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Old 01-16-2015, 09:28 AM   #2
polak
In the Sin Bin
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
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I'll say what I said in my Sociology of Health paper which got me into an argument with the Prof in front of the whole class.

Canada is simply too big geographically with too small of a population to support far flung, sparsely populated areas and maintain a similar level of quality of life that we in the southern population belt get to enjoy. It's completely unrealistic to expect that all of these communities of a few hundred in the territories and the northern parts of any province are going to have the same hospitals, schools, police presence and community programs that the major population belt does. Especially since ALOT of these areas produce pretty much zero economic gain or value for the country.

Unfortunately, this issue gets messy really quick because these communities tend to be the land that native families have lived on for generations so they don't want to leave. It's a terrible cycle of wanting a better quality of life, not wanting to leave the land your family has lived on for ages and that land being pretty useless.

I watched a story on a man in a northern native reserve town that had kidney problems (most of the reserve has terrible health) and was flown to winnipeg every weekend on the governments dime to go on dialysis and he was outraged that the free plane rides were going to come to an end in a few months. Well tough luck in my opinion. The resources are there for you to take advantage of, but you're choosing to stay somewhere that simply cannot support any infrastructure investment.

The only way these people see a better life is a population boom in the rest of Canada, a resource boom on their lands or if they suck it up and leave. Unfortunately, only the last option is realistic and readily available.
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