Agricultural and Rural Policy: Rural Policy

Table of Contents

1.0 Description and Scope of This Theme

1.1 The Approach

1.2 Theme Description

2.0 Context and Background for This Theme

2.1 Context and Background

2.2 Key Trends

2.3 Other Trends

2.4 Opportunities

2.5 Issues and Barriers

3.0 Research Areas and Priorities for this Theme

3.1 The Approach

3.2 Description of Research Areas

• Climate Change
• Regional Development
• Rural Infrastructure
• Labour Force

4.0 Critical Success Factors

4.1 Description

5.0 Other Related Considerations and Recommendations

5.1 Other Recommendations

 

1.0 Description and Scope of this Theme

 

1.1 The Approach

Rural Policy is integrated with agricultural policy. However, this should NOT lead to agricultural dominance of the policy sector as agriculture and food are seen as components of rural development. This theme is more appropriately viewed as 'rural development' policy.
Rural Policy research would benefit from setting out three to four overarching, strategic components as a guide for the next five years. This strategic approach will encourage linkages with other themes areas such as Agriculture Policy and the Bio-economy/Industrial Uses theme, as well as collaborative efforts with researchers at other institutions.

 

1.2 Theme Description

The Rural Policy research theme focuses on the nature of the changes, challenges and opportunities facing rural Ontario including the impact of current policies and programs. The strategic priority components are; climate change, regional development, rural infrastructure, transportation, and rural labour markets.

Top Priorities:

• Climate Change
• Regional Development

 

Medium Priorities:

• Rural Infrastructure and Transportation
• Rural Labour Markets
  

Foundational, base-line data generation is vitally important to OMAFRA. Meta-analysis could also provide a critical base of information for policy development. OMAFRA requires statistical evidence of impact to help influence the policy development in other ministries. Assessments of the impact of government policies, including those policies that affect local government and business are critical for sound policy development.

 

2.0 Context and Background for this Theme

 

2.1 Context and Background

Thriving rural Ontario, agriculture, and food sectors… OMAFRA's Vision
Rural Ontario is a significant contributor to Ontario's economy as well as a provider of social and environmental resources to rural residents and their urban neighbors. Traditionally, resource-based industries, agriculture, forestry and mining, dominated the economy and shaped the lives of rural residents. Today, a diversified economy has emerged. In addition to resource-based industries, manufacturing and services are no the main sources of employment in rural parts of the province.

Like the rest of the world, rural Ontario is experiencing significant changes to the way it generates prosperity and the rural way of life. Altogether, the traditional sectors and the new cross-sector dynamics produce a complex picture of contemporary rural Ontario: one that challenges policy makers and planners to understand and to sustain. For example, the new dynamic between agriculture and rural development represents a convergence within this complexity. 'Rural' is the dominant context in which agriculture, along with other economic activities takes place.

Rapid changes in agriculture and the emergence of "new" agriculture; bio-economy, food for health, and the local food movement are having a significant impact on the sector as well as on rural communities. This represents a major challenge for policy development that will require a comprehensive, integrated (rural, agricultural and urban) and flexible formation of policy priorities.

The rural regions of Ontario and the communities within them are diverse. Given that there are many 'rurals' across Ontario, the policy response requires recognition not only of the complexities described above but the need for 'place-based' approaches. Differences in population density and travel distances for work and services demand new adaptable policy and program delivery approaches. This represents an opportunity in rural development. This is especially the case in northern Ontario where resource dependent communities and remote Aboriginal communities present special challenges. Thus new rural development requires new and creative forms of policy research.

For policy development purposes, three types of policy research will be significant:

Big Picture Research -This involves the construction of ideas about 'rural' and its place in the world. Big picture research predicts what is likely to happen with national, inter-regional or global trends and how the rural world works in relation to these trends.

Impact Research -This type of research measures the impact of existing rural policies or policy and programs that affect rural areas. It also compares the delivery of policy and programs in other jurisdictions for potential adaptation to Ontario conditions.

