OTTAWA — The federal government should relocate thousands of federal jobs to rural areas, says a senate committee studying rural poverty.

The committee argued that Ottawa needs to revitalize rural Canada, which suffers more from poverty and is getting poorer. Rural Canada recently dropped below 20 per cent of Canada’s population of 33 million.

The senate committee of Liberal and Conservative senators also argued that it doesn’t make sense for government employees to work in expensive office towers in downtown Toronto, if their jobs can be done from a less expensive location. "Why would we have our civil servants housed in the most expensive cities in the country?" said senator Hugh Segal. The senators want to see one in 10 federal government employees working and living in the rural areas.

"Rural Canadians will find no surprises in this report," said Senator Leonard Gustafson, who is also a Saskatchewan grain farmer. "But urban Canadians and federal government managers are going to be profoundly shocked. They will be dismayed that they did not see this coming. It is time to rebuild rural Canada."