Saskatchewan’s rural population decline is caused by increasing larger corporate farms, writes Michael Halyk.
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Why is our premier telling anyone who will listen that the economy is great in rural Saskatchewan? As we travelled numerous highways this summer, it was plain to see that the opposite is the reality.
Towns are being reduced to villages, while villages are becoming hamlets. Hamlets that used to dot Saskatchewan are being turned back to their rural municipalities. This puts the onus on the backs of farm families to have the rural municipal tax base pay for the upkeep of these near-lost communities.
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So what’s caused this escalation? It is escalation of farm size. Farm size has grown in almost unbelievable jumps in the last 10 years or so.
Young men and women who may have grown up on small and moderate farms are not deciding to return to the rural areas to educate their child or shop in local communities. What has changed to discourage them?
Read the government’s throne speech of the last couple sessions or check out recent Saskatchewan Association Of Rural Municipalities (SARM) annual convention. Restocking Saskatchewan with a new generation of families isn’t even mentioned.
Instead, Saskatchewan opened its doors to sell off Saskatchewan farmland to outside interests or corporations to the highest bidder. The Farm Credit Corporation (FCC) and the chartered banks simply love this scenario. It’s the 1970s all over again.
Higher land prices and borrowing costs prices eventually convince even the most sincere of retiring farmers that by selling or renting to a corporation — as opposed to a young couple starting out who may have grown up down the road — is probably the direction they have to go.
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So my question is: Do you want to see young couples start up farming in Saskatchewan or are you comfortable that the direction we are going is a healthy one that keeps rural Saskatchewan distinctly rural?
Micheal Halyk, Yorkton
Harris vision trumps Trump
Regarding the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate. In a word: astounded. Given Trump’s deeply flawed character, it is incomprehensible how such a man could have become the President of the United States in the first place.
Who supports Donald Trump? Wealthy individuals and influential corporations and gullible folks who blindly believe internet misinformation and are unwilling to fact check.
What do the wealthy see in Trump? An opportunity to have restrictive government regulations and tax laws changed. What do frustrated and angry people see in Trump? A far-fetched belief he will relieve their anxiety, which has been brought on by the rapidly changing world.
This race for the American presidency is a contest between, good and evil, altruism and selfishness, truth and lies and duty and egotism.
Lloyd Atkins, Vernon, B.C.
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