Rural Canada ‘doing their part’: Belanger

Secretary of State (Rural Development) Buckley Belanger. / TWITTER PHOTO

Rural communities have a significant role to play in Canada’s new economic future, says Buckley Belanger, Secretary of State for Rural Development.

“Rural Canada accounts for 13 per cent of our national population, and yet they contribute 27 per cent of the GDP we enjoy as a country,” Buckley told CBC recently.

“So rural Canada is really doing their part.”

Belanger said with Canda’s trade diversification away from the U.S., there are “infrastructure issues like the backlog at the Port of Vancouver” that need to be addressed in order to increase international trade.

Belanger, the only Liberal MP in Saskatchewan, pointed to Foran Mining's McIlvenna Bay project that's on the Liberal government’s list of nation-building projects referred to the Major Projects Office, the agricultural industry, and the potash and uranium industries as key to the “one Canadian economy” envisioned by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.

He also praised Carney’s leadership for repairing the federal government’s relationship with the province. “The prime minister recognized, and I was really glad that he did because it saved me some work, the fact that Saskatchewan has a lot to offer … and I think the premier wants to build on that,” Belanger said.

“The relationship dictates that we all have a self-interest in strengthening Saskatchewan's role within Canada.”