SOME MEASURES TO SOME MEASURES TO ADDRESS RURAL POVERTY IN ADDRESS RURAL POVERTY IN

CANADACANADA

Invited Submission On Rural Poverty.Invited Submission On Rural Poverty.Senate Standing Committee On Agriculture And Senate Standing Committee On Agriculture And

ForestryForestry

Ottawa: Ottawa: 9 November 20069 November 2006

Leonard P. ApedaileLeonard P. ApedaileSmoky Lake County, AlbertaSmoky Lake County, Alberta

MEASURE No. 1MEASURE No. 1

• Promote rural/metro alliances–around common interests,

–to learn from the emerging connectedness of rural and metro • Connected economies

• Connected ecologies

• Connected justice issues.

MEASURE No. 2MEASURE No. 2

• Reduce transactions costs for people

–changing jobs

–moving between the formal and informal economies

–trading productive assets.

MEASURE No. 3MEASURE No. 3

• Strengthen the performance of the informal economy

• Recognize the role played by the informal economy in the competitiveness and risk management of the formal economy.

MEASURE No. 4MEASURE No. 4

• Weaken the low rural income trap.–Labour and asset mobility–Capacity of the workforce to

perform in the digital workplace–Offset global extraction of rural

economic rents.

MEASURE No. 5MEASURE No. 5

• Assist rural artisan SME and community enterprises (social economy)– proactively– to improve:

• performance• safety standards:

MEASURE No. 6MEASURE No. 6

• Twin –rural and metro schools

–and school boards

–and municipal services

–and arts councils

–and, and, and.

MEASURE No. 7MEASURE No. 7

• Connect justice, mental health and social wellness policies,

• Be sensitive to downloading issues.

MEASURE No. 8MEASURE No. 8

• Determine the public good value produced by farming,

• and compensate farmers for delivering it.

MEASURE No. 9MEASURE No. 9

• Accelerate inclusion of industrial agriculture and agricultural processing under the umbrella of labour and environmental legislation.

MEASURE No. 10MEASURE No. 10

• Add more aggressive provisions to the sustainability measures in the `New Deal’ Grants program.

• Build capacity for rural self governance to reduce dependency.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INVITATION

Rural poverty is not about ideology.

It is about ethics, national security, productivity and wellness.

L. Peter Apedaile