As long-time blog readers will know, I was based in Yukon for two years and traveled all over the territory and parts of the Northwest Territories. What some of you may not know is that I spent time shopping for a home base up there, but any decent land meeting my criteria wasn’t affordable. I was looking for a frontier experience but not a deep bush one, something I could easily drive to and that would have basic services.
I eventually decided I didn’t want to be that far north as it would limit my mobility. To my surprise, I discovered that I wanted to live where the vast majority of other Canadians live, within about 100KM of the US border.
And then I found an anomaly along that densely populate strip, southern Saskatchewan, which promised the wide open space and frontier experience I wanted right in the heart of the continent. I had my pick of affordable lots and I settled on the perfect compromise between deep rural living and suburbia, a charming little hamlet with most services. It didn’t have internet at the time of purchase, but was slated for improvements that would be cellular connectivity in the next year. No one cared if I used it as an RV home base and never developed it (an issue I faced when I was looking at properties 10 times the cost in southern Alberta). And incredibly, I could pay cash. It was perfect.
Sure enough, when I arrived the following year to spend my first summer on my very own land, we were on the coverage map! But surprise, the telecom company had made a huge mistake in locating the new tower and we still didn’t have service. As those of you who have been following the saga know, I’m now able to prove that SaskTel made a mistake. They are a Crown corporation and accountable for how they spend their money, so with a little help from the NDP in pushing the ‘this is a waste of public resources’ angle, I just might get this resolved within my lifetime…
Something else has come up that makes life here difficult and which will be next summer’s fight, our lack of civic addresses. Even though we have a post office, I frequently can’t get things delivered to it because ordering systems now have a database of valid civic addresses and I can’t just make one up and put my PO box number in the next row. I’m figuring out how to work around that. I have a neighbour who works in town who says that as long as it’s not 10 parcels a day, I can have things sent care of him and he’ll drop them off when he passes by my place in the evening.
Today, I saw how absurd the civic address thing is when I couldn’t confirm on the Elections Canada website that I am registered to vote. I called and the front line person I spoke to couldn’t find where I lived. I’m waiting for someone higher up to get back to me.
A reader who probably isn’t reading anymore actually came through the hamlet recently, although she didn’t look me up. She has the same attitude as others that I live ‘in the middle of nowhere’ or ‘at the end of the world’ and therefore I don’t deserve basic services. Having lived and traveled through the far north, where I never had major connectivity issues (a shortage of bandwidth, yes) or difficulty getting parcels or proving where I lived, I still don’t think that I was that naive in believing that I could get such services here in southern Saskatchewan even in a rural community.
I’m figuring out how to make my life here work and I’ve been asked by more than one person why I don’t cut my losses and just go.
It’s easy to lose sight of the positives when I’m so consumed by an issue like the lack of connectivity. But believe me, there is more positive here than anywhere else I’ve ever tried to make a life.
Most especially, once upon a time in Quebec, I faced many of the same challenges (especially lack of connectivity) even though I lived just 50KM from the capital of the country. It was impossible to get anything done there because of the entrenched corruption and apathy at every level of government. I saw that in most of the rest of Canada, how traditions and procedures are deeply rooted and unchangeable.
There’s something delightfully rustic about this part of Saskatchewan in that it never quite figured out how it fit into the 20th century and so is still struggling to fit into the 21st. The population basin here is older, coming from a generation that doesn’t understand the need for internet or cellular phones. We still write cheques here and call each other rather than email.
It’s the frontier I was looking for and I am part of the first wave of young pioneers flocking to the area in search of some of the last affordable real estate in this country. Since moving to my hamlet, two couples of my generation and another gal my age have moved here. More are going to come as they get squeezed out of Assiniboia, whose prices are steadily rising to Moose Jaw levels.
So the services we want are going to come because the market will eventually force it, but we can shape how those services will look. None of my neighbours today appear to really care about my fight for connectivity, but I am keeping records so that I will be remembered as the one who brought broadband internet to the St. Victor valley, much like people are lauded for bringing the railroad. The metaphor sounds silly, I know, but that’s what the government is actually using when it talks about increasing broadband internet across Canada!
Another thing is that big oil is coming in the near future. There is going to be money to be made here and our cheap property values are going to skyrocket. This is something that the economists on Bay Street are talking about, not just our belief. They say that Saskatchewan is the only Canadian real estate market that hasn’t exploded yet and when it does, people are going to make a killing on their investments, like some Manitobans did.
I know I have to be patient because this is an unshaped world I’m living in. It is so bright with promise and I want to be involved in shaping the future of the area I have decided to make my home. I refuse to sit and wait for other people to make the changes I need to be able to thrive here. Wanting to make things better and actually doing something about them is very different from bellyaching.
