 2006: Rural Canada

Mis-dated: This should have been Dec. 21, 2006, not Dec. 20, 2006. Sorry.

Understanding Freefall

Rural Canada faces poverty crisis -- Senate: Population dwindling , Chris Wattie, National Post, December 19, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=5636f083-ff18-49c2-91ef-b5b35e49b31e

Rural Canada, once the backbone of the nation, is on the verge of an irreversible decline, according to a new Senate report that details problems such as an ageing population, migration to the cities and a growing class of "invisible poor."

... "second-class citizens" ... the interim report of the Senate committee on agriculture and forestry, and may even be in danger of extinction.

"Can we really afford to depopulate the rural parts of the country?" said Senator Hugh Segal, the committee member who first suggested the Senate S8 look into the plight of rural Canada.

"Areas that are so important to food production, to forestry, to the environment, to so many things? We don't think so."

But the Senate report, entitled "Understanding Freefall," suggests that unless something changes soon that may be where rural Canada is headed.

"We've gone from one of the most rural countries in the world to one of the most urbanized in something like 60 years," said Mr. Segal. "That's extraordinarily quickly in historical terms ... [and] it's caused some problems." [....]

Important to all Canadians and a must read article.