Rural Ontario Institute

Changes in employment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Date: March 21, 2022

How have employment trends changed across Ontario since the start of the pandemic?

AALP Class 19 Seminar 2: Awareness of Self and Others

Date: March 1, 2022

From February 13th to February 16th, 2022, the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Class 19 continued their learning journey in Toronto, Ontario. The theme of their second seminar was “awareness of self and others”.

New Insights on COVID-19 and Rural Immigration

Date: February 10, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on all sorts of rural systems, particularly those that involve vulnerable groups. New research published in the Journal of Rural and Community Development by Louis Helps (University of Guelph), Ray Silvius (University of Winnipeg), and Ryan Gibson (University of Guelph) offers a review of the pandemic’s effects on rural immigration systems.

Understanding the Impacts of COVID-Related Rural Population Growth

Date: December 16, 2021

There has been a noticeable change in housing market dynamics within Ontario. Many rural areas are experiencing rapid increases in house prices, with some seeing a doubling in house prices over the last 18 months. Housing affordability, a long-standing concern in large urban centers, is quickly becoming a concern for some rural areas.

Distribution of Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) in Ontario

Date: December 14, 2021

Rural Ontario Institute’s latest Focus on Rural Ontario factsheet analyzes Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) statistics in rural Ontario. This factsheet discusses the distribution of CEWS among all provinces and territories, and analyzes use by rural and urban businesses in Ontario.

COVID-19 impact on rural employment in Ontario to July 2021

Date: September 13, 2021

ROI’s latest Focus On Rural Ontario fact sheet explores the COVID-19 impact on rural employment up to July 2021. This compares COVID-19’s ongoing impact on rural Ontario with the impacts in urban Ontario and in other provinces.

Enabling Access to Rural Data

Date: September 7, 2021

Communities across the rural-urban spectrum need up-to-date information to guide their decisions. Unfortunately, smaller communities often face challenges in accessing data. They may not have the technical or financial resources to identify and use data that are relevant for planning. To help rural communities better engage with available data, ROI has updated its Fact-Finder’s Guide to Local & Regional Data and produced a new video covering some important topics related to rural data.

The Value of all of Ontario’s Farmland

Date: September 1, 2021

Farmland provides us with food, fuel, fibre, flowers, and more, and every Ontarian relies on it in one way or another.

Even so, we lose over a thousand acres of farmland every week to non-agricultural development like urban sprawl and aggregate extraction. This rate of loss is unsustainable and will impact future generations.

Insights to Fuel Rural Planning and Development

Date: July 13, 2021

Data is a critical component in addressing needs, spurring discussion, and planning for growth. Statistics Canada manages the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions (CSBC) each quarter to gather Canadian business data on how COVID-19 has impacted businesses, how businesses have responded to changes, and what businesses expect for the future.

Seeking Examples of Circular Agriculture & Food Solutions in Canada

Date: June 30, 2021

A staggering 58 percent of all food produced in Canada or 35.5 million tonnes, is lost or wasted annually across the supply chain. Moreover, it is estimated that at least a third of this can be prevented. To put that in perspective, that’s enough food to feed every Canadian for five months and represents a lost economic value of almost C$50 billion. 3

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