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The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted families across Canada; however, rural low-income mothers and their families have experienced significant challenges due to historical and current social, economic, cultural, and health inequities. These inequities complicated mothers' ability to navigate the pandemic. This paper is based on a study that used a grounded theory framework to explore the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural, low-income mothers in Nova Scotia, Canada, while supporting their families' wellbeing during the pandemic. Through 29 interviews with rural low-income mothers, and three focus groups with community organizations serving these mothers, this study found that mothers and their families were deeply impacted by the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors such as inadequate internet and internet access, limited and unaffordable transportation options, food insecurity, social isolation, and mental health challenges emerged from these interviews. Three focus groups with service providers to low-income rural mothers also informed the final results. The inequities faced by rural mothers created additional barriers to accessing services and resources to support their families' wellbeing during the pandemic. The results of the study connect to the importance of addressing inequities through a holistic social determinants of heath model. As a result, the findings of this study have implications on the actions of service providers, policymakers, and researchers, as little has been written about this demographic in relation to social determinants of health and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strong correlation between macroeconomic conditions and migration in general, which drives population loss in rural areas with fewer job opportunities. This relationship between work and migration resonates with people's experiences and is backed up by large quantitative studies. But qualitative research on community outmigration yields more nuanced insights into migration as a biographical, subjective process that is influenced as much by perceptions and discourses linking success with big cities as by actual job opportunities. These insights have shifted recent scholarship away from job-centric explanations toward a greater appreciation for other place-related factors that affect life satisfaction and well-being. In this paper, we seek to apply these insights in a quantitative analysis looking at why Atlantic Canadians plan to leave their communities. We further consider how several job quality and satisfaction measures intersect with community characteristics and demographics to shape migration intentions. Using data from a 2019 survey of 1,277 Atlantic Canadians, we find that respondents from both urban and rural areas are motivated to leave their communities by a variety of factors--not only for work, but also for social and lifestyle reasons--although people under 30 are especially likely to cite work or school as their reason for leaving. While most job quality and satisfaction measures did not significantly influence migration intentions, we find that job stability factors--for example, permanent contracts and stable hours--are linked to lower migration intentions among rural residents, in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the efforts of a seven-year partnership project, the Rural Policy Learning Commons (RPLC), to raise the profile of rural development policy in Canada. Substantive and effective rural policy has long been a challenging prospect. Issues of distance and density, which define the rural condition, present barriers to galvanizing policy attention, understanding rural issues, and designing appropriate interventions. The RPLC project experienced several policy impact successes related to specific policy windows. The project also experienced capacity challenges--at all levels of the rural policy process--and offers insights related to complex systems and the challenges associated with seeking to elevate the role of evidence within policy processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental education provides learners with information and knowledge that can change their attitudes and behaviours about the environment. The environmental education literature shows that K-12 students have largely been the focus of analysis; however, there is an increasing body of the literature that assesses how students transmit environmental knowledge to adults. Utilizing a qualitative case study approach, this paper examined how K-12 students in a remote and isolated First Nations community in Canada, Heiltsuk Nation, transmitted knowledge about recycling to adults and its resultant impacts on attitudes and behaviours in the community. Our analysis revealed that within Indigenous cultures, adults--particularly Elders--pass down their environmental knowledge to younger generations. However, K-12 students, who participated in the community's elementary school recycling program, transferred their knowledge to parents, grandparents, and community members. Community members that were interviewed indicated that they developed an understanding of recycling and started to recycle, compost, and reuse their waste when students came home to teach them. Given that this change in attitudes and behaviours happened when there was no community-wide recycling program in the community, Indigenous communities that have challenges with solid waste management can develop similar waste diversion programs with children as a focus to help spur change in their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed crucial flaws in Canada's immigration systems. While the majority of newcomers to Canada reside in urban centres, a substantial minority work and live in rural areas and small towns where crucial immigrant services are far less developed and greater geographical distances hinder efforts to support immigrants. Rural immigrants face distinct challenges, including increased social isolation and economic marginalization, which have only been amplified by the pandemic. Furthermore, the inaccurate perception of immigration as an exclusively urban issue hinders efforts to combat these problems. Building on rural immigration literature, this paper examines the ways in which the pandemic has impacted rural immigrants, including newcomers, refugees, and temporary foreign workers. Findings highlighted include the difficulty of providing immigrant support services in rural areas, the vulnerability of migrant farm workers to illness and isolation, and the lack of awareness and funding for immigration issues in rural areas relative to their urban counterparts. The paper draws on journalism and academic literature from the past year into these issues. In doing so, it demonstrates the need for renewed academic, policy, and rural development practice interests in rural immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical intervention into housing research by applying the geospatial lens of the rural-urban space (RUS) to the social problem of homelessness, a conceptual linkage absent in the Canadian context. Drawing on original data from 80 surveys, four focus groups, and a community feedback session, we identify and interrogate key local impacts of systemic shifts in the housing market and associated policy responses in Dufferin County, Ontario, a RUS community located 80km northwest of Toronto. We find that for people experiencing homelessness within RUS communities, the intersecting consequences of multiple forms