There are less than two weeks in the federal electoral campaign, but that the parties have published various announcements, some industry leaders and experts say that rural communities are left out.
About 20% of Canadians live In rural, distant, indigenous, coastal or northern communities, depending on rural economic development Canada.
These communities are faced with several of the same problems as their urban counterparts: health care shortages, crime rates and the impact of prices on the important sectors.
However, the way these problems have an impact on rural communities can be very different.
“They discuss it as if it were what would be like and what will be the solutions that will be the same in all places, which is incorrect,” said Sarah-Patricia Breen, the regional president of innovation of British Columbia in the rural economic development of Selkirk College.
She said the problem is accompanied by the data used to develop policies, often gathered in urban areas and used by decision -makers living in urban communities.
“We finish, in particular in a federal, and often provincial election, with these universal questions discussed in this size, corresponds to all ways and this tendency to make these programs based on mainly urban data by people who are mainly urban,” said Been.
“We end up with an entire suite of policies and programs that have no sense in rural Canada.”
Although an exhaustive list, here are some of the leading challenges of rural Canadians and what stakeholders say could help rural communities.
Promises have been made to help the agricultural sector in the United States prices, but Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said that more must be made to help rural communities in which the sector operates.
“The opportunities that we are missing is what really concerns us because the agricultural and food sector is the largest manufacturing sector in the country, and therefore to manufacture that you must produce,” he told Global News.
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Currie said that if the leaders wanted to engage in rural regions, the infrastructure is essential.
This includes an emphasis on the update of ports and railway lines to obtain products where they have to go.
Currie adds that investments must also be made to help protect rural communities against climate change impacts, as the growing number of serious weather incidents can hardly strike these regions.
Improvement of health care in rural communities
Another key concern is health care.
Currie says that all federal leaders should talk about improving access to rural communities to social services such as dental care and health care, as well as mental health.
“For those of us who live in rural regions of the country, we simply do not have these social services, the doctors we can access, the specialists we can arrive,” he said.
“Many of our farmers and breeders drive a few hours in each direction to buy parts for equipment or to do other things. Well, the same is true when there are doctors or other medical health specialists. ”
He said that when a doctor leaves an urban center, patients can get another “the other side of the city”, but it is not feasible in rural communities.
This is a problem on which the Canadian Medical Association dit must be worked.
According to a survey of 9,000 people conducted by Ourcare in the fall of 2022, most said that they generally awaited two days or more for an appointment with a family doctor, with one in 20 pending per month or more.
Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian medical association, said that the need for family physicians was important, but that federal leaders suggested should focus on training in rural regions to increase the number of rural communities.
“We know that people make the residence often predicts where they will end up practicing medicine,” she said.
“We want to make sure that we have good solid training environments for rural medicine because it is a unique specialty and a unique experience.”
Reimer added that political decision -makers, whether during or after an election, should examine investments in team care to improve access by making nurses, pharmacists and mental health professionals all available in one place.
“Having this team that works together can mean that the patient did not have to wait so long, means that he is obtaining care for the best supplier for this specific concern,” said Reimer.
“It could mean in a rural community that you do not see the family doctor whenever you need care.”
The most recent data of statistics Canada on crime declared by the police have shown that the gravity index of crime, which measures volume and severity, was 33% higher in rural than urban areas.
The liberals and the conservatives have established plans on crime, ranging from the recruitment of more RRC staff to the creation of a new offense for violence between intimate partners.
The Canadian Police Association indicates that improving staff in rural communities is necessary.
“We must have the capacity in rural distant areas where Canadians live,” said Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association.
“Otherwise, they do not get the services they need and which can often have a devastating impact on the community when bad people enter these communities and there is no fear of apprehension, there is no deterrence to discourage people from engaging in inappropriate behavior or criminal activity and this therefore creates this empowering environment.”
But he added that political decision -makers still do not attack the fundamental problems faced by rural communities, which, according to him, includes supports such as mental health, such as having regional centers where people can obtain treatment and support if we are facing problems of drug addiction or drug addiction, or serious mental health problems.
“This is what leads to these feelings of insecurity and to the feeling that crime occurs in these rural communities and that no one responds because there is simply not the capacity of that,” said Stamatakis.
“I think governments must have to make sure that we have enough police to be able to respond, but also make sure that the answer is effective.”