One size does not fit all in Rural Ontario

PC Leader John Tory touched on a number of themes that resonate in many of our rural areas during a speech to the Northern Ontario Summit last month.

Early on in his speech, Tory spoke of the continued outmigration of Ontario’s rural young people to cities, as well as our continued inability to recruit enough doctors, nurses and health professionals to our smaller towns.

We have seen all too often, young people from our area exit en masse for jobs and education in more urban areas, while community volunteers scramble to find doctors and nurses to work in our already underserviced communities.

As I see it, as long as people from our rural areas are not at the table, their concerns are going to be considered an afterthought compared to larger cities. This will mean time and time again that we will continue to have policies that are ill-thought out, ill-fitting and ill-advised.

Due to these ongoing concerns, we are on the record advocating greater decentralization of government services as a cornerstone of our policy deliberations.  This is something that Mr. Tory touched on when he came to Port Dover in 2004.

According to Tory, decentralization of government services, “means stopping the mad rush to one-size-fits-all programs and solutions which fail to recognize unique needs”

John Tory and the rest of my colleagues at Queen’s Park believe decentralization works for three reasons. 

First, for many government departments it means the people making decisions and implementing policy actually have regular and personal contact with the people impacted by this policy.  That would be a nice change.

Second, decentralizing areas of government can have a huge impact on small and medium sized communities -- and the staff, the salaries, the demand for services and real estate -- that might be taken for granted in a larger urban city  -- can have a much stronger economic impact.  How many times have we seen province-wide staff reductions that result in job losses in both big cities and small communities? The only difference is that a job lost in a big city may be one out of one hundred, while in the small town it is one out of two.  We have to start thinking about these things and not just using bureaucratic Toronto cookie-cutters when we make decisions.

Finally, the business case works here in Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant as well.  With the right up-front investment, and the use of new technologies, the cost of doing many kinds of business will be competitive, if not less expensive, than what is offered elsewhere.

Tory went on to say that in addition to plans for decentralization, with an election on the far horizon, representatives of all stripes are open for input.

I want to hear new ideas for encouraging young people not to leave our beautiful small communities, and to ensure that they can find that job, buy that home, and raise that family right here at home.

We are determined to give kids who grow up here an option – an option to stay and build a career.  We are determined to put and end to the notion that we just need more of the same, more one-size-fits-all, made-in-urban Ontario solutions.

Locally, let’s all work together to ensure the big picture holds solutions that fit our rural Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant as well.