HALDIMAND—Rural communities help feed, power, and sustain the province, but when governments make decisions, rural experiences are often missing from the numbers.
The University of Guelph’s Health, Economy and Adaptation in Rural Communities Initiative, known as HEAR, is launching a large-scale study to collect detailed information from Ontario’s rural, small-town, and northern residents.
The project will examine health and wellbeing, access to services, employment, housing, affordability, and the ways communities are responding to environmental change. Researchers plan to conduct three survey waves in 2026, 2028, and 2030, allowing them to identify how needs and conditions change over time.
Leith Deacon, the project’s principal investigator and the McCall MacBain Chair in Resilient Rural Communities, said HEAR has two connected purposes: supporting academic research and giving rural communities practical access to better information.
“Urban cities have access to excellent data,” Deacon said. “They’re able to do long-term strategic plans. They’re able to make informed decisions when they write grants.”
Rural communities generally do not have information available at the same level of detail, he said, making it difficult for municipalities, service providers, and community organizations to demonstrate local needs.
“Rural communities do not have access to the same quality or the same granularity in terms of data,” Deacon said.
HEAR plans to make its findings freely available through an interactive online platform. Users will be able to examine information by geographic area and use it for planning, policy development, advocacy, and funding applications.
A data request option will also allow users to contact the research team for help interpreting the findings. Deacon said the goal is not simply to publish academic work, but to create information that residents and organizations can use.
He offered the example of a women’s shelter seeking grant funding. While personal stories can demonstrate the human impact of a problem, organizations are often expected to provide quantitative evidence showing the scale of the need.
“We will help you find that information and support you in those endeavours,” Deacon said. “Qualitative information – the stories – are so, so important. But quantitative data is critical to secure funds and to be able to inform those long-term decisions.”
The initiative plans to survey about 221,000 rural households, representing roughly 20% of Ontario’s rural population. Deacon said the paper survey distribution is expected to reach addresses identified through Canada Post rural routes.
The number of surveys sent to each area will reflect its population. More will be distributed in heavily populated parts of southern Ontario, for example, than in less populated northwestern regions.
Paper surveys are intended to reduce barriers for residents who lack dependable internet service. An online individual survey is also available to rural, small-town, and northern residents, whether or not their household receives a package in the mail.
Deacon said the two formats allow people to respond privately. The survey includes questions related to physical and mental health, healthcare access, housing, employment, household finances, and environmental concerns.
It does not ask participants to provide their names. The first three characters of a postal code are requested to place responses within a general region, but Deacon said researchers will not have access to participants’ exact addresses.
Respondents may voluntarily provide an email address to receive future surveys, helping researchers follow some of the same participants through 2030. Those who do not provide contact information will remain fully anonymous, while regional results can still be compared across each survey wave.
Deacon said repeated surveys could show whether access to a family doctor or specialized care is improving or deteriorating within a community. They could also help identify changing demographics and whether services such as childcare, seniors’ programs, or accessible transportation still reflect the population.
“Our populations are dynamic. We change all the time,” he said. “Without that longer-term picture, you’re static. You’re unable to know that. You’re unable to make changes.”
The collected information will also be linked with administrative, geographic, and environmental datasets. With support from geographic information system company Esri Canada, researchers plan to map findings alongside information related to matters such as water and soil quality, invasive species, infrastructure vulnerability, and climate risks.
Deacon said policy designed around urban conditions does not always translate to rural life. During the Covid-19 pandemic, residents were encouraged to maintain social connections by waving to neighbours from balconies or driveways, advice that did not reflect isolated farms where the nearest neighbour might not be visible.
Online education presented a similar problem in areas without reliable broadband.
“It’s really interesting when you start to get into some of the policy that comes out and how you’re like, ‘This doesn’t really translate into my realities,’” he said.
Those gaps are significant because rural areas support agriculture, resource extraction, energy development, and other sectors essential to the wider economy.
“Everything you have for breakfast was grown in a rural place,” Deacon said. “Rural places are not just small cities. They are completely different, and they require a different set of policies because the realities are different.”
The initiative is supported by $1.65 million from the McCall MacBain Foundation, which funds data collection, analysis, graduate scholarships, and efforts to make the findings publicly accessible. The Ontario government has also provided funding, while the initial investment has helped researchers pursue additional grants and partnerships.
Deacon hopes HEAR will eventually become a permanent rural data centre within the Ontario Agricultural College and expand beyond Ontario.
For now, he said its value depends on residents taking part.
“The only way this will work is if people do it,” Deacon said.
Residents can find the online survey and further information at hearinitiative.ca. Questions can be directed to HEAR@uoguelph.ca.
