Perth-Wellington M-P-P, Randy Pettapiece, hosted a meeting with local economic development officials Friday in Monkton. In his role as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Pettapiece has been travelling all over the Province and talking to economic development officers in rural communities to find out how they're dealing with the challenges facing rural communities.
Pettapiece says this government believes rural Ontario has great potential, but to realize that potential, rural communities need to encourage people to move out from the big cities.
“We have jobs, we have opportunities out here. We've lost a lot of our young folks to the cities and we want to also give them the opportunity to say 'I don't have to move away from here to get a good job and make a living'. So we're going around the Province, getting ideas from municipalities on what they're doing.” Pettapiece adds, the shortage of workers now exists all over the Province but it's been a problem in Southwestern Ontario for some time and it runs across the spectrum from factory jobs to skilled trades and many of them are good paying jobs.
Pettapiece says one thing he's learned as he travels around the Province is that some municipalities are coming up with unique solutions to the problem.
He also concedes that housing is an issue and the government is working on ways change some of the rules and regulations around housing to make it easier to build affordable housing.
