Newfoundland and Labrador has a small population spread over a large geographic area but services can still be supplied to people who live in rural or remote areas – those services just need to be reimagined.

That’s according to Moya Greene, Chair of the Economic Recovery Team that released its long-awaited report this week.

Forty per cent of the province’s population is in the metro region while the remainder is spread out across Newfoundland and Labrador.

While some have interpreted the report’s recommendations as an attack on rural communities and an attempt at resettlement, nothing could be further from the truth, says Greene.

Greene contends that the province needs to move away from a model that medicalizes old age, and find ways to allow seniors to live as long as possible in their own homes instead of forcing them into long-term care facilities.

Greene says technology can play a role in continuing to provide health care services in more remote areas in a less costly fashion.

Nurses and nurse practitioners can be given a greater role says Greene, in addition to virtual consultations for primary health care.