10 Southwest Progress Report 2012 BY MONIQUE MASSIAH BY Y MON QUE
aple Creeks Chamber of Comm and business community has never before been more engaged. T e town is fast becoming a province-wide tourism destination area, but instead of jumping on the train going full steam ahead, the Chamber of Commerce is moving forward cautiously, fi nding ways to build up existing business as new business begins to settle in. “We’ve had a bit of a tough go of it here in
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Maple Creek in the last few years as a result of things like the BSE crisis as well as the fl ood from 2010,” explained Royce Pettyjohn, Main Street Program co-ordinator for the Town of Maple Creek. “As a result, we see a lot less spending happening locally just as a result of people dealing with the fallout.” Instead of accepting the status quo, the
community has taken a proactive stance to bolstering the local economy. A business retention and expansion
initiative, Main Street program and cultural planning initiative are in the works to support the community. “I think that the chamber has long
been aware that business in Maple Creek needed support and needed to stabilize or
normalize its customer base,” said Chamber of Commerce president Tina Cresswell. About 80 per cent of new business originates from existing businesses in town, she says, but since the creation of an economic development offi cer for the town in the fall of 2011, Cresswell says the business community is really seeing increased interest in the community.
rmalizi e its cu ome bas of Com erce presidi en About 80
er mme es 0 per r cent of o new i ti b i ent Ti a Cr
ase,” saidid Cha Tina
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wbusineness origiginat s i t
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swell “We think that this is really great time to
ramp up our activities,” she said. Right now the chamber is implementing
strategies to ensure existing businesses can thrive. “We’ve faced several challenges in the last
two years since the fl ood,” said Cresswell. “We’re trying to make sure that
they can
survive, as well as trying to fi nd out the kinds of business Maple Creek can use before actually going out and recruiting those businesses.” T e fi rst step for the Chamber of
Commerce will be to develop a profi le of businesses in town. T ree initiatives to grow the local economy
have been identifi ed — the creation of a business retention and expansion strategy, the Main Street program and cultural
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Many people and organizations within Maple Creek are doing their best to keep business in the southwest Saskatchewan community.
planning. A business retention and expansion committee, led by
Southwest Community Futures is closely the Chamber of
Commerce’s Blaine Filthaut, is conducting a survey to determine challenges faced by the business community. “I think every business has challenges
and I don’t think we know completely where their challenges lie, what their customer base is, whether they see lots of out of town customers, whether they see people from town, what their busiest season is, all of those things,” said Cresswell. T e surveys will start with businesses in
the downtown core of Maple Creek before branching out to all businesses in the community. It’s likely the strategy will be implemented within 2012. An innovative way to approach business
retention at each Chamber of Commerce meeting is featured through their guest speaker series, which took form in late 2011. “One of the key ways in which you get
critical mass to move forward and buy- in collaboration is through the sharing of ideas,” Pettyjohn said. “Getting a better understanding of what
everyone else in the community is doing, knowledge and information exchange, whether it be through cultural planning, stakeholder consultations, “vision” forums, going to each others’ meetings or guest speakers, I think is great.” Guest speakers such as John Parker of
the Southwest Community Futures, spoke of business retention and expansion from a larger southwest Saskatchewan perspective.
tied to business retention and expansion as the organization provides funding in terms of loans to expanding businesses and provides industry planning and marketing advice. “What’s exciting is that we are starting to
get the word out that Maple Creek is open for business.” T e Main Street program is a community
revitalization and economic development program which is sponsored by the Province of Saskatchewan. “Maple Creek was fortunate enough to be
one of the four pilot communities for this program in Saskatchewan, Indian Head, Wolsley and Prince Albert being the other three,” said Pettyjohn. T e program uses promotion, tourism
development, heritage conservation and branding to make a community appear more prosperous and inspire confi dence in residents and potential investors. T e third initiative, cultural planning,
essentially asks communities to create interest by turning their community into a more attractive place to live, visit and invest. “For Maple Creek right now we are poised
to move forward in a very positive way,” said Pettyjohn. “I think that there has been a lot of proactive thought and eff ort put into what’s next or what are we going to do diff erently or how are we going to get past these natural disasters and return down the road to prosperity in ensuring a future for the community.” “Nobody needs to drive our bus,” Cresswell
said. “We have to solve our own problems and to me, that’s a positive step.”
Piecing Together the Social Fabric
Maple Creek Chamber builds up old business to create new M
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