Rural Ontario Institute

Urban farm connects with community and creates opportunity

Date: July 21, 2022

It all began in 2013 with a modest desire to cultivate their own food and awareness of the path from seed to plate humbly. Today, Jacqueline Dwyer, MES and Noel Livingston are the Farm Managers and co-founders of the Toronto Black Farmers Collective, Afro-Indigenous Food Security Festival, and The Collective Group. Their mission is to promote and supply healthy and clean food for urban residents through spaces like the Welcome and Teaching Garden at the urban farm, with a focus on underserved populations.

AALP International Study Tour Class 18: Portugal and Morocco

Date: May 31, 2022

There is no corner of the world that does not rely on agriculture to feed its people, to provide income for families and to bring money into the economies of the countries themselves. In late March and early April of 2022, the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP) Class 18 visited Portugal and Morocco...

Big Data for Small Places

Date: May 20, 2022

In our work in rural research and consulting, my colleague and I were frequently asked for assistance with local data. We believed staff in rural municipalities and NGOs should be able to find and interpret relevant data without employing a consultant. When we inquired about the obstacles rural staff faced, some recurring themes emerged.

Supporting Rural Development by Embedding Financial Capital: Community Investment Fund Programs

Date: May 13, 2022

While businesses in rural Ontario can face challenges like changing local populations and rising supply chain costs, one major obstacle that can prevent rural business development is access to financial capital. Seed money (such as from loans and equity investments) is vital for starting and growing a business, and this may be hard to find in rural areas.

What Are the Impacts of Worker Housing Location on Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program Participants

Date: April 20, 2022

Louis Helps, a PhD student in the Rural Studies program at the University of Guelph shares the results of his MSc (Rural Planning & Development) thesis which focused on Mexican participants in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and investigated the impact of the location of worker housing on their access to services, their mental and physical wellbeing, and their relationship with their employer.

Changes in employment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Date: March 21, 2022

How have employment trends changed across Ontario since the start of the pandemic?

AALP Class 19 Seminar 2: Awareness of Self and Others

Date: March 1, 2022

From February 13th to February 16th, 2022, the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Class 19 continued their learning journey in Toronto, Ontario. The theme of their second seminar was “awareness of self and others”.

New Insights on COVID-19 and Rural Immigration

Date: February 10, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on all sorts of rural systems, particularly those that involve vulnerable groups. New research published in the Journal of Rural and Community Development by Louis Helps (University of Guelph), Ray Silvius (University of Winnipeg), and Ryan Gibson (University of Guelph) offers a review of the pandemic’s effects on rural immigration systems.

Understanding the Impacts of COVID-Related Rural Population Growth

Date: December 16, 2021

There has been a noticeable change in housing market dynamics within Ontario. Many rural areas are experiencing rapid increases in house prices, with some seeing a doubling in house prices over the last 18 months. Housing affordability, a long-standing concern in large urban centers, is quickly becoming a concern for some rural areas.

Distribution of Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) in Ontario

Date: December 14, 2021

Rural Ontario Institute’s latest Focus on Rural Ontario factsheet analyzes Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) statistics in rural Ontario. This factsheet discusses the distribution of CEWS among all provinces and territories, and analyzes use by rural and urban businesses in Ontario.

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