The fall season will be a busy one for Christina Birch, Community Futures (CF) Sunrise’s newest staff member.
Birch, who recently took on the position of regional economic development co-ordinator for CF Sunrise, has embarked on a big project: gathering input from business owners, municipal leaders and other stakeholders to identify the opportunities and challenges for business development in the region.
From this feedback, a regional business development plan and targeted business supports will be put in place to address the needs of the business community.
“I will be spending the next couple of months speaking with businesses, municipalities, economic development professionals, chambers of commerce, lending institutions and other stakeholders throughout the region,” said Birch.
“We will be creating a regional business development plan based on the feedback we receive, so we encourage all of our stakeholders to take a few minutes to participate. Whether you own or run a business, are the administrator for a municipality, or work with the business community on a regular basis, we want to hear from you.”
Birch started working for CF Sunrise in July. Since then, she has worked to develop a regional needs assessment and has been connecting with stakeholders throughout the region to gain feedback on business development in southeast Saskatchewan.
She has previously worked in economic development both regionally and for individual communities. Birch was most recently the economic development officer for the Town of Redvers.
The regional business development plan will be based on feedback and expertise obtained from stakeholders within the region.
An economic development professional roundtable was held in Estevan on Sept. 17.
“We had an excellent discussion with all southeast Saskatchewan economic development officers in attendance,” said Birch. “Participants provided feedback on the challenges and opportunities that exist within the region and identified a number of areas for support for both businesses and municipalities.”
Also, a chamber of commerce roundtable was held in Carlyle on Sept. 24. Representatives from each of the chambers in the region attended and an in-depth discussion was held concerning business development in southeast Saskatchewan.
“A number of opportunities for business development support were identified and will be included in the regional business development plan.”
A municipal survey was distributed to all cities, towns, villages and rural municipalities within the region Oct. 21. Councillors and administrators are encouraged to provide feedback as it relates to municipal readiness for business development, and to identify areas in which support could be provided.
The business survey is public and will be open until Nov. 15. It can be found on the CF Sunrise website. When contacting municipal offices, Birch plans to connect with them directly through email, telephone or a personal visit.
“We want to make sure that everyone who wants to provide feedback has an opportunity to do so. I am looking forward to visiting businesses and communities throughout southeast Saskatchewan and listening to what they have to say,” said Birch.
The business survey is open to all business owners and managers within the region. The feedback will be used to develop targeted programming that supports business development within southeast Saskatchewan.
While there may be some overlap in the questions between stakeholder groups, the survey questions and roundtable discussion points were developed specific to each individual group.
Birch’s position was made possible through funding from the Canada Coal Transition Initiative.
“Our regional business development plan will serve as a resource for the larger community transition plan led by the City of Estevan. We continue to collaborate with the City of Estevan’s coal transition co-ordinator to work towards mitigating the impact of the coal transition,” she said.
