RDI conducted a review of guides and tools intended to identify growth strategies, as well as case studies into three growing (Town of Russell, RM of Pipestone, and RM of Coldwell) and three declining (RM of Argyle, RM of Grahamdale, and RM of Montcalm) municipalities in rural Manitoba. Each case study described growth initiatives and provided an analysis of the growth strategies and capitals used for each initiative.

The study revealed that growing municipalities focused their efforts on initiatives aimed at retaining and attracting people, attracting new businesses, and regional cooperation, while declining municipalities had more initiatives that focused on health/wellbeing and recreation culture. The research also revealed that financial and human capitals were used by both growing and declining municipalities in their initiatives. However, growing municipalities used social and political capitals more often and declining municipalities used built, natural, and cultural capitals more often.