of structural marginalization, such as low wages and social assistance rates and discrimination, can quickly destabilize housing. We emphasize the importance of attending to housing in RUS communities and developing housing policy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural, cold climate communities, such as those in coastal and northern Newfoundland and Labrador, face documented challenges pertaining to financial and infrastructure constraints and changing personnel considerations. Fire service delivery must adapt to these realities. The aim of this paper is to understand the scope of the scholarly and grey literature addressing challenges and solutions for fire service delivery and firefighting in rural and cold climate contexts, particularly as they pertain to Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The review was conducted using an academic search engine, topic-specific search engines, grey literature databases, and a review of relevant websites to produce information sources. Peerreviewed articles, professional reports, theses and dissertations, and other article types indicated several challenges and solutions. The challenges identified were represented in scholarly and grey literature. These included challenges related to resources, the environment, firefighting tasks, and community. Likewise, solutions centred around resources, firefighting tasks, and community were represented in both scholarly and grey literature. Specific identification of future research needs was limited in the research reviewed. Further investigation and evaluation of the efficacy of solutions for specific cold climate, rural regions are advised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 global pandemic has disrupted economies around the world, and rural Canada is no exception. In this paper, we explore the economic development impacts of the pandemic on rural communities across Canada. We seek to provide a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of how rural communities have responded to this crisis and the extent to which they are able to build long-term rural resilience through their responses and plans for recovery. To do so, we draw upon novel data derived from a survey of rural economic development practitioners from across Canada. Our findings are structured around three main themes: economic development and business impacts, economic development responses, and resources needed for recovery. The study highlights the geographic unevenness of impacts, responses, and resource needs to address the challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, our research underscores the importance of capacity and context as rural economic development practitioners and other rural leaders have responded to these challenges. Finally, this research provides important insights into the tools and strategies that could build long-term rural resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural communities are often portrayed in the research literature and popular media as being disadvantaged and 'vulnerable'. This paper examines the extent to which rural health regions in Canada are more vulnerable than other health regions in terms of contracting COVID-19 and developing serious illness from this virus that leads to death. Data include published numbers of cases of and deaths from COVID-19 in each health region across Canada. Other data from Statistics Canada's Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) documents the higher rates of 'vulnerability' in rural health regions, according to (a) their socio-demographic conditions (income, education, age), and (b) the rates of 'underlying health conditions' which would make individuals more susceptible to serious illness from COVID-19. Despite these vulnerabilities, which are consistent with other research on rural areas in Canada, COVID-19 rates are found to be higher in metropolitan areas--although there is some variation in this pattern by province. In no provinces is the rate of death per case of COVID-19 highest in rural areas. Overall, in Canada, deaths per case from COVID-19 are higher in metropolitan than in rural health regions, challenging the notion of rural areas being only and always disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working without fixity, while historically prevalent, has been on the rise in Canada and throughout the world due to processes associated with advanced capitalism. Moreover, it implies mobility to, from, and within work, which in a time of COVID-19, is problematic for workers and communities alike. In this paper, we argue that our pre-COVID statistical knowledge of workers without a fixed place of work in Canada is inadequate. Using the best source of available data--the 2016 Census--we provide a thorough account of these workers as compared to those with a set place of work. We find that most individuals without a fixed workplace are male, have low income, are likely to be self-employed, have a higher proportion of employment insurance (EI) and self-employment income, and have college or on-the-job training skill levels. They are also likely to live in rural areas, and work in the construction or transportation industry. We argue that documenting which workers are most likely to be working without fixity is necessary to understand how a COVID-19 world will play out for these workers and their communities as the pandemic continues and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of automation and emerging technologies on federal, provincial, and local economies have direct implications for labour markets across the country and require a policy response. Taking into account the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic on economies and workforces across the country, this paper reviews the policy choices available to various levels of Canadian governments and businesses in response to the challenges posed by automation. It concludes that reskilling workers, closing economic gaps between rural and urban areas, and preparing for widespread automation are just some of the ways that policymakers, business leaders, and local employers can prepare for, and address, the effects of emerging technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an increasingly political environment developing in western, industrialized resource sectors, the purpose of this paper is to explore Indigenous governments' ability to assert sovereignty over their territory as it pertains to resource development. Utilizing a relational self-determination framework, we present a case study of the Stk'emlupsemc te Secwépemc Nation and their role in governance over mineral development in their unceded traditional territory located in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. This article adds to the growing case examples that suggest that First Nations governments in Canada are exerting their selfdetermination strategically, transitioning the role of negotiated agreements from an Impact-Benefit transaction to gain greater participation in resource extraction decision-making. Utilizing tools such as cultural heritage studies, legal action, and developing community-based processes of consent, First Nations governments are gaining more negotiating leverage and influence over decision-making processes for resource development projects. These insights are particularly relevant for Indigenous communities that are considering their options regarding resource development as a path to autonomy and self-governance over their territory, resources, and economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Battle of Little Big Puck is an annual event hosted in Maple Creek that challenges the way we think about how sport, history, heritage, and community intersect and play out in rural Canada. The event pits 'Cowboys against the Indians 'in a hockey game and symbolic performance of identity, culture, and community. For this paper, we used a participatory methodology to co-construct narratives of the event in order to explore how it is understood and communicated in and for the community. We drew from interviews, public accounts, and observations to discuss two components of the larger narrative of this event. We discuss a historical narrative of contact and collaboration between Nekaneet First Nation and local rodeo cowboys and a contemporary narrative of urban-rural difference and misunderstanding, which provides a platform for community culture, specifically the expression of 'the way we do things out here. 