Wednesday's provincial budget could spell the end of the Southwest Enterprise Region, after the province stopped funding the regional arms of Enterprise Saskatchewan.
CEO Kelsay Reimer blames how Enterprise Saskatchewan's Regional Services Division measured success: "Things like population, school enrolment, business startup, land sales... they weren't interested in having those kinds of results. They were more interested in us reporting back the number of website hits, number of brochures handed out, the number of meetings attended, and those kinds of things."
The province says the it will instead put economic development in the hands of municipalities with increased revenue-sharing grants, but Reimer doesn't think they can be kept afloat that way: "It's unrealistic to expect that 83 municipalities are going to kick in dollars to a regional organization to advance regional development.
The Enterprise Region had a number of ongoing projects in the southwest, including regional broadband development and municipal planning, but Reimer is hopeful that some of their work will get carried forward by their partners.
Click here for the Government press release on their economic development priorities in the Provincial Budget.
Shawn Mullin talked with Kelsay Reimer about the cuts to the Enterprise Region program:
Fri, Apr 26, 10:00 AM
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