Emerging Issues Research - This research examines new issues that are emerging in rural areas. The policy aspect of such research focuses on how the state and/or civil society can respond.

 

2.2 Key Trends

• Urbanization will continue. Rural-urban systems will remain a prominent part of rural development and should be studied in ways that consider rural assets to be as valuable as urban demands.

• The influences of urban centres on rural regions are not clear.

• Economic development will remain a provincial and national priority.

• The impacts of provincial and federal policies on rural municipalities are not fully known. Provincial policies such as the "Places to Grow", "Greenbelt" and "Species at Risk" legislation have affected the economic future of many small rural municipalities both in terms of restricting growth and in increasing the costs to the municipality and the environment when too much growth is encouraged. The impact of these policies should be assessed prior to and post implementation.

• The environment will remain a challenge for policy makers at all levels and the issues brought forward will be complex in nature. Of related equal importance is the issue of climate change and the impact that this condition will have on current rural regions and livelihoods across Ontario.

• Energy production and consumption will remain a key factor in rural development for the next decade. Rising petroleum prices represent both a barrier and an opportunity to rural development. New, innovative transportation models offer a significant area for rural policy research.

• While the future role of small and medium size enterprises is uncertain, they are likely to play an important role in sustaining economic growth.

• There is increasing importance given to immigration attraction and retention in rural areas, but it is not clear what policy tools or approaches would best promote the objective.

• For all the above assumptions the question of 'subsidiary' (what is the lowest level of government to deal with the issue) has not been fully examined in the 'rural' context. Issues of new governance revolve around the question of scale, regionalization and place-based program delivery in the Ontario context.
  

 

2.3 Other Trends

• The current state of high commodity prices is impacting the agriculture sector and the surrounding rural communities and continues to add uncertainty to the development of short and long term policy approaches.

• The aging infrastructure across Ontario and the increasing cost of maintenance and replacement will continue to challenge governments at all levels to allocate scarce resources in an equitable manner.

• The US-Canada border traffic continues to decline with the related impact on tourism opportunities for both urban and rural Ontario.

• The Aboriginal population in both urban and rural areas is increasing. The focus of national and provincial aboriginal affairs is one of relationship building.
  

 

2.4 Opportunities

Many of the assets of rural Ontario are being re-valued as commodities (e.g. ground water taking) and this will provide greater opportunities to focus policy research on rural sectors and on place-based (community) assets of the Province. Climate change research for example will force researchers to design integrated projects involving university consortiums working across jurisdictions and disciplines that open up new avenues of research. Complex dynamic systems research may have much to offer in this regard as it joins human systems with ecological dynamics. Such research could well link rural policy with emergency management for example.

 

2.5 Issues and Barriers

Limited funds and capacity will severely limit the effectiveness of rural policy research in Ontario. There are very few publicly accessible data sources available to researchers in Ontario.

 

3.0 Research Areas and Priorities for this Theme

 

3.1 The Approach

The following broad research components will allow several sub-themes and issues to be addressed and many synergies to occur over the long term. Policy research supplies 'policy intelligence' on strategic topics to support OMAFRA policy and programming as well as rural policy 'proofing' among groups of Ontario ministries.

 

3.2 Description of Research Areas

 

Climate Change

• This research component is of international, national and provincial importance. It has clear implications for rural municipalities also. There are a growing number of studies globally on rural community responses to the effects of climate change, many of them in the agricultural community domain (Arkleton Trust, 2008). The objectives are to explore rural communities' particular challenges, identify best practices in community response, and consider how best to replicate these in other jurisdictions.

• Climate change contains mainly environmental issues as the immediate focus of interest, but has implications for human impact and agency. One could apply climate change scenarios to almost everything, including sectors, and places. Many ecologists have argued that making sense of climate change requires working at the regional scale, ideally at the 'watershed' scale of analysis.

• Climate change has significant implications for policy as it challenges all the intents and practices of policy and programming. It demands clarity on what is the public good. It requires science to be interpreted in the human interest. It will require bold and imaginative leadership at all levels if civil society actions as well as the traditional policy instruments of regulation and incentives are to 'make a difference' in public choice.

