The author of a survey looking into the impact of COVID-19 on residents of Huron and Perth counties recently presented some of his findings to Huron County council.
Dr. Leith Deacon is an Assistant Professor of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph.
One of the first things he pointed out was the importance of doing a survey of residents of rural communities.
He explains, it's important to recognize the fact that rural residents are different than their urban counterparts, not better or worse, but different.
"Concepts around isolation, access to services. All are different than their urban counterparts and often policy decisions are made based on research conducted in urban centres and I think it is critical that rural residents in rural communities have an opportunity to see themselves reflected in those policy decisions," acknowledged Dr. Deacon.
While the study points to 82% of Canadians living in urban centres, it still leaves about 8-million Canadians in non-urban communities.
"So that is nearly double the population of the province of Alberta. It's larger than the GTA population, so to discount rural residents, it's a significant percentage of Canada's population," added Dr. Deacon.
He also points out in the current situation how much longer it's going to take to get COVID-19 vaccines distributed to rural populations compared to urban centres.
