This is economic development week — an internationally-recognized day with organizations ranging from locally-focused to national across North America directing attention to the work of economic developers in building successful communities.
Here in