Better internet just one connection politicians must make to protect our communitie
Mark Olson is a farmer and the founder of an ag-tech company. He lives near Cremona, Alberta. Visit the to learn more about CBC’s opinion series on the Alberta election of 2023.My Priority home page.
When we took over the family farm 12 years ago, we realized that agriculture in temperate regions like Alberta is the answer to many of the world’s most important problems, like food security, climate change, and the energy transition. At the time, farming in rural Alberta seemed to offer endless opportunities.
My 19-year-old son is making choices about his future. Even though he loves his pickup truck and life in the country, it makes me sad that my husband and I can’t always tell him to stay.
Our politicians don’t seem to want to talk about or even see the crossroads that rural Alberta is at right now.
One of the few places in the world wheresignificant capacityWestern Canada is a very good place for foreign investors to put their money because of its location, stability, and ability to do business. This is because it helps feed the world.
Agriculture can make an even bigger and more lasting contribution to Alberta’s economic success than it already does. But rural Alberta needs different tools and a new way of thinking if we want to take advantage of this chance and make sure it helps Alberta and rural youth in particular.
Alberta beef
At our house, mobile voice and data aren’t always reliable, and they don’t work at all five kilometers east of us. Our internet speed is one-tenth the minimum standard for broadband, and that’s when it’s not snowing, windy, or when a moose hasn’t run into a support wire and knocked over the 15-meter mast we need. If you don’t live as close to Highway 2 as we do, it’s even worse.
We have a rural mailbox, a municipal/911 address, a legal land location, and a mailing address.premises identificationTo keep food safe. We don’t shop on the internet because we don’t know if a package will be left on our doorstep, in our mailbox, at our post office, or at a random depot in a different town.
We have to drive 30 minutes each way to see our family doctor, but many people who live in rural areas can’t find a family doctor. Every other kind of health care takes an hour.
Rural areas have a hard time attracting new Canadians, whose skills we really need, but who are hesitant to move to places with fewer amenities than where they came from.
Twenty years ago, I dealt with one of the province’s district agriculturalists 25 kilometres away in Olds, who was well aware of our local conditions and needs. Now, we have toCall specialists in Edmonton who are already too busy.
Global capital knows that Canada’s strategic advantage in agriculture will bring in a lot of money. If people in rural Alberta can’t get the resources and help they need to take advantage of this chance, investors from other places will come and take it for themselves.
Chances for young people in rural areas are often much better in cities, so land is often sold instead of being passed on to the next generation.
And more often than not, the highest bidder for farmland comes from outside the province. This was the case with the property next to us.
Rural Albertans are innovative, pragmatic and entrepreneurial. We are used to finding and putting into action solutions quickly when things are hard or changing. But this won’t be enough for us to stay alive if we are left on our own to compete with billions of dollars of investment from people who don’t live here.
Rural tourism and the energy transition both have opportunities and risks that are similar.
Planting the seed
Where should we begin the talk? The government of the province’s “AgTech in Alberta: Making the Most of Its Potential” last year found solutions that could be put into place quickly. There have been programs for years to bring fast, universal, and Canadian-owned internet to rural areas. They need to be made a priority and given the money they need. Health care is already a big election issue, so it’s long past time to look into options for alternative care and telecare.
People who have risked everything are crossing into Eastern Canada to look for asylum. How can we get them and other new Canadians to move to our towns and give them enough things to do to make them want to stay? Alberta’s programs to help farms should put less emphasis on reducing risk and more on encouraging new ideas and getting more investment in rural areas.
This election could be won by telling rural Albertans what many of us want to hear, which is that nothing will change. This election may be won by ignoring rural Albertans and focusing on issues that matter to the majority of voters who live in cities.
But my family’s votes, including my son’s first one, will go to the candidate who shows they understand the generational opportunity Alberta has, as well as the risks of losing it to outsiders who know more about Alberta’s potential than we do, and who will make sure rural Alberta has a prosperous and self-determined future.
My Priority
What’s the one thing about the provincial election that means the most to you, and why? We asked more than a dozen people from all over Alberta that question.
You can read their pieces as they come out atcbc.ca/opinionproject.
Remember that neither the writers nor the CBC are endorsing any particular political party with these pieces. They show the writers’ points of view and explain how they came to have those points of view.