The component is divided into climate change mitigation (prevention) and climate change adaptation (adjustment).

Climate Change Mitigation: Examples of research areas

• Local governance models and municipal infrastructure may limit capacity to mitigate the effects of climate change. How can this be overcome?

• Carbon tax…what is the rural-urban impact differential? Will rural be disadvantaged?

• Energy conservation - what opportunities are there for rural?

• Energy production - convergence to green energy. What can be done at the enterprise/community/household level? Is this part of economic diversification?

• Grid access. What would rural policy look like if farms and rural businesses were able to generate green energy?

• Fossil fuel replacement - impacts on rural economies.
  

 

Climate Change Adaptation: Examples of research areas

• Reduced availability of water

• Water pricing

• Water conservation

• Fiscal and social capacity for adaptation in rural communities and how this can be mitigated

• Assess impact on rural industries

• Impact on rural tourism

• Impact of invasive species
  

Such research will require information on micro-climate change and will invite new technologies to be developed in the future.

These examples of research questions illustrate the 'bundle' of topics which could be researched under the climate change component. They are mainly technocratic in this list and many more prevail on the human and institutional impact side of the equation. Adapting to climate change will affect all aspects of rural life.

 

Regional Development

• In the Ontario context, the term 'regional development' has a number of definitions and understandings. While various models exist worldwide and numerous research studies have focused on the nature, drivers and outcomes of regional approaches to economic development there is currently no formalized approach in Ontario. In Canada, only in the province of Quebec are regional jurisdictions actively engaged as integrators for both rural and urban economic development as well as environmental and social programming.

• However, a number of initiatives and policies are focusing on rural Ontario in its regional context. The growth of regionally-relevant legislation e.g. Greenbelt is creating impacts across municipal boundaries as are the Growth Plans. The Lake Simcoe Act also provides

• An example of regionally-focussed legislation that is place-based. Federal investments through the Community Futures Development Corporations and the Eastern Ontario Economic Development Fund have also promoted regional economic development approaches.

• Little is known about the impact of regional policies and program approaches on rural economies in Ontario. Literature is available on regional development initiatives in the UK, the EU, and the USA. These studies mainly focus on mandates, governance models, financing methods, planning strategies and outcomes. This body of research is worthy of analysis to discern lessons learned and their applicability to rural Ontario. Of critical importance are the development of baseline measures and the creation of diagnostics to assess economic sustainability in a variety of rural Ontario regions.

• Need to understand diversity of rural economies in the context of multiple "rurals" and capacities.

• New governance models including collaborative public/private/volunteer sector/NGO's - co-governance models are required to address the management challenges and the complexities in a regional approach. This should allow for a discussion of the appropriate level for decision-making.

• Any examination of regional development models should also consider both the economic and social aspects of rural development.
  

The regional development research area provides an opportunity to conduct impact analysis and new policy direction analysis.

 

Impact Analysis

• Rural/regional innovation and competitiveness - comparative analysis.

• The economic, human and social aspects of regional development.

• Evaluation of current policy and programs - accomplishment of expected outcomes and impact on regional economies e.g. telehealth.

 

New Policy Direction

• The development of an analytical framework for regional economies that considers all of the physical, human, fiscal, social, natural and cultural capital.

• Development of models for regional collaboration including new governance models.

• Assessment of the various regional models that have emerged over the past fifty years to gain insight into mobility patterns - 'how people move about to sustain livelihoods'.

 

Rural Infrastructure

Transportation Infrastructure: "what is the impact of public transportation issues on a sustainable rural Ontario?" Some of the impetus for this crucial topic derives from the recently published Senate report on Rural Poverty, (2008) in which the lack of public transportation in rural areas appears as a crucial contributor to the many traps that the poor (however defined) find themselves in. Lack of public transportation in rural Canada was referenced in the Senate report 11 times:

• Environmental impacts of continued (conventional) automotive transport dependency;

• Impact of increased energy costs;

• Impact on labor supply to rural labour markets, especially manufacturing;

• Impact on rural, small town and remote area 'quality of life';

• Assessment of 'city bus extension into rural areas' models;

• Assessment of independent local bus system models;

• Municipal cooperation models;

• Collaboration among sectors and agencies;

• Differential impacts of where such models will work well; and

• Impact of accessing normal life for the (working) poor.

