Conclusion
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This study sought to gather and systematically document information on development initiatives in the large area encompassing Duck Lake, St. Louis, Domremy, Hoey and St. Isidore-de-Bellevue, rural communities in Saskatchewan with a concentration of Francophones.
The study first served to rally the communities around a common project and to develop a clearer vision and understanding of the Projet du terroir. The meetings helped stakeholders from the various towns to get to know one another and to integrate the idea that the community’s vitality will only be achieved through a greater collaborative effort.
Second, the conceptual framework of the study assisted in gathering and organizing planning elements for the Projet du terroir in a coherent fashion. Stakeholders had to examine the Projet du terroir from a specific approach: the theory of results-based management. This approach appeared to be relevant and useful in giving meaning to the project. According to some stakeholders, the exercise helped them to understand the importance of investing in the Projet du terroir.
Third, the study succeeded in producing quantitative and qualitative indicators. The community now has basic tools for assessing its vitality in comparison with desired results and for meeting its partners’ accountability requirements. That being said, the community will no doubt need support to strengthen its evaluative capacities, in terms of both financial and human resources.
The study also helped in identifying issues and challenges specific to a Francophone community in a rural setting. Francophones living in rural Saskatchewan have to deal with exodus towards urban centres, aging of the population and a drop in the number of small agricultural producers and processors. In response, the community has chosen to focus on its terroir—in other words, its distinctive cultural traits, its know-how and its unique products such as bison products, Gravelbourg mustard, peas from Bellevue, Red Fife wheat, Saskatoon berries, wild rice from northern Saskatchewan and more. For Saskatchewan’s rural Francophone community, community vitality and the strengthening of identity are intrinsically linked. For this community, culture and heritage are both the be-all and end-all of vitality.
Finally, federal institutions, which are required to implement positive measures to support the development of official language communities, will no doubt find this document to be an important source of information. They will be able to use this report to focus more closely on the particularities of the rural Fransaskois community and come up with positive measures that are adapted to its reality.
