Year In Review 2025: FCM Rural Forum

Cross Border Interview
8 hours ago
2 min read

Over the last twelve months, rural Canada has moved from the margins of national conversation to the centre of some of our biggest policy debates.

Earlier this year, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Rural Forum played an especially influential role—raising the voices of small communities, farm towns, northern and remote regions, and the municipalities that keep Canada’s economic engine running quietly but powerfully in the background.

This was the year FCM released The Future of Rural Canada, a sweeping national roadmap that underscored both the urgency and the promise of rural life today. The report didn’t mince words: rural communities remain rich in potential—innovation, natural resources, economic opportunity—but they’re also carrying disproportionate burdens.

Aging infrastructure. Limited fiscal capacity. Persistent gaps in broadband and cellular service. Housing shortages. Public safety pressures. The accelerating impacts of climate change. These challenges aren’t abstract—they’re shaping daily life and the future viability of communities that feed the country, power it, move its goods, and anchor its cultural identity.

Yet 2025 has also been a year of possibility. The Rural Forum’s work pushed for a renewed relationship between all orders of government—a National Prosperity Partnership built on collaboration rather than siloed policymaking. It reminded us that investing in rural Canada isn’t charity. It’s a strategy.

When rural communities thrive, the whole country becomes more resilient, more competitive, and more connected.

We’re speaking with someone who has been at the forefront of this effort.

Our guest is the Chair of FCM’s Rural Forum and Councillor for Portage la Prairie, Joe Masi.

Few people understand the challenges and opportunities facing rural municipalities as clearly as he does.

This is Municipal Affairs.

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