 

Municipal Service Delivery:

• The deterioration of roads and bridges in some rural and remote areas has seriously hampered rural development and will continue to do so unless vigorous funding programs are sustained.

• Gas tax contributions to rural constituents and regional scales of infrastructure support might make more financial sense in rural and remote areas.

• Infrastructure development is important for rural construction businesses in the creation of jobs.

• Water, waste water and solid waste management infrastructure development is critical in building a secure and healthy system of municipal services and creating an attractive climate for economic investment.

• Adequate telecommunications infrastructure and broadband access is vital to the new marketing and business management realities for small businesses, 'upskilling' and education opportunities via distance education programs, and attraction and retention of investors and professionals to rural areas.

• Expand research areas to include brownfields redevelopment and local cultural and recreational infrastructure.
  

 

Rural Labour Force

The availability of a well-trained and educated labour force in rural Ontario is a critical component of attracting and retaining businesses and industries in rural Ontario. Ontario's lead ministry, Ministry of Colleges, Training and Universities (MTCU), has not adopted a regional approach to labour force development.

The following trends require further exploration regarding the impact of a changing demographic profile on labour needs in rural Ontario:

• An aging workforce and the out-migration of youth lead to labour shortfalls. In the interest of innovation and competitiveness, firms are moving in the direction of making capital investments which minimize their labour needs.

• Greater integration of Aboriginal people and youth into the labour market.

• Potential of new immigrants to meet rural Ontario workforce needs.

• The demographics of rural labour markets are changing with the emergence of nontraditional agricultural entrepreneurs, the migration of urbanite early retirees, and displaced employees from manufacturing downsizing. These changes need to be considered so that available skills can be maximized.

• Opportunities for advancement, as well as a mix of employment and skill requirements, attract new workers. Considerable emphasis needs to be placed on the need for upskilling and continuing education for rural workforce to adapt to changing needs of employers.
  

In Ontario, MTCU is addressing the generic labour market issues if temporary workers, entrepreneurship, small-business training, e-learning, upskilling and youth attachment.

There are other labour force issues which have a particular interest to rural labour force research including:

• Effective methods of addressing cultural barriers to re-skilling

• Implications for rural workers and their families of reduced/eliminated manufacturing employment

• Evaluation of current e-learning models to meet rural training needs.

• Facilitating upskilling of rural displaced workers to new opportunities

• Challenges and solutions for attracting professionals (medial, allied health, engineering etc) to rural areas

• Attraction and retention of working aged immigrants and their families into rural labour markets from urban centres

• Impact assessment of the rising transportation costs on workers in local/regional labour markets.

 

4.0 Critical Success Factors

4.1 Description

• Policy and program development requires access to critical data. The discussion recognized that access to basic foundational data sets was a key starting point but there was also a requirement for evidence-based policy research.

• The research evidence is useable by other ministries and provincial policies and programs reflect this input.

• Is there political support for a rural research agenda?

• Are there sufficient resources applied to rural policy research? There was considerable discussion here about the current limitations of the rural research budget.

• Will rural stakeholders and others utilize the research?

• Will there be evidence of stronger, more viable rural communities?

• The expected outcomes should be specific and measurable.

• OMAFRA funded research should be amenable to economic evaluation e.g. calculation of return on investment or information that improved information policy decisions.

• Ultimately, does the rural policy research raise the profile/understanding of rural Ontario?

 

5.0 Other Related Considerations and Recommendations

 

5.1 Other Recommendations

• Understanding the complexities of regional economies is an important first step in creating strong rural policies and this research requires significant resources.

• The importance of sector-based research e.g. rural tourism, rural manufacturing, forestry, agriculture etc. to place-based research.

• The areas of community and downtown revitalization e.g. the study of the role of small downtowns.