Are rural Ontario communities capable of responding to infrastructure pressures and opportunities? How does that capacity – or lack thereof – affect a community’s current and future long-term economic development? Using surveys, workshops, content analysis, and case studies, this research initiative will examine the capacity of different communities in rural Ontario to respond to infrastructure pressures and how these response impact their short and long-term economic well-being. to develop recommendations for addressing these issues through both immediate and long-term policy alternatives.

Communities of all sizes must balance fiscal realities, changing economies, aging infrastructure, changing demographics, and a challenging climate as they work to manage their core infrastructure assets and accommodate and/or address new infrastructure and service demands. This research initiative will directly support rural Ontario’s economic vitality by providing three key benefits: enhanced understanding of the diversity and varying levels of rural community capacities, improved and more nuanced public policy, and enhanced rural infrastructure development programming. This research initiative directly addresses priorities identified in the 2017-2018 OMAFRA Research Themes and Priorities under the theme of Infrastructure and Rural Economic Development.

Resources

• Project Fact Sheet

Reports, Theses, Articles

• Advancing Green Infrastructure Solutions in Rural Regions: Economic Impacts and Capacity Challenges in Southwest Ontario, Canada (2024, Maloney, Markey, Gibson, & Weeden)
• Addressing the Digital Divide: COVID-19 and the Importance of Connecting Rural Canada (Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation Rural Insights Series: COVID-19, 2020, Weeden & Kelly)
• Barriers to Broadband Deployment in Rural Canada (2020, Weeden & Kelly)
• Building the Future: Green infrastructure approaches to rural service delivery & economic development in Southwest Ontario (2021, Maloney)
• Canada’s (dis)connected rural broadband policies: Dealing with the digital divide and building ‘digital capitals’ to address the impacts of COVID-19 in rural Canada (2021, Weeden & Kelly)
• Capacity Building in Rural Ontario Infrastructure: An Analysis of Collaborative Infrastructure as an Exploration for Policy and Economic Development (2022, Visser)
• Cultivating Collaborative Regional Capital to Build Digital Infrastructure in Eastern Ontario: Lessons from the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) (2021, Visser)
• Embedding rural capital? Community investment funds in Canada and their implications for rural communities (2022, Petric & Gibson)
• National infrastructure assessment an opportunity to heal Canada’s socio-economic nervous system (2021, Weeden)
• Place, Power, and Policy in the ‘Nuclear North’: A Critical Comparative Analysis of Policy Narratives about Rural Innovation Systems Anchored by the Nuclear Energy Sector in Scotland and Canada (2022, Weeden)
• Reflections on the Connections between Green Infrastructure and Economic Development (2021, Visser)
• Report from the 2019 Ontario Good Roads Association Conference workshop
• Rethinking Infrastructure Investments: Supporting Post-Pandemic Rural Recovery and Climate Resilience through Green Infrastructure (Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation Rural Insights Series: COVID-19, 2020, Maloney, Tolsma, Markey, Kraehling, Weeden, & Gibson)
• Reinvention paths and reinvention paradox: Strategic change in western Newfoundland communities (2021, van Assche, Gruezmacher, Vodden, Gibson, & Deacon)
• Rural Telecommuters in Southwestern Ontario (2020, Lam)
• Searching for a conceptual nexus? A critical analysis of community, place, and territorial approaches to rural development (2022, Akimowicz, Weeden, & Gibson)
• State of Rural Canada 2021: Ontario (2021, Weeden, Gretzky, Epp, Gibson, & Longboat)
• Supporting Rural Recovery and Resilience After COVID-19 (Hall, Gibson, Markey & Weeden)
• The Digital Divide Has Become a Chasm: Here’s How We Bridge the Gap (2021, Weeden)

Presentations and Resources

• 2019 Ontario Good Roads Association Conference Workshop Presentation
• 2020 Ontario Good Roads Association Conference Workshop Presentation
• Addressing the Digital Divide & Why It Matters for Community Economic Development (Cape Breton University Guest Lecture, Weeden, 2020)
• Building the Future through the Unglamourous Work of Care & Maintenance – Keynote to the Small Towns Caucus of Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador (Weeden, 2020)
• Embedding rural capital: Community Investment Funds in Canada and their implications for rural communities (2021, Petric & Gibson)
• In No Particular Order – Philanthropy, Infrastructure and Rural Policy (2020, Gibson)
• Rural and island resilience. Supporting Rural Recovery and Resilience (2020, Brinklow, Gibson, Hall, & Markey)
• Impacts of COVID-19 on rural employment and workforce development (2020, Agyepong, Gibson, & Bollman)
• Rural Routes Podcast: Rural & Island Responses to COVID-19 (2021, Weeden, Markey, Minnes, Sindico)
• Planning for the Future – Regional Development in Canada (2020, Gibson)
• Read about the Building the Future project in the Ontario Good Roads Association publication, Milestones

Funding

This project is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.