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Rural Dialogue
Timmins, ON
DISCLAIMER
Meeting Particulars
Timmins, Ontario - ENGLISH
June 16, 1998
5:30 - 8:30 pm
Questions
1. A) Rural residents are concerned about the future of their communities.
What are the key strengths of your community as you look to the future?
1. B) What are the biggest challenges that you, your family and your community face as you look to the future?
2. What is preventing you and your community from overcoming these challenges?
3. What organizations, levels of government or others should be involved in working to overcoming these challenges?
4. What role do you see specifically for the federal government in working with you to overcome these challenges?
5. How can federal programs and services better support your community's needs (e.g., are there changes needed in the design, delivery, awareness or accessibility)?
6. What is the best way for the Federal Government to continue to hear the views of rural people on an ongoing basis (e.g., meetings, surveys, polls, newsletters, advisory groups, the Internet, etc.)?
Findings
1. Rural residents are concerned about the future of their communities.
1 A).What are the key strengths of your community as you look to the future?
People/Communities:
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Bilingual communities; Francophone joie de vivre, enthusiasm
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Dedicated volunteers; willingness to participate; strong volunteer spirit
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Caring community
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Broader spectrum/diversity of skills available within individuals
- Community partnerships; integrated service delivery – one stop shopping..
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Low crime rate.
Physical resources:
- Natural resources
- Clean environment, clean air
- 7 months of snow.
Economic:
- Financial strength (some have it, some don't)
- Mining, hospitals, agriculture, forestry
- Development of natural resources (gold)
- New small business growth.
Services/Infrastructure
- Integrated approach to service delivery (1 stop shopping).
- Infrastructure – all amenities/services. Best restaurants in the north!
- Educational establishments; post secondary education; bilingual education
- Lower housing cost.
- Rail link
- Hwy 11 corridor
1. b) What are the biggest challenges that you, your family and your community face as you look to the future?
Note: All 3 areas are linked.
You:
- Participation: Complexity and red tape to participate.
- Volunteer burn out. Lack of organized cultural activities.
- Economic uncertainties: uncertain future i.e., lack of economic growth. Will there be a pension fund when I retire? Will tuition/education be affordable in future?
- Social/psychological: Lost our dreams, lost the ability to succeed. Dreams being replaced with malaise. Too many issues destroys ambition and dreams. Not enough success stories.
- Communications: Poor communications systems in Northern Telephone catchment area – multi-party phone lines.
Family:
- Economic: How will I be able to afford my child's education? Diversify economic base from natural resources. Cost of fuel. Cost of travelling large distances to anywhere.
- Services: Lack of available housing. Health service. Difficulty in filing income tax returns – simplify. Lack of access to specialists, specialized services..
- Physical: Travelling dangers, weather, poor maintenance, wild life, distances to large cities.
- Youth respect and values.
Community:
- Social: Exodus of young to big city. Shrinking communities. Too many clubs/organizations after the same funding and volunteers. Volunteer burn-out. Culture and arts no longer subsidized.
- Economic: Continuous use of resources, emphasis on resource-based economy. Diversify economy away from resources. Need more value-added manufacturing of our natural resources in our community. Need start-up capital for business.
- Economic growth: Hodge-podge of money being given out, too many small start-ups are folding because they are not administered properly. Support them with monitoring and follow-up (e.g., successful businessmen as mentors). Or reduce funding and also reduce personal income tax to encourage individuals to invest in new ventures themselves.
- Services and programs: Get telecommunication into the communities quickly. Loss of transportation, travel costs. Airport is a necessity in isolated communities. Health support systems, health care deteriorating. More feedback on why applications are rejected, input and direction for filling out forms and applications. Health and education must be a priority.
- Downloading: Show us how to cut back government and pass savings onto us, rather than dumping responsibility to communities and passing on the costs.
- Lands for Life process – "stop the stupidity."
- Internet – is not an answer to everything (although it is important).
2. What is preventing you and your community from overcoming these challenges?
a) What is holding you back?
Economic/financial:
- Higher costs in the North along with disparity in prices among municipalities, e.g., fuel, food.
- Isolation from economically viable markets for new enterprise development – (air and ground – bus, rail). Exports.
- Government cut backs in the wrong areas. Health and education are the wrong areas – if we don't have these basic things, how are we going to succeed?
- Federal, provincial governments directing industry to specific areas.
- Funding – where is it going?
- Services with short-term funding – just as you get the program up and running, the core funding runs out. Extend timeframe to a longer period.
Services:
- Poor communications in the rural areas. Single party phone lines not available to many.
- "President of Northern Telephone apparently is not aware that Cochrane PUC is interested in absorbing the rural area."
People:
- Federal and provincial partnerships.
- Lack of qualified personnel.
- Lack of awareness of what is available.
- Public apathy.
Weather: cold and fierce winters.
2. b) What needs to be done?
Government communication/information
- Information and better communication of what is available, what programs are supported by the federal and provincial governments – accessibility and awareness.
- Need detailed lists of service providers and names, addresses.
- Fewer surveys
- Where is the information highway?
- Decentralize the bureaucracy.
Community
- Better education of the public of what power they actually do have.
- People have a short term focus at the expense of the long term. Need a more long-term outlook.
- Rural population is perhaps "too laid back" (until there is an immediate threat to them directly). People don't mobilize on strategic/longer term issues.
- Public must have an input. Must bring out the militancy, get people involved. More community level meetings.
Economic development
- Core funding should last 2-3 years
- Incentive capital infusion
- Rethink transportation issues
- Cut back income taxes, simplify returns.
