What if communities had an alternative source of funds to facilitate service delivery? Could these funds compensate for the challenges confronted related to large distances and low densities? Would the chronic challenges of service-withdrawal from the abdication of provincial and federal governments be overcome? How would access to alternative funding change the dynamics of rural sustainability, if at all? These are the questions Dr. Ryan Gibson'
On November 8, 2018, Ashleigh Weeden (PhD Student - University of Guelph) delivered a workshop at the Canadian Open Data Summit in Niagara Falls, Ontario that encouraged participants to rethink what they think they know about rural communities. The session focused on core principles critical to modern rural development in the digital era – place, people, and policy – and emphasized the importance of rural communities to Canada’s digital agenda as the natio
Last week in Saskatoon rural community leaders, businesses, nonprofit organizations, governments, researchers, and students gathered to discuss rural issues at the Health and Shared Prosperity: 30th Annual Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation Conference. The conference brought 150 rural leaders from across Canada and internationally together to discuss the future of rural issues. The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development was we
June 19th, 2018 marks a historic day in Canada – it’s when the Senate approved Bill C-45, The Cannabis Act. The act states that recreational cannabis will officially be legal to cultivate, produce, distribute, retail and consume on October 17th, 2018. With four months to prepare for legalization, provinces and local governments appear to be scrambling to create policies that aligns with the legal federal requirements.
On September 27, Tracey H...
Tracey Harvey, PhD candidate in Rural Studies, recently spoke with the Arrow Lakes News regarding the upcoming cannabis legalization and what it might mean for rural regions. You can read the full article here: https://www.arrowlakesnews.com/news/pot-legalization-will-force-big-adjustments-to-kootenay-economy-society/.
For further information on Tracey's research visit: https://ruralbclegalizationstudy.wordpress.com/.
Neil Stoop successfully defended his Master of Science in Rural Planning and Development thesis today. For the past year, Neil has been working on his thesis titled "Understanding Rural: A Comparison of Academic, Political, and Lay Discourses of Rural". Here is the abstract for Neil's work:
Rural is a word, which has many meanings and means different things to different people. Definitions of rural are often sorted into four broad categories; de
Alex Petric (MSc, Rural Planning & Development) recently attended the Modelling Complex Urban Environments Conference at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. Held on June 21-22, 2018, this event was organized by the Waterloo Institute for Complexity & Innovation and brought together leading thinkers and researchers to discuss Big Data, Smart Cities, and methods of modelling urban environments. Though not having a major focus o...
Academics and governments create definitions of what is a rural community, and what is not a rural community, on a regular basis. These definitions might be based on population counts or based on access to services. How communities actually define themselves, however, is a different question.
Neil Stoop, Master of Science in Rural Planning and Development candidate, share findings of his thesis research at the International Geography Union/Can...
Sara Epp, PhD in Rural Studies candidate, shared her research on the migration of Mennonite farmers to northern Ontario at the International Comparative Rural Policy Summer Institute on July 3. Sara shared the experience of motivations, experiences, and challenges experienced by Mennonite farmers that recently migrated from southern Ontario to northern Ontario. Summer Institute students were interested to learn about the dynamics of the Mennonite f
Nearly 30 graduate students and faculty members from across North America and Europe are gathered in Tuskegee, Alabama for the 2018 International Comparative Rural Policy (ICRPS) Summer Institute. The summer institute is an opportunity for graduate students to gain new skill sets, capacities, and networks in the field of comparative rural policy. This year's summer institute theme is "Social Justice, Rural and Natural Resource Policy". Students w...
