The News
The latest articles and news relating to rural living...
Attracting Young People to Rural Communities
Attracting young people is one of the toughest challenges facing rural communities. The outflow of young people from rural to urban hits small towns and rural regions in a variety of ways, including stripping communities…
Café Culture Comes to Rural Ontario
Café culture stirs the pot in rural Bath One of the first things young people look for when considering a move from an urban centres to a rural setting is the availability of great…
BC’s Grizzly Trophy Hunt Ends, Government Announces
BC’s grizzly trophy hunt ends. In the following announcement, the BC Government announced an end to trophy grizzly hunting: Effective Nov. 30, 2017, the British Columbia government will end grizzly bear trophy hunting throughout…
Small Town, Big Change
Small town, big change. Dale Williams was mayor of the small rural North Island New Zealand town of Otorohanga (pop. 2,700), and Chair of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs. A certified motorcycle engineer by trade,…
Is There a Doctor in the House? Attracting Physicians to Rural Towns
Is there a doctor in the house? Rural health care is a pressing challenge for many small, often isolated, communities in rural BC. The challenges facing small communities struggling to provide an acceptable standard of…
Forest Fibres Key to Rural Revitalization?
This recent CBC article examines the possibility of forest fibres emerging as a significant economic engine for rural BC communities. Forest fibres — an abundant resource waiting to boost the economies of rural BC…
Garden Hill First Nation Creates a Farm in a Box!
Food security is a significant issue for many remote First Nations across Canada — including Garden Hill First Nation, located in northern Manitoba. In the following blogpost from Aki Energy, a non-profit Aboriginal social enterprise…
Affordable Rural Housing — the View from Yorkshire, UK
Affordable rural housing is often at a premium in small communities and rural regions. While rural housing prices may appear a bargain to newcomers and second home buyers from overheated urban real estate markets, they…
Ktunaxa Nation: Ensuring the most vulnerable citizens can succeed
For the Ktunaxa Nation, a key pillar of the community is supporting its most vulnerable citizens. It’s an effort that is changing lives for the better. Ktunaxa Nation has grown its Cranbrook-based social services from…
Rural Revitalization, Iowa-Style
Rural revitalization Iowa-style. There are plenty of small towns badly in need of economic and social renewal across North America. Earlham, Iowa was one of them. Through a combination of community resilience and tenacity,…
The Arts & Rural Revitalization
Culture matters. According to the Creative Cities Network of Canada, municipalities that adopt culture as an industry gain positive economic benefits. Cultural industries create job growth, turn ordinary cities into “destination cities,” create interconnections between…
Creative Placemaking, Attracting Young People to Rural Places
Creative placemaking: what is it, and can it serve as an effective toolkit for rural communities wanting to attract young people? Attracting and keeping younger adults is a challenge that many small cities and towns…
Rural American Fairs & Festivals
It’s Fall, and across rural North America, festivals and fairs are in full swing, celebrating everything from the harvest to local history. These celebrations play a number of important roles in the communities that host…
BC Community Forests Make a Difference
A report entitled Community Forests — Community Benefits: The Economic Contributions of Community Forests to Rural BC Communities, recently released by the Southern Interior Beetle Action Coalition (SIBAC), in cooperation with the BC Community Forests…
CEDIFs an Investment Model for Rural BC?
The BC Rural Centre believes that a vehicle like Nova Scotia’s Community Economic Development Investment Fund (CEDIF) would be an ideal way to repatriate a portion of the investment funds currently leaving British Columbia, stimulate…
“Overtourism” Protests Spreading Throughout Europe
Rural BC communities seeking to reinvent their formerly resource-based economies, communities that happen to be located in beautiful areas — so-called “high amenity” places — face a unique challenge. In many cases these communities have…
Millennials Make the Move to Rural Ontario?
Tony Scott is a Millennial, and the founder and president of Akira Studio, an established tech company based in London, Ontario that designs, develops, and hosts websites for over 450 companies across the globe. Akira…
Western Juniper?! ‘Why Not?’ Says Small Mill Owner
Western Juniper is a native species in Central Oregon. Over the past century, it has begun to outcompete other native vegetation and interfere with the balance of the local ecology. Because harvesting Western Juniper in…
Help for BC Rural Small Businesses Hurt by Wildfires
Straight.com reports that hundreds of wildfires in B.C. this summer have not only wreaked havoc on evacuees, they’re also putting some businesses in jeopardy. In response to this, the BC Government Minister of Forests, Lands,…
Wildfires Linked to Climate Change?
Wildfires are sweeping B.C. Close to 900 have burned through 600,000 hectares so far this year, blanketing western North America with smoke. Fighting them has cost more than $230 million—and the season is far…
Kaslo Jazz Fest 2017 Rocks!
Kaslo Jazz Fest 2017, just ended, the biggest and best ever by all accounts. The Festival was completely sold out. For three days, Kaslo Bay looked more like the south of France than the Kootenays,…
Latest on the BC Wildfire Situation
According to Vancouver’s News 1130, British Columbia’s wildfire situation is expected to get worse before it gets better. There are currently 125 fires burning across the province, including a “monster fire” at Elephant Hill. Sixteen…
Newcomer Engagement in Ontario Report
When newcomers and other community residents enjoy mutually beneficial relationships, rural communities are more likely to be healthy. The Rural Ontario Institute recently released a report, Newcomer Engagement and Social Capital in Rural Communities, that…
Rural Youth Engagement Showcase
In this brief video produced by the Rural Ontario Institute, we’re introduced to Emily Morrison, a young woman working to break the cycle of youth unemployment in rural communities.