Discussions

I see that MP Inky Mark of Dauphin has raised the issue of declining/stagnant populations in rural Canada to parliament.  
 
Mark points to the fact that there is too much focus on Winnipeg with the huge majority of major educational institutions being there. His suggestion is to create a Department of Rural affairs that will help deal with the issue.  
 
By the numbers this hasn't effected Brandon as much as Dauphin and Portage, but numerous towns in Westman are facing the same challenges. As a city we're also well versed in the problem of youth retention.  
 
The full story is at:  
http://www.portageonline.com/index.php?option=com_ezine&task=read&page=9&category=21&article=8973&Itemid=86  
 
The question is, what types of things would you see such a department doing in broad brush strokes to help maintain and grow populations of all rural centres? Is there potential for real progress with one government arm in charge of rural affairs, or should it be up to each town individually to come up with ways to make itself as appealing as possible?  
 
and then with that in mind, how would they decide what is rural and what isn't? If Brandon is decided to be too large and doing too well, are there certain changes that would negatively impact us in stead?