Alex Petric and Ryan Gibson recently published an article in the Ontario Professional Planners Institute's Y Magazine sharing lessons learned from across Canada on facilitating rural economic development through place-based investments. The publication examines six community investment fund programs operating across Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The research explores how these progra...
How has the global COVID-19 pandemic impacted rural immigration? Restrictions on travel, closed borders and the fear of being infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus have put the brakes on immigration to Canada. Newcomers were already much more likely to settle in large urban centres, but with the pandemic it has become even more challenging for rural communities to attract them. At the same time, rural communities are continuing to struggle with labour m...
Rural communities and regions are home to considerable wealth. A key question is how can this wealth be mobilized to advance long-term rural prosperity? On February 2, the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health organized an online discussion featuring research from Prof. Ryan Gibson, Glenn McNeil (Huron County), Tom Prout (Sunset Community Foundation), Marty Rops (Libro Credit Union), and Louise Wardrop (Oxford Community Foundation). The online discu
On January 14th, members of the 'Building the Future' research team shared the first-stage of findings from the project with staff at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs as well as others from across the Ontario Public Service.
Dr. Ryan Gibson (University of Guelph), Dr. Sean Markey (Simon Fraser University), Ashleigh Weeden (PhD Candidate, University of Guelph), Melissa Visser (MSc Student, University of Guelph), Jay Maloney (MS...
The “Getting to Work: Investigating Labour Market Challenges in Saugeen Shores” project is now complete. This project was in partnership with the the Town of Saugeen Shores, University of Guelph, Bruce Power, and Mitacs, in order to research the specific labour market challenges in Saugeen Shores.
“We are fortunate to have these partners working together to conduct research and collect data for the Town of Saugeen Shores” says Mayor Luke Charbonneau, “t...
Reflections on the 2020 Pathways to Prosperity National Conference
Pathways to Prosperity held a virtual conference from 23rd November to 25th November 2020. The online conference did not compromise on anything to make it as lively as an in- person conference. There were plenaries, keynote speakers, workshops, posters, exhibitors, and networking opportunities. It was amazing to see the facilitators of every workshop considering most of the questions from
Rural research was on full display on November 18 at the Rural Talks to Rural Conference! In partnership with Libro Credit Union, the Passport to Research session invited four emerging rural scholars to share their connections to rural, describe the issues they are seeking to better understand, and describe the value of their research to rural community leaders, government, and businesses. The discussion featured Abdul-Rahim Abdulai (University of Guelph)
How are rural and island communities dealing with COVID19? What unique challenges do they encountering? What innovative strategies do they employing to recovery? During the 2020 Supporting Rural Recovery and Resilience conference a panel discussion was organized with Laurie Brinklow (University of Prince Edward Island), Heather Hall (University of Waterloo), Ryan Gibson (University of Guelph), and Sean Markey (Simon Fraser University). The discus...
The Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation recently released a new video on the Innovating through Infrastructure discussion from the recent 2020 Supporting Rural Recovery and Resilience conference. The video showcases three presentations:
Addressing the Digital Divide: COVID-19 and the Importance of Connecting Rural Canada: Ashleigh Weeden & Wayne Kelly
Challenges with Rural Drinking Water Infrastructure Operations and Maintenance ...
Did you miss the recent online panel discussion on changing patterns in people and products at the 2020 Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation's Supporting Rural Recovery and Resilience conference? Great news - the recording of the discussion is now available online! The discussion features Karen Foster speaking about supply chains, Emily Sousa and Sara Epp discussing agriculture and agri-food, Louis Helps and Ray Silvius speaking about immigra...
