The war on rural Canada

SANDY LAKE, MAN.—The war on rural Canada is largely a one-way street, given the vast population imbalance between large cities and rural communities. For the purposes of this essay, rural Canada refers to the country's agricultural and natural resource producing regions. Sometimes referred to as the “southern working landscape,” this is where the vast majority of our commodities—from food, to energy, minerals, and forest products—are produced. These commodities make up—well, they make up everything. Just look around the room you are in and try to find something that was either not grown or dug out of the ground. I rest my case. Our largely urbanized society is divorced from agriculture and natural resource production with few urban people ever directly experiencing modern agriculture, forestry, etc. This is not to denigrate city-dwellers; after all, it is only natural to take for granted the consistent supply of food in grocery stores when our society has known nothing but abundance. And make no mistake: this war is real, and rural people are feeling the pinch more than most. Have you ever noticed that almost all the environmental wars are being fought against rural Canada? From opposing pipelines, to waging campaigns against forestry and mining, working to throttle modern agriculture, and to aggressively increasing energy costs, it is rural Canadians—especially the rural poor—who are paying the price. Take the recent increases in the carbon tax and the new so-called clean fuel regulations. The parliamentary budget officer conducted an analysis of these new rules and concluded: “Once these regulations take full effect, according to figures the PBO obtained from Environment and Climate Change Canada, it will increase the price of gas and diesel by as much as 17 cents per litre.” Furthermore: “That impact is felt even more in the Prairies, and Newfoundland and Labrador," the PBO said. "In 2030, the clean fuel regulations will cost the average household in Saskatchewan $1,117, or 0.87 per cent of their disposable income.” Keep in mind that for rural residents the incremental cost is even higher given the distances they must travel. Furthermore, given the preponderance of “working vehicles” such as pickup trucks, farm machinery, and construction equipment in rural Canada, the “hit” on these residents will be even worse. Anti-rural industry activism threatens to kill the goose that lays the golden equalization egg. Four provinces contribute to equalization: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador. These provinces are major fossil-fuel producers, and their resource royalties allow them to pay equalization which in turn pays for vital services such as education and health care in so-called “have not” provinces. What is puzzling is that no one in the current government seems to care, and assumes that these benefits will continue to flow regardless of their efforts to throttle our natural resources and agricultural industries. This deliberate blindness has been neatly described by David Yager, an Alberta oil executive, who noted this in a September 2021 CBC article entitled “Rural vs. urban voters: resources, unity and the 2021 election.” “The polarization is obvious," wrote Yager. "Resource producing and processing regions vote Conservative. Urban resource consumers vote Liberal or NDP. The Liberals don't need a single vote in the resource extraction and producing regions of Canada to form a majority government. … While it clearly works for the Liberals at the ballot box, it comes at a very high cost for national unity as it intentionally pits Canadians against Canadians. And it ultimately damages the entire economy.” One need only examine the composition of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) to realize the importance of our natural resource industries. The TSX has more mining stocks than any other exchange in the world. Financial companies and energy companies make up 49 per cent of the TSX. The prosperity of all Canadians—whether you use health care, have children in school, or drawing a pension from stocks—depends on the health of our rural-based natural resource industries. Does our enlightened environment minister even think about these things? The irony is that Canada’s natural resource industries implement the highest environmental standards in the world, but Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault seems not to care. The litany of attacks on rural Canadians is not limited to federal energy policies. From the new firearms laws, to animal rights campaigns, to the almost complete elimination of the fur trade, our rural populations are under assault like never before. This is taking its toll both economically and emotionally. Rural culture is based on co-operation and neighbourliness. Rural Canadians are slow to anger, but the realization has dawned that the deck is stacked against us. For the good of the country, this must change. Robert D. Sopuck is the former Conservative Member of Parliament for the Manitoba constituency of Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa. The Hill Times

The war on rural Canada

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The war on rural Canada

Rural culture is based on co-operation and neighbourliness. Rural Canadians are slow to anger, but the realization has dawned that the deck is stacked against us. For the good of the country, this must change.

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