People who live in rural communities across Nova Scotia will easily tell you that things have changed over the years. But they’ll have a harder time telling you exactly how things have changed. However, a new report, Painting the Landscape of Rural Nova Scotia, released at a membership meeting of the Coastal Communities Network (CCN), in early November, documents those changes and presents a comprehensive picture of rural life – the facts of life in rural Nova Scotia.
The report is part of the Rural Communities Impacting Policy (RCIP) project, a five-year partnership of CCN and the Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre (AHPRC), at Dalhousie University. (The partnership was made possible by funding from the Ottawa-based Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.) RCIP’s goal is to increase the ability of rural communities and organizations in Nova Scotia to access and use social science research in order to influence and develop policies that contribute to the health and sustainability of the province’s rural communities.
“This report was two years in the making, and it provides a wealth of information about our rural communities,” says Lynn Langille, AHPRC research consultant. “This is information policy makers, community groups, educators, and many others will want to have at their fingertips.”
The report available in both hard copy and on the internet (see website address below), has five chapters, each covering a a key aspect of rural life – Demography, Economy, Education, Environment, and Health. Each chapter begins with a series of “Fast Facts” that highlight significant features of Nova Scotia’s rural landscape. For example:
- depending on exactly how “rural” is defined, between 60 and 75 percent of Nova Scotia’s total population lives in rural areas;
- while the number of people employed in the fisheries in Nova Scotia has been decreasing, the total value of commercial fish landings has been on the rise;
- average class sizes, at all grade levels, in rural Nova Scotia are smaller than in urban areas;
- many species of plants and wildlife found in rural Nova Scotia are endangered or threatened by human activity;
- compared with other Canadians, rural Nova Scotians have particularly high rates of chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
“The sheer volume of information in the report is staggering and will be of immense help to a wide array of groups and individuals,” says CCN Executive Director Ishbel Munro. “It’s our hope, however, that this information will also be used to bring about changes at the policy level and improve the quality of life for rural Nova Scotians.”
Jackie Race works for the provincial Department of Community Dervices in Shelburne County, and she picked up several copies of the report at its unveiling in Truro. “I think this is a very exciting document,” Jackie says. “It will certainly help people anyone who needs to write a proposal for a community-based project. I’ve given away several copies, and everyone who has seen it has told me how impressed with it they are.”
Painting the Landscape of Rural Nova Scotia will help provide a statistical database against which people in rural Nova Scotia, as well as those who work in universities and governments on behalf of rural communities, will be able to measure future changes in rural Nova Scotia. It is intended as a starting point for discussion, analysis, and action. Questions are provided at the end of each chapter to facilitate discussion about what all the data presented mean for rural Nova Scotians
AHPRC was established in 1993 through a Centres of Excellence grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the National Health Research Development Program. Since its founding, AHPRC has generated more than $10 million in research grants in the Atlantic region. It is also the Atlantic representative in the Candian Consortium for Health Promotion Research, which includes fourteen university-based health research centres across Canada.
CCN is an association of organizations and individuals concerned with the social and economic well-being of coastal and rural communities in Nova Scotia. Established in 1992, CCN actively helps coastal and rural communities deal more effectively with the social and economic challenges facing them.
For more information, or a copy of Painting the Landscape of Rural Nova Scotia, contact Malcolm Shookner, RCIP’s Interim Project Coordinator at 494-1590, or by e-mail at Malcolm.Shookner@dal.ca. The report can also be accessed through the RCIP website at www.ruralnovascotia.ca.
