SOME MEASURES TO ADDRESS RURAL POVERTY IN CANADA Invited Submission On Rural Poverty. Senate Standing Committee On Agriculture And Forestry Ottawa: 9 November 2006 Leonard P. Apedaile Smoky Lake County, Alberta

MEASURE No. 1 Promote rural/metro alliances –around common interests, –to learn from the emerging connectedness of rural and metro Connected economies Connected ecologies Connected justice issues.

MEASURE No. 2 Reduce transactions costs for people –changing jobs –moving between the formal and informal economies –trading productive assets.

MEASURE No. 3 Strengthen the performance of the informal economy Recognize the role played by the informal economy in the competitiveness and risk management of the formal economy.

MEASURE No. 4 Weaken the low rural income trap. –Labour and asset mobility –Capacity of the workforce to perform in the digital workplace –Offset global extraction of rural economic rents.

MEASURE No. 5 Assist rural artisan SME and community enterprises (social economy) – proactively – to improve: performance safety standards:

MEASURE No. 6 Twin –rural and metro schools –and school boards –and municipal services –and arts councils –and, and, and.

MEASURE No. 7 Connect justice, mental health and social wellness policies, Be sensitive to downloading issues.

MEASURE No. 8 Determine the public good value produced by farming, and compensate farmers for delivering it.

MEASURE No. 9 Accelerate inclusion of industrial agriculture and agricultural processing under the umbrella of labour and environmental legislation.

MEASURE No. 10 Add more aggressive provisions to the sustainability measures in the `New Deal’ Grants program. Build capacity for rural self governance to reduce dependency.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INVITATION Rural poverty is not about ideology. It is about ethics, national security, productivity and wellness. L. Peter Apedaile