Recent trends from Statistics Canada show that as of 2016, seniors now outnumber Canada’s youth.
Reeve Bill Neufeld. (Photo/Twitter)
But in Mackenzie County, the opposite seems to be true.
Of the 11,170 residents living in the county, census numbers show that 3,840, or 34.4 percent, are 14-years-old or younger. Contrast that with the national figures, where about 16.6 percent are 14-years-old or younger across Canada.
Reeve Bill Neufeld says the statistics show things in Mackenzie County are looking healthy for the future.
“We’ve got a lot of young farmers up here, along with a lot of younger families,” said Neufeld. “As they grow up, they want to get in to farming, and then stay in the area and start a family.”
Neufeld says the family farm concept is dying out in other parts of Alberta. But here in the county, they have lots of farm families, but not enough land.
“There’s more farming needed here as we go along,” he said. “We’ve also been lobbying the government for more farmland in the area for all the younger farmers coming up.”
He says as long as the economy keeps moving forward, the county should be okay.
“To get things really rolling, we need an improvement in the oil places in our community,” said Neufeld. “Typically, our youth go out and work for the logging industry, and then come home for the summer to farm.”
Neufeld adds that they also have a lot of other projects on the go in Mackenzie County in order to keep the local economy moving.
– Posted by BET
