News Release
Office of the Official Opposition

Opposition again questions effectiveness

of Rural Secretariat
June\8, 2007

Judy Foote, MHA for the District of Grand Bank and Liberal Opposition Critic for Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, says the recent meeting between the Provincial Council of the Rural Secretariat and Minister Trevor Taylor only reinforces the belief that the Secretariat is a meaningless body used by government as a front for its failure to address the serious issues in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.  

Government announced this week that the minister met with the Provincial Council of the Rural Secretariat.   AI was dismayed to read that the meeting took place to Adiscuss how citizens and government can work together to address long-term issues affecting@ the province,@ says Foote. AAll I could think was what has this government been doing for the past four years!  This is a government which campaigned on the promise that it had a rural plan for all regions.@ 

The Liberal MHA says the notion of  government introducing a Arural lens@ to now be applied to government decision-making is too little, too late. Rural regions comprise the significant part of this province and if this  government has not yet made this a priority in their decision-making, I am afraid they are more rurally challenged than  initially feared. A 

Foote says in face of all the outmigration taking place in rural Newfoundland and Labrador and the lack of employment opportunities and the unstable fishery situation throughout the province, together with the high levels of poverty, the Rural Secretariat  established by the premier in 2004  to advance the sustainable development of our regions has never been able to show any effectiveness in addressing these challenges head on.   

AWhile I do not wish to devalue the input of citizens into any decision-making process,  this government was elected four years ago with a promise of a plan already formulated and ready to roll out. Now they go through the exercise of engaging in a dialogue once or twice a year with regional councils just to justify the existence of the Secretariat.  I suspect that as the election nears, the minister will start to ramp up more photo opportunities, as was the case with this meeting to cover up the lack of real problem-solving initiatives to tackle the here and now of what is happening in this province.@   Foote points to  the rural conference Visions to Actions: A Roadmap to 2020 planned for the fall as yet another publicity stunt. 

AIt=s time this government got real and  focus on what is happening now in people=s lives before we lose more of our population and more of our rural communities.@              

Media Contact:
Kim Ploughman
Caucus Communications
Office of the Official Opposition
709-729-6427