Two day conference to focus on post pandemic recovery in rural Canada

PRESS RELEASE

Huntingdon, Quebec, September 27, 2021 – As communities across Canada continue to contend with the pandemic’s economic consequences, this week’s Creating Inclusive Economies: Building Bridges Between Public, Private and Civil Society Sectors conference (CIE) is bringing together the country’s public, private and civil society (PPCS) sectors to discuss new and innovative ways to collaborate to enhance rural Canada’s economic and social well-being.

The two-day virtual event, which starts tomorrow, is co-hosted by the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF) and the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation (CEDEC) and is supported by TELUS, the presenting conference sponsor.

“If we learned one thing from the pandemic, it is that innovation through collaboration is the key to economic and social progress and success,” said John Buck, President and CEO, CEDEC. “As we look to our post-pandemic economic future, we have an opportunity to leverage the innovative capacity and combined resources of the public, private and civil society sectors to enhance rural economic development differently, in a more inclusive manner.”

The more than 150 participants attending CIE will discuss how public, private, and civil society sectors can work together to ensure that rural economic development is a key component of, and contributor to, Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery strategy.

The CIE conference will explore this topic through presentations and panels with Day 1 focusing on recovery, resilience and rural economy, and Day 2 on community economic development, trade impact and inclusion.

The discussion will continue in 2022, when the CIE conference reconvenes for an in-person event in Rimouski, Quebec, from May 25 to 27.

State of Rural Canada 2021: Opportunities, recovery, and resiliency in changing times

As part of CIE, CRRF will launch the fourth edition of its State of Rural Canada (SORC) report, which maps the impacts of the pandemic across rural Canada as well as some of the innovative ways that rural Canadians in our 13 provinces and territories have responded to changes in their communities.

“What we’ve found is that rural communities across Canada have demonstrated resiliency in the face of the pandemic, economic restructuring, and climate change, among other hardships, and that adaptation to change is key for rural communities to rebound post-pandemic towards more vibrant and sustainable rural futures,” said Kathleen Kevany, President, CRRF.

The full report can be found at https://sorc.crrf.ca/fullreport2021/ and its findings will be shared at the event tomorrow. A panel discussion and Q&A with the authors, which is open to media, will take place at 10:50 a.m. EDT.

To join, please contact Catarina Silva at catarina.silva@cedec.ca.