News

Canadians have felt the impact of the housing crisis and innovative solutions are being highlighted from coast to coast. That’s the message Brian Doucet, Associate Professor of Planning at the University of Waterloo, emphasized on February 5th with those attending the screening of “Thinking Beyond The Market: A Film About Genuinely Affordable Housing” in the LA building of the University of Guelph, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development.

Governments, researchers, and communities rely on definitions of rural places to decide where funding goes, how programs are designed, and which communities are eligible for support. Yet many existing definitions treat rural as simply the opposite of urban, missing the diversity of places that sit along a continuum.

On Tuesday, January 27, 2026, the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development held a student-led discussion panel in the landscape architecture building.

On February 10, 2026, Scott Duff, Director of Rural Policy and Economic Development, led a workshop in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph. Intended to engage with graduate students, alumni and industry professionals, Duff shared insights on the realities of working in the Ontario Public Service (OPS) and pathways to establishing a career.

Are you interested in sharing your research with government, rural community leaders, and researchers? Consider making an oral presentation or poster presentation at the upcoming 2026 Rural Symposium.

Understanding how geography shaped economic opportunity in 19th century Canada offers valuable insights into the roots of regional inequality and mobility across generations. The summary, titled “The Geography of Economic Mobility in 19th Century Canada,” highlights intergenerational economic mobility across regions in Canada between 1871 and 1901.

What is the potential for new localism to support economic development in rural Canada? Joshua Barrett (RST PhD graduate) and Ryan Gibson explore this topic in a recent peer-reviewed article titled “Revisiting rural economic development: New Localism’s potential in Canadian local government” published in Frontiers in Political Science. As local governments are increasingly asked to take on roles beyond basic services, many rural municipalities are struggling to keep up.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Canadians packed up city life and moved to rural communities. But what did that sudden shift really mean on the ground? A new article in Plan Canada, “Reflecting on the Urban Exodus: Rural Planning for City Expats,” explores how rural municipalities across Ontario experienced — and responded to — this change.

Dr. Ryan Gibson has been named the new Director of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD), effective January 1, 2026.