Rural development minister linked to innovation not agriculture department.Ottawa—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed Nova Scotia MP Bernadette Jordan as Minister of Rural Economic Development but linked her to the Innovation Department.Her role will be to oversee the creation of a rural development strategy to spur economic growth, bring high-speed internet to more rural communities, and work on meeting the diverse infrastructure needs of rural Canada.From 1998 to 2013, there was a Rural Secretariat attached to Agriculture Canada and its role was to promote rural issues within the government and to encourage rural development including better Internet service.The Secretariat was disbanded by the Harper government in 2013 over protests from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the Canadian Federation of Municipalities. They said that without it, rural issues would be neglected in the federal government.The government said a rural lens would be applied to government decisions but agriculture and other groups say they've seen little evidence of it. They've also criticized Agriculture Canada for not representing agriculture and other rural issues with government departments.Both the 2016 Barton report and last fall's agrifood strategy table report highlighted the lack of a voice for rural issues within the federal government.CFA President Ron Bonnet said Jordan's cabinet post “clearly demonstrates the importance of our rural communities and its businesses. As a rural-based industry, the competitiveness of Canada's agrifood industry is intimately connected to the vibrancy of rural communities and critically important to Canada's economic growth.”Other issues that need to be addressed are “transportation bottlenecks, access to clean water and wastewater treatment and infrastructure that leverages on-farm renewable energy production and enables access to natural gas.”In announcing Jordan's appointment, the government said it has allocated $500 million through 2021to support new and updated infrastructure and bring high-speed Internet to 300 rural and remote communities in Canada.As well, the Canadian Radio and Television Commission has a $750 million “to support projects to build or upgrade infrastructure and provide fixed and mobile wireless broadband Internet service to underserved Canadians.” Telecommunications companies can also write off their investments under new depreciation rules.In interviews following her appointment, Jordan told reporters her job will be “to make sure that rural Canada is well represented, to make sure that rural Canada continues to grow and to make sure that rural Canada is seen as – I mean, we are a huge driver in the GDP and we know that we have to develop those economic opportunities in rural Canada.“The rural reality is very different than the urban reality,” she said. “I myself come from a large rural riding and it's something we've been advocating for as a caucus for stronger rural connections and to develop a rural economic strategy. We're really looking forward to addressing some of the issues that are predominant in rural Canada. We know there are things we have to address in rural Canada, issues that are very different from urban issues.”She spoke about one of the vexing issues for rural employers—finding sufficient employees ever since the Harper government made the program for recruiting foreign workers almost impossible to use. Despite repeated calls to fix it, the Liberals have done nothing to improve it.Jordan said she's planning to prioritize broadband and cell phone connectivity to make it easier for Canadians to build lives in rural Canada."There are a lot of people who would like to work in rural Canada, who would like to set up businesses, who would like to study from there and it's just not possible because of poor connectivity,” she said.Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.