![[leaves]](leaf1.gif) BC Rural Women's Network
Summer 2007 Discussion Guide:
Summary Senate Interim Report
Senate Interim Report Link: http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/agri-e/rep-e/repintdec06-e.pdf
Trends of the past - predictors of the future?
Chapter 1 is an introduction and outline of the committee's mandate.
In the introduction the following quote is put forward:
Some
suggest that the rural poor are not really that poor - few are hungry,
fewer are homeless, they have access to tightly knit communities and
nature's abundance.
What do you think of that statement?
Women especially single moms, disabled and aboriginal women tend to be
poorer. The senate committee is not reporting on poor aboriginal women
because they note that there is separate senate study coming soon.
To the aboriginal women among us - is that an approach you want to see?
(BCRWN would like to include as many women's voices as possible in our analysis of the problems facing rural women).
Some general questions to keep in mind as you read the senate report:
1. Does this reflect your experience?
2. What do you think the senate committee has missed if anything?
3. What would you add?
4. What do you think needs to be done to improve opportunities for all rural women?
5. What do you think the government role should be?
6. What are your ideas for the future?
Chapters 2 and 3 outline a definition of rural poverty, and discuss what the committee has heard are important trends.
Definitions
There are two definitions of rural put forward in this paper. One is
geographic - a community of less than 10,000 people and less than 50%
commute to an urban area.
The second definition is that there is a sociologically community - one
based on where three are less than 150 people per square kilometer.
Who are the rural poor?
Poverty in this report has been described as an inability to get access
to the basic necessities of life and the goods and services that
promote inclusion and minimize the stigma of being poor.
Trends (Senate interim report pp 45-63)
There is a lot of discussion in the report about the positives of rural
living and what is happening (or not) in rural communities. If you have
the time, read those pages in particular and see if any or all of those
comments can be applied to your experiences in British Columbia. Many
of the examples quoted, were from other areas in Canada. List below is
a very brief summary of some of the issues that have been raised.
- A declining population - less people
- Aging population - those who are staying in their communities are getting older
- Transportation - it is hard to get around for a
number of reasons - this can mean isolation from family members, other
communities and from government programs and services.
- Economy - women are trapped in low paying jobs
and don't have access to the fewer higher paying jobs in forestry and
mining. Continued mill and mine closures aren't helping. Farm incomes
are low and don't provide wage relief.
- Informal Economy - community resources are
fewer and fewer - community leaders are either being stretched further
or becoming harder and harder to find. "Social cohesiveness" is
becoming less and less of a factor in the invisibility of rural
poor. The resources just aren't there for things like shelters,
food banks, clothing exchanges etc.
- Government Services - There is generally a lack
of consistent access to childcare, immigrant language services, and
other government services.
Questions:
1. Does this generally reflect what is happening in your community?
2. If
so - how do you experience it? Does it mean longer drives to get to a
government office, a library or longer bus rides for your children, no
easily accessible women's shelters?
3. What
about health care - doctors and specialists? We know it wasn't great
before. Is it getting worse because of retirements or because medical
assistance is getting even harder to access? Has your own or family
need of medical services changed over the past 5 or 6 years?
Chapter 4
generally outlines some possible solutions. The common thread is that
communities themselves must decide what needs to be done. Some of these
are listed below. For more detail see pages 61-81
- Western Economic Diversification - Support more small business start-ups by increasing their loan base.
- Connect rural and urban interests through a
more regional approach - urban areas benefit from much of what rural
communities can provide.
- Build more rural to rural alliances
- Income Policies - co-ordinate federal,
provincial resources to a strategic plan for a given region,
regionalize more government offices
- Immigration, Tourism
- Multi-purpose farms
Discussion Questions on the Interim Senate Report
What do you think?
How can we build on the networks and resources we already have?
What should the role of government be?
1. Did they get it right for rural women in BC?
2. Are they missing anything?
3. What do they need to know from us
4. What do we need from government
How can we best influence government policy?
Any other thoughts?
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