Urban services don't have to come at expense of rural areas, says prof

How a government distributes resources when it comes to rural versus urban centres is often viewed by the public as "either or" — but it doesn't have to be that way, says a Halifax professor.

Karen Foster, a sociologist at Dalhousie University, told CBC's Information Morning both rural and urban centres have similar needs and concerns but they must be addressed in different ways.

"There's ... what I think is a faulty perception that this is a zero-sum game where if the urban areas gain then the rural areas, necessarily, have to lose," said Foster, the Canada research chair in sustainable rural futures for Atlantic Canada.

We all want the same things

Foster said people tend to want the same things, regardless of where they live.

"Everybody, urban or rural, wants access to primary health care. They want someone who can track their long-term health, they also want access to emergency services in the rare cases that they need them. Everyone wants access to affordable and fast internet," she said.

"Everybody wants older people to be able to choose where they live.

"It's just that the ways to make these things happen are going to play out differently in rural and urban areas."

Trying to replicate urban services in rural areas can become expensive, she added.

"[Rural areas are] asking for different ways to deliver services and they are often met with the response that that's just not the way we do things, that we have to centralize and standardize and I think that's when you run into the real costs," said Foster.

Hub schools a 'missed opportunity'

Foster described the so-called hub school model as a missed opportunity of something that could work in a rural area.

The hub school model is an initiative aimed at keeping rural schools open by leasing out unused space in the buildings to businesses or local groups. The idea is to save underused schools by making them community hubs with other uses.

However, some argue the guidelines for approval are too strict.

"That's the kind of model that thrives in rural places," said Foster.

"It's more collaborative. You see more collaborative businesses, co-operative businesses, more multi-use facilities. So that's the kind of efficiency that rural places are after and it doesn't look like the efficiency we recognize in the cities."

Obligation to keep rural communities alive

Foster said most rural places in the province are shrinking while Halifax is growing so the debate over an urban-rural divide isn't going away.

"It's becoming more difficult to deliver services to rural places, but it's becoming ever more crucial that we do maintain some level of services in schools, hospitals — the things that provincial governments have a lot to do with in order to keep people there," said Foster.

"There are businesses, there are industries that there are families that have been living in these places for generations.

"No one lives in rural places for no reason. So I think we do have an obligation to ensure that people are able to continue living in rural places."