Facilitating Economic Development through Place-Based Investments

Facilitating Economic Development through Place-Based Investments
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...

Navigating Rural: Place-Based Transit Solutions for Rural Canada

Navigating Rural: Place-Based Transit Solutions for Rural Canada
  Does your community have an innovative approach to transit? We are looking for examples of community bus systems, car shares, on demand transit, active transportation, and traditional public transit with a twist. Selkirk College, in partnership with the University of Guelph and Simon Fraser University, is looking for existing examples of rural communities where innovative transit solutions have been implemented. If you have an example you wish...

Building the Future project featured at 2021 OGRA Conference

Building the Future project featured at 2021 OGRA Conference
Dr. Ryan Gibson, Ashleigh Weeden (PhD candidate), and Melissa Visser (MSc Student) from the 'Building the Future: Rural Infrastructure & Regional Economic Development' project shared highlights from their research at the 2021 Ontario Good Roads Association Conference, held virtually this week. The presentation was featured as part of the morning plenary on February 23rd and highlighted findings from case studies about innovative approaches rural com...

Gateway Webinar on Rural Wealth and Prosperity

Gateway Webinar on Rural Wealth and Prosperity
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

‘Building the Future’ Research Team Shares First-Stage Findings with OMAFRA

‘Building the Future’ Research Team Shares First-Stage Findings with OMAFRA
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...

Final ‘Getting to Work’ Research Reports Delivered to Town of Saugeen Shores

Final ‘Getting to Work’ Research Reports Delivered to Town of Saugeen Shores
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...

P2P National Conference

P2P National Conference
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

Passport to Research

Passport to Research
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)

New Video: Rural and Island Resilience During/After COVID19

New Video: Rural and Island Resilience During/After COVID19
  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...

New Video: Innovating through Infrastructure in Response to COVID19

New Video: Innovating through Infrastructure in Response to COVID19
  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 ...