- Recognize the North, northern communities.
3. What organizations should be involved in overcoming the challenges?
- Action needs to be taken first at the community level by community groups.
- All organizations should be involved but by specific interest/need.
- If the community level makes sound decisions, the next level of government must listen.
- All levels of government should be involved and coordinated: municipal, government and federal, including MPs and MPPs, in working to overcome the challenges.
- Provincially, Northern Ontario has no representation in the provincial government. Federal representation has also declined (i.e., number of northern seats in both legislatures has been reduced).
How should they be involved?
- Community based advisory groups. Cross-section involvement. People should be involved throughout the process – planning, implementation, accountability, re-focus. Programs are set in motion but there is no accountability.
- Open sessions with all of the community. Communicate publicly.
- Input on the Internet. Teleconference. Libraries. Libraries to serve as centre of access and awareness. The federal government can support library access. Communications infrastructure.
- "Start listening and stop empire building and thinking only towards the next election."
- "Besides dumping responsibility to communities, they should show us how they cut back government bureaucracy and pass on savings, not costs."
4. What role do you see specifically for the federal government in working with you to overcome these challenges?
Service delivery:
- More awareness and accessibility.
- One stop shopping. Single resource to address problems.
- Clearer definition of who is responsible for different programs.
- More partnerships between the federal government and the province on projects and services (e.g., CAPC).
Communications:
- Make sure we are wired to the information highway "wired for the 20th century." They assured us it would take place, yet it has not yet.
- "More meetings like this but send the information out a couple of weeks ahead so that we can prepare and verify with other important groups in the community."
Representation:
- Better representation and guaranteed seats for rural Canadians in the House of Commons. MPs should be a lot more accessible because the distances are prohibitive in Northern Ontario, access to our MPs is more difficult (in addition to unequal representation). The rural voice is diminishing in the centres of power and the number of representatives has dropped.
- CAPC – province is nowhere near it. More public access from the north.
Economic support:
Help to diversify the economy – most communities are dependent solely on their resource base. "Diversify, diversify, diversify."
5. How can federal programs and services better support your community's needs (e.g., are there changes needed in the design, delivery, awareness or accessibility)?
Information/communications:
- More awareness of the programs that are available. Provide a clear, concise, free list or catalogue of service providers and programs. Information on who does what within the government, what are the jurisdictions. We don't know where to go to get what. You call someone up and they say that's not their job. How do we know where to go – we're in a no-man's land.
- Restructure communications "so it works":
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1-800 number
- Better access to staff, management, MPs – eliminate voice mail, automated phone system.
- Some communities don't even have touch tone service so they can't use these systems (more than just getting information – some programs conduct business this way e.g., reporting for EI).
- More accountability/reporting re: who got what and when? i.e., what money was given out, when and why?
- Recognition of the vastness of Northern regions.
Programs/Service delivery:
- One stop shopping.
- Shorter time frames for approvals and for programs and services. e.g., the North has a shorter construction season.
- Services should be based closer to our communities. Larger centres control the smaller communities. "We pay our taxes too!" Better service distribution to rural.
- Geographic boundaries – communities get shuffled between regional/local offices. A particular community might be served out of Sudbury (e.g., HRDC office) but then they switch responsibility for that community to say Timmins even if they liked the service coming from Sudbury. "Why are we being relocated?"
- Programs are not standardized and service is inconsistent.
- Support community-level Economic Development Officer (EDOs) and recognition of the importance of the EDO in small Northern communities. Better training for EDOs.
- Proposed legislation, programs, and services should be put through a "rural feasibility test" will it work in rural areas? If not, what changes are required? Larger communities already pass these tests.
- Eliminate special interest group programs – we are all Canadians. It shouldn't make a difference if you are young or old, male or female, etc. Unemployed is unemployed. Programs should not be targeted to specific groups e.g., UI training programs.
- Grass-roots communities, provincial and federal governments should be working together as a team on issues.
6. What is the best way for the Federal Government to continue to hear the views of rural people on an ongoing bas
is (e.g., meetings, surveys, polls, newsletters, advisory groups, the Internet, etc.)?
- Regular/monthly meetings (e.g., lunch) to keep advised.
- Newsletters.
- Group meetings if looking at recommendations. (I imagine this means a group meeting like these consultations.) Should be acted upon.
- Community forums in advance of the group meeting for broader feedback into the consultation process.
- More communication with MPs and MPPs
- Local advisory groups from each community over 1,000 population – part of mandate to advise federal and provincial politicians of local issues. EDO office could coordinate this.
- Public feedback system when they (the public) use federal/provincial/municipal programs or services.
- We need feedback on our proposals/requests for funding if there are problems with them or they are not accepted (service audit).
- Conduct surveys for needs identification only.
- Internet and telecommunications/teleconferencing – use public libraries and provide funding.
- Ensure basic phone service (single phone line) to each Canadian before improving services to those who already have it (e.g., increasing speed of existing single line service).
- National/local voting – Should we be able to have a local, national vote? (??)
DISCLAIMER
All Rural Dialogue session reports on this Canadian Rural Partnership (CRP) web site are included for information purposes only. The views expressed in the Rural Dialogue session reports have not been edited and are those of one or many rural Canadians who attended the Rural Dialogue sessions.
The views expressed in the Rural Dialogue session reports do not necessarily represent the views of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada or any other department or agency of the Government of Canada. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada does not make any warranties, expressed or implied, as to the content and/or use of the Rural Dialogue session reports.
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