Rural poverty prevalent in Lacombe County

from The Lacombe Globe

The Lacombe-area is not immune to the demographic and income troubles facing Canada’s rural population.

By Nicole Phillips
Globe Staff Writer

The Lacombe-area is not immune to the demographic and income troubles facing Canada’s rural population.

According to the first phase of a two-part report by the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, most rural Canadians are no longer able to make ends meet, are becoming older and are seeing the younger generation leave family farms for urban settings.

Terry Engen, Lacombe County reeve and local farmer, says the Lacombe-area does follow this disturbing trend.

“We all talk about this ‘golden opportunity’ we have with the economy right now, but some people aren’t in the position to take advantage of that,” said Engen.

According to the report, entitled Understanding free fall: the challenge of the rural poor, people relying on agriculture for a living have a much higher chance of living in poverty. Many times, farmers aren’t breaking even, with incomes reaching the lowest levels they have been in three decades, forcing close to 90 per cent of farm families to rely on off-farm incomes to make ends meet.

“It is a challenging issue when there is a certain sector that isn’t making enough money to live comfortably on. Our area is likely very fortunate, but we do have some real poverty too, and we also have that secondary issue of the working poor,” said Engen.

Engen, who lives on a farm north of Eckville that has been in his family for five generations, pointed out that the Alberta Government highlighted the Lacombe area as one in high-need of housing for this working poor.


To top it off, the report determined there are “worrying trends” as more youth leave the farm for urban centres, often on the advice of their parents. In today’s society, the average age of a Canadian farmer is 60.

Mandy Schnell, coordinator for Lacombe Neighbourhood Place, says there is a need in the area, which people can’t turn a blind eye to.

“We can get very complacent in our attitudes towards those things,” said Schnell. “When we read studies like that and hear the issue brought forth, we do have to take a hard look at where we live and actually see that, yes it is there.”

Schnell says the community is taking a big step in the right direction by participating in the needs survey, which was conducted late last year. In a few months, organizers in the Lacombe-area will know what services are missing to help our rural community develop.

”We are a rural community, and we have a large farming area around Lacombe and a lot of them do have to have large off-farm incomes to survive,” said Schnell.

“I think that needs survey will mirror (the Senate’s report) and will show where Lacombe’s problems are, so we don’t just sit here and assume.”

Engen says people working in the agriculture industry never have it equal across the board, with one sector or another getting left behind.

“At one time, it seems like grains are worth a pretty good price for a commodity, but cattle nosedives, or cattle are high-priced, but everybody else suffers,” he said. “There is no equilibrium in farming, that’s the challenge that’s out there.”

According to the report: “While there are signs of hope from the rural manufacturing sector, overall, the rural foundations on which we built our Canadian economy are in danger of collapse.”

In Engen’s opinion, it is going to take a big shift in society before farmers are truly appreciated.

“I think the only thing that would ever turn it around is if people in general recognize what the value of food is, and we’re not at that point.”