The federal government’s Rural Development Action Plan consultation - February 2026

The federal government’s Rural Development Action Plan consultation.  This is a significant opportunity for community radio stations to directly influence federal rural policy — including emergency communications, journalism funding, and federal advertising reach.

The submission below was submitted for CJRO Radio by the NCRA/ANREC (National Campus and Community Radio Association) Homepage - NCRA/ANREC.

CJRO-FM

CJRO Radio Online / “The Beat – CJRO Radio”East Ottawa: Embrun / Russell, Carlsbad Springs, Sarsfield, Vars, Casselman, and surrounding area

1. How can existing federal initiatives be improved?

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CJRO serves the rural and village communities east and southeast of Ottawa—places like Embrun and Russell, Carlsbad Springs, Sarsfield, Vars, and Casselman. The region sits close to a capital city, but it does not operate like an urban centre. It is a mix of farmland, expanding bedroom communities, and small service hubs where residents commute long distances, rely on rural roads, and often experience “in-between” infrastructure: not remote enough to qualify easily for certain supports, but rural enough to feel service gaps sharply.

CJRO’s mandate is rooted in local information “by the people and for the people of that community,” and it shows up in practical ways: regular local news bulletins, local interview programming, and bilingual access that reflects the region’s linguistic reality.

Federal rural initiatives can be improved by recognizing that peri-urban rural regions like East Ottawa still depend on trusted local channels, especially when daily life is shaped by road conditions, winter storms, localized flooding, and rapid municipal change. In these communities, people want information that is locally specific—what is happening at the township level, what is happening with nearby roads, what is changing in services, and what public safety updates actually mean in their immediate area.

Emergency preparedness programming, in particular, should treat community radio as enabling infrastructure. When storms knock out power or create hazardous road conditions, residents need a dependable, local voice that can keep broadcasting even if internet connectivity is disrupted or mobile networks are strained. Stations like CJRO should have clearer access to resilience funding for backup power and continuity planning, and just as importantly, they should be routinely included in emergency planning exercises with local and regional authorities so that roles are defined before a crisis, not during one.

Federal public communications and advertising can also be improved by making “rural reach” real, not aspirational. When federal campaigns are launched—whether related to benefits, safety programs, emergency preparedness, or economic supports—people in the East Ottawa villages often won’t encounter those messages through large centralized media buys. They will hear them when a local broadcaster places them into the rhythm of daily listening. CJRO already functions as that kind of bridge, and federal initiatives should account for that reality in procurement, targeting, and evaluation.

2. What federal, provincial, territorial or regional programs have been notably successful?

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From CJRO’s perspective, the Local Journalism Initiative is a strong example of a program that works in a community like this because it supports a form of journalism that has largely disappeared from many rural and village contexts: consistent, routine coverage that keeps pace with local decision-making.

East Ottawa communities are changing. Housing growth and new development pressures are reshaping service needs. Municipal decisions about infrastructure, waste, policing, recreation facilities, and environmental planning land differently here than they do in an urban core, because rural residents often have fewer alternatives and longer travel times. Without local reporting, important developments are easily missed until they become problems—until a new proposal is already advanced, until a service change is already in effect, until residents feel they are reacting instead of participating.

CJRO’s local news approach is explicitly designed to strengthen community awareness and social responsibility, and it’s built around regular local news and local interviews. That model aligns closely with what LJI is intended to accomplish: journalism embedded in the community, delivered by trusted voices, and focused on the issues that shape everyday life.

The most direct way to strengthen LJI’s success in places like East Ottawa is to improve continuity. The benefits of local reporting compound over time: residents learn where to go for accurate information, local institutions learn how to communicate through a trusted channel, and journalists build community knowledge that improves accuracy and relevance. Longer, more predictable funding cycles protect those gains and prevent the “stop-start” effect that rural communities feel most acutely.

3. What kinds of policy changes or initiatives would make the greatest difference?

For East Ottawa’s rural and village communities, long-term sustainability is tied to preparedness and local trust. The policy change with the greatest payoff would be to formally integrate community broadcasters into emergency management and public communications systems—recognizing that stations like CJRO are already doing the work, but often without the infrastructure supports or formal role clarity that would make the work more reliable.

A practical nation-building initiative here would look like a Rural Emergency Communications and Resilience Program that ensures local stations can remain on-air through extended outages and disruptions. In a region where winter storms can rapidly change travel safety, where localized flooding can isolate certain routes, and where rural services can be stretched, continuity of broadcast matters. It is not a “nice to have.” It is part of public safety.

Success should be measured in real-world terms rather than abstract indicators. Did the station remain operational during disruption periods? Were local advisories communicated quickly and clearly? Did residents report hearing consistent, verified updates? Did emergency agencies and local governments have an established pathway to get information on air rapidly?

Alongside emergency integration, federal advertising policy should modernize to ensure that rural residents actually receive federal messages through the channels they use. CJRO operates multiple local frequencies serving distinct communities—Embrun at 107.7 FM and Vars/Sarsfield/Casselman at 107.9 FM, with Casselman moving to 96.3 FM (planned for Spring 2026). That kind of hyper-local distribution is exactly what federal communications strategies need if they are serious about rural access and equity.

A nation-building approach, in other words, would treat local communications capacity as core infrastructure that enables safety, service access, and civic participation—especially in rural areas that sit close to cities but still experience rural vulnerabilities.

4. Additional comments

CJRO’s “Local First / Priorité Locale” orientation captures a core truth about rural development: community sustainability depends on local institutions that residents trust, recognize, and use. CJRO is not just broadcasting into these villages; it is reflecting them back to themselves—through local news, interviews, and daily community presence.

As NCRA/ANREC has emphasized in our national submission, rural development efforts are strongest when they are designed for rural operating realities and delivered through local anchors. CJRO is one of those anchors for East Ottawa. The station is positioned to help test practical approaches to rural communications readiness, to share lessons with other rural broadcasters, and to support federal partners in ensuring that programs and messages actually reach the communities they are intended to serve.