I love it here. This is Home.
I’m glad you are not planning to leave your home.
Well, I still am (to get Mexican citizenship), but not forever. I don’t think I would have sold, but I was very serious about not returning for summers as long as there was no internet. 🙁 The booster might solve that issue.
When the services finally come so will the people. Then the development. Then the loss of your beloved prairie. Life is such a mixed bag.
Even if that worst case scenario happens in my lifetime, I’m surrounded by hectares and hectares of protected parkland so I’ll always have a bit of beautiful open grassland to retreat to. 🙂
Awesome. And you should very well expect “connectivity” most anywhere in the country. By that I mean, in this Nation.
It’ll come, and you are no doubt tenacious enough to make it happen. Good luck.
Thank you very much! So refreshing to meet someone who doesn’t think I’m completely looney tunes to believe that a developed country in the 21st century shouldn’t have any communities offline. Now, the people who live in the bush is one thing and I get that, but Canada thinks that it’s perfectly fine for almost 700,000 Canadians to be offline (2% of the population)!!!!!!
We are so happy for you and your home.
Thank you! You should come up and visit. I have lots of room! 🙂
“I am keeping records so that I will be remembered as the one who brought broadband internet to the St. Victor Valley”
Why is this important to you? Not criticizing, just wondering.
Because we’re stuck on dial up and the government gave our ISP permission to NEVER give us broadband internet and my community has just given up and I have spent hours writing letters and talking to people on the phone and I am making it happen when everyone has told me it’s impossible and this is a great achievement that will thrust my community into the 21st century and bring business development opportunities to the area and the least they can do for me is recognize my efforts, build me a statue and, according to my friend Caroline, rename our town Raeville.
(tongue firmly in cheek, of course)
More seriously, who wouldn’t want recognition for doing something like that? This is a huge feat I am undertaking. I am taking on the government and I have a veritable chance of winning. That’s worth a statue in a town square, isn’t it? 😉
Homemade yogurt cheese is what I call dry yogurt. I fell in love with “Snezhanka” while in Bulgaria and will make it occasionally. It is quite simple and you have now got me thinking about making a batch.
(Ed is commenting on something I said on Facebook yesterday about my neighbour Caroline dropping off homemade cheese)
Dry yoghurt sound apt! She said there was a lot of liquid that came out.
I’m Googling Snezhanka… ooh, that sounds good. Rather like Greek tzatziki, no?
Yes, it is the Bulgarian version of the Greek tzatziki, or so I have been told not having had any tzatziki.
I respect you for what you are doing! I couldn’t. Well, rather, wouldn’t (move to a place where I could not have the services I need).
If you win the lottery, buy buy buy property there to sell for a huge profit. 😉
Do the two couples and gal you spoke of want the services you do?
Well, you do. I mean, there isn’t even a bus to downtown where you live! 😉
Oh, I’m considering it. The three properties to the left of me are all for sale. If the jerk right next door was willing to consider a reasonable offer, like the other two owners, I’d own half this street! 😀
Everyone wants service. No one can be bothered to make a call and demand it because ‘what’s the point? They’re not going to do anything.’ I’m hoping the local paper will get back to me so I can get the word out about how close I am so maybe that will get some people moving. Haven’t had any luck with getting a town meeting organized and no one will go. So my best bet to spread the word is through the papers. I’m going to try to put a pay ad in the local penny saver, but I don’t know if they’ll publish it.
I admit I live in the middle of bumfuck nowonder but at least I can get packages (street address) and internet. Wish you could.
GMTA, naturally.
Ah, apathy. Sigh.
Hope the penny saver will run your advert!
Well, you might have that, but at least people around here know how to drive… 😉
Canadian apathy is a scourge… I’m trying to follow the example of people like Croft who actually DO something and get involved to effect change.
Ha ha, no kidding.
I think apathy everywhere is an issue.
Apathy and incompetence makes for a really sad combination. I just wasted my lunch break trying to do some research, but was thwarted by incompetence on the part of the page coders, incompetence on the part of SaskTel, and apathy in the general public that puts up this this crap with a ‘Meh, that’s how the world works.’ Yeah, that’s how it works because you won’t fight for anything better. *growls*
We have to have a wired land line in our home for our business – primarily due to the fact that there are so many dead mobile phone areas in our valley due to Mountains – and I live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet – the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, really just across the pond from Vancouver. Live where you want and things will work themselves out. It sounds to me like you do have a little piece of paradise there.
I meant to say we actually bought one of those expensive cell boosters too. They tend to work best in the office and within 20 feet of the booster though.