[...] a New Democrat government will focus on improving access to in-person services in northern and rural communities. In order to make our rural and northern communities safer, and to recognize the selfless work of our volunteer emergency responders, we’ll also expand the Volunteer Firefighters Tax Credit and ensure that federal funding for rural and First Nations policing is made available in a fair, predictable, and sustainable way.

In many rural areas, simple things like going to the bank have become complicated and difficult. Despite record profits, financial institutions are closing rural branches and cutting services in more and more communities every year. It’s clear that we need to find other ways to deliver these important financial services. Today, almost 1,200 rural communities in Canada have a post office but no financial services. That’s why a New Democrat government will work with Canada Post to develop a model of postal banking that will help nearly two million Canadians access more affordable, quality banking services where none are currently available.

Travel is a necessity of life in rural Canada and it should be easier to get around without putting a dent in the family budget. But instead of improving rural tranist services, the lack of funding and coordination under this Liberal government has made the situation worse. Combined with Greyhound’s route cancellations, too many communities have been left stranded without reliable transportation services.

New Democrats believe that every community in Canada should be able to count on reliable transit to connect them to their jobs, health care services, schools, and family members. That’s why we’ll work with the provinces, territories, and Indigenous communities to grow affordable transit services for rural areas, including restoring cancelled bus services in Western Canada, expanding bus service into East Kootenay, restarting the Ontario Northlander train, and much more to keep our communities connected.

Staying connected digitally is more essential than ever, yet too many rural communities in Canada don’t have reliable cell phone or broadband service. A New Democrat government will change that by delivering high-speed rural broadband to all communities in Canada without delay and ensuring that reliable cell phone service is expanded to every area of Canada, while keeping rates affordable for families and businesses.

Rural Canada drives at least a third of the country’s economy, but successive Liberal and Conservative governments have missed the opportunity to develop these regions to their full potential. A New Democrat government will invest in regional economic development agencies and provide economic support for rural areas to invest in job creation in areas like tourism and community development.

Many northern, rural, and remote communities are working hard to retain families, attract workers, and stop out-migration but they can’t do it alone. That’s why New Democrats will put in place a new tax credit for graduates to work in designated rural and northern communities, and make it easier for employers to hire and retain the workers they need.

To make all of Canada’s communities sustainable for the long term, we need to change how we build them. Rural communities need fair access to federal infrastructure and transit funds, and more help to prepare for and deal with the increasingly severe impacts of climate change. New Democrats will work with provinces to put in place a new deal for rural infrastructure programs that provide long-term predictable funding for communities. And we’ll increase the amount of help the federal government provides to communities to adapt to climate change and rebuild when disasters happen. We’ll make sure that affordable housing investments go to rural communities, too, and that federal infrastructure dollars flow now to create good local jobs that stay in the community.

From A New Deal for People, retrieved 2019-09-22.

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