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Time to ruralise
Sylvania
Monday, February 15, 2016
by: Timothy W. Shire
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A week ago I drove out to Eldersley just to see how things are going and this past week I visited Sylvania. Tisdale is surrounded by several once thriving communities like Crooked River, Star City, Ridgedale, Mistatim, Bjorkdale and more if you extend the circle outward. As the farms have inflated, the villages have deflated and yet each of them, retains an intense sense of community. All of these villages have new houses, like the one at the top of this page for sale, and they are almost idyllic places to live. Lots are inexpensive and people learn to rely on one another much more than in larger places.

Saskatchewan has but a million people within its borders, more than 300,000 living in Saskatoon, more than 200,000 in Regina, while it also has eleven small cities and a large number of what once were large towns. It is a confusing puzzle to me, as to why people want to live in urban areas, when the real Saskatchewan is in places like Sylvania.
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As we as a country absorb refugees from war torn and deprive parts of the world why are we stuffing these folks into our cities? Families who come from foreign countries can really use the support and sense of community offered by our small rural communities. During their first few month they need to learn the language and adjust to the culture of their adopted country and nowhere could that be better accomplished than in Canada’s rural small towns and villages.

In our rural areas we are only a single generation since we were newcomers and we have a learned a lot about how to adjust and deal with the biggest things Canadian’s face, climate and making do with scarcity. Rural people know about this and could make orientation a very easy and natural process.

But, it is not just newcomers who need to rethink their urban lifestyle. The cost of living in one of Saskatchewan’s villages or small towns is so much less than the expenses faced with life in a city. With low crime, low property taxes, excellent services and neighbours to rely upon every day you spend in a small place is a huge bargain.
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