'Collectively, these narratives provide insights into local understandings of settler-Indigenous relations in one region of rural Saskatchewan and speak to the potential of sport and recreation as sites for contact, interaction, and the expression of distinct and collective aspects of culture and community in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of a (new) regionalist development process that sought to enable communities, within a rural region of British Columbia, Canada, to chart a new strategic direction for their future development. We highlight the case of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition (C-CBAC), which formed in response to the mountain pine beetle infestation that has destroyed much of the province's pine forests. Spurred by this crisis, the C-CBAC formed to create community and economic transition strategies to cope with long-term economic restructuring and environmental change. While the coalition has achieved many admirable successes, internal governance struggles and the reliance of senior governments on traditional vehicles to distribute supports have severely hindered any regionalist potential for implementation. Ultimately, government trumped governance in this attempt to construct a new regional ideal. The paper highlights the need for 'co-constructing' new regional governance, which entails both bottom-up and top-down responsibility and coordination in the implementation of new regional development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development strategies in Nunavut, Canada provide the broad direction for local level development, but communities must establish their own development paths, taking advantage of opportunities where their interests align with those of the regional government. The Nunavut territorial government has a specific concern with enhancing development in the remote and small, mostly coastal, communities that lie across the vast territory and to support the aspirations of Nunavummiut, particularly the Inuit population whose homeland is this territory. Yet, there has been a struggle between supporting large, externally based projects with few local benefits and small-scale projects with largely local economic benefit. This paper explores these issues within the framework of Indigenous nation-building and related community economic development approaches in order to come to an understanding of how the territory's economic development goals set the scene for local development. This analysis sheds light on the potential strengths and weaknesses of Nunavut's territorial economic strategies and their support or hindrance of community economic development. Our analysis shows that, for the most part, the territory is in the visioning stage of economic development and is constructing a foundation of guiding principles and intentions. The strength of the documents is in presenting strategic, long-term, big-picture thinking. There is a strong emphasis in some of the strategies on using these foundations for community benefit in order to improve the well-being of Nunavummiut and Inuit specifically. Further, there is a major emphasis on sustainability, an emerging theme that appears in every strategy and is related to both environmental and economic conditions. However, in order to determine the actual impact of the strategies, it will be necessary to explore community and territorial level change stemming directly from individual strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural drinking water systems face a number of challenges, not the least of which is a growing infrastructure deficit. While age and investment are typically highlighted as key factors influencing the infrastructure deficit, other pervasive challenges remain for rural drinking water systems in British Columbia, Canada. This raises the question of whether factors influencing the infrastructure deficit extend beyond those typically captured in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between rural regional development and drinking water systems in order to provide a historically and theoretically informed lens on the relationships between the two and how these links influence present day challenges. The authors aim to temper the presentism that often characterizes current debates surrounding the infrastructure deficit and to frame current drinking water system challenges within a more contextually-informed and regionally integrated framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good governance and engaged entrepreneurship are integral pillars for innovation in rural tourism and ultimately its success. This paper investigates the barriers to innovative rural tourism development in the province of Ontario, Canada, through a stakeholders' workshop where success factors for innovation in rural development were categorized as: governance, human resources, investments, research, marketing, communication and co-ordination. A detailed survey followed up on stakeholders' perceptions of innovation in rural settings based on the themes identified. This research suggests that while engaged entrepreneurship may not necessarily be conducive for radical innovation, it has been instrumental in providing the impetus for incremental and liminal innovation, allowing rural businesses to sustainably thrive and also to survive turbulent economic environments. Similarly, governance, which includes broader strategic approaches for the management of rural tourism, bottom-up planning, longer-term strategies and better coordination at the federal level, also creates the environment for innovation in rural tourism. Engaged entrepreneurs are further perceived to play a critical role in providing leadership at the local level to effect product development, packaging, advocacy, training and development for the overall success of rural tourism in Ontario, Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a conceptual framework that outlines the formation of a food cluster as part of creative rural development, transforming the 'comparative advantages' of a place into 'competitive advantages' by enhancing a local food production and consumption nexus. The conceptual framework emphasizes four facilitators that constitute the innovation process that underpins the creation and operation of food clusters as place-based rural development. The framework is used to guide information acquisition, analysis and presentation in a case study of SAVOUR Muskoka, a food cluster in Ontario, Canada. Together, the framework and case study show how the innovation process involved in the formation of a food cluster contributes to the development of a creative rural food economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]