Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: stage 2 - Canada case study

3. National Rural Legislative, Policy and Support Infrastructure

Rural development in Canada is a complex and collaborative effort involving federal, provincial, territorial, Indigenous, and local governments, each playing distinct but interconnected roles. Canada has a long history of supporting rural communities, however, it does not have a comprehensive federal rural policy or rural law (Krawchenko et al., 2023). Despite numerous initiatives and strategies, including the recent Rural Economic Development Strategy, challenges remain in achieving cohesive, effective rural policy (Speer, 2018; Weeden, 2025).

Rural development is a shared jurisdictional responsibility between the federal and provincial/territorial governments in Canada. As noted in the Government of Canada’s first Rural Economic Development Strategy (2024), “the jurisdiction, mandate, and expertise for many of the issues facing rural Canada rests with the provinces and territories”. The federal government plays a supportive role by providing strategic directions and funding investments, while provincial/territorial governments govern how rural areas are developed through planning, service delivery, and investments. Local governments, however, are often the ‘implementers’ of rural development plans and services across the country.

Since the 1950s, federal government approaches to rural development have predominantly focused on programmatic interventions aimed at modernising natural resources sectors, economic development and diversification, and infrastructure investment (Bollman & Reimer, 2019; Fairbairn, 1998). These rural development approaches have often addressed economic inefficiencies and economic stagnation through centralised government interventions. These approaches were top-down, focused on a single economic sector, and time limited. Over the past four decades these economic approaches have transitioned from the federal government taking an active role in rural development to a neoliberal approach focused on investments, privatisation, and a withdrawal of public services (Hall & Gibson, 2016).

In the 1980s, two distinct approaches to rural development emerged from the federal government: the Community Futures Program (discussed in a subsequent section) and regional development agencies. Each of the regional development agencies created by the federal government in 1987 focused on economic development, job creation and entrepreneurship programmes (Hall & Gibson, 2016). More particularly, they were set up to advance the competitiveness of local businesses and economies (Elsibai et al., 2024). These agencies aimed to serve as an intermediary between federal approaches and local economies (Bradford & Wolfe, 2013). Despite their long history, the outcomes for their work in rural Canada have been mixed (Elsibai et al., 2024; Vodden et al., 2019).

The 1997 Think Rural report from the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry argued that new approaches to rural development in Canada were required to support rural people and economies (Reimer, 2018). The Think Rural report advocated for a ‘whole of government’ approach and horizontal collaboration. In response, the Rural Secretariat was created in the federal department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 1996. Its mandate was to facilitate cross-department knowledge sharing and collaboration in federal departments and ministries, to ensure rural voices were considered in policy discussions, and to support research (Hall & Gibson, 2016). The Rural Secretariat created and managed the Rural Lens – a tool to help federal departments assess the potential impacts of policies on rural communities. However, there was limited evidence of the tool’s effectiveness and it was discontinued in 2013 when the Rural Secretariat was dissolved as part of federal cost-cutting initiatives (Hall & Gibson, 2016). The decision was criticised by rural community leaders, nonprofit organisations, and scholars (Markey, Breen, Lauzon, et al., 2015).

From 2013 to 2019, there was no dedicated federal government department responsible for rural development. In 2019, the federal government created the position of Minister of Rural Economic Development (Government of Canada, 2021b). This was the first time a cabinet position had been allocated to rural issues since 2003. The new minister is supported by the Centre for Rural Economic Development housed in the Department of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development. The mandate of the minister and the Centre was similar to the previous Rural Secretariat: coordinating rural issues across federal departments, sharing federal government information with rural residents and businesses, and enhancing programming for rural residents. On May 13, 2025, the Minister of Rural Economic Development in the federal government was replaced by a Secretary of State for Rural Development (Edwards, 2025). The new Secretary of State continues to work with the Department of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development. The Centre for Rural Economic Development no longer formally exists, however, the work of the Centre has been absorbed by other units in the department (Breen et al., 2025).

In 2019, the federal government released a rural economic development strategy focused on broadband connectivity, creating jobs, infrastructure, climate change, affordable and attainable housing, and attracting newcomers (Government of Canada, 2019). As with previous rural development approaches, the strategy has received limited evaluation in terms of its impacts beyond reports to parliament (cf. Government of Canada, 2021a).

Recent research highlights separate approaches to rural policy and a lack of integration between sectoral policies (Krawchenko et al., 2023). One key concern is that “the ideas driving the rural policy agenda in Canada, if present, are often out of sync with advances in rural development policy research” (Krawchenko et al., 2023).