Working Towards Appropriate Development - Report of the Second Eastern Ontario Workshop on Rual Development

Publisher:  The Canadian Council on Rural Development Canada, Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Year Published:  1979
Pages:  113pp   Price:  Free   Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX989

With the impending termination of their funding the Council on Rural Development Canada put together a second workshop for the people of the Eastern Ontario Planning Region in an attempt to consolidate contributions made by a previous workshop a year earlier.

Abstract: 
With the impending termination of their funding the Council on Rural Development Canada put together a second workshop for the people of the Eastern Ontario Planning Region in an attempt to consolidate contributions made by a previous workshop a year earlier. Organized as an opportunity for people to share experiences and concerns on a regional basis as well as on the level of shared interests, the workshop sought to accomplish its goal through presentations from 19 different groups living in the area. These case studies in local development, each fully described in the report, revealed numerous areas of difficulty, particularly around financial instability and over-dependence on government-initiated or controlled funding (external aid).

The primary concern held by all participants was that unless the rural areas began to initiate economic development on their own, then their physical and human resources would remain underdeveloped.

In a concluding section some particularly poignant points were made: a) rural development is a process which is of necessity slow if it is to have any longterm effect, b) activities can operate at different scales provided they are integrated and complimentary, c) development must occur on both an economic and human level to be really effective within the community, d) control must be local, and e) as much as possible, local resources should be used.

A list of 15 principles for development included in the report helped add to some of these concluding suggestions.. Appendices to the document include a list of planning committee members, a directory of workshop participants and a development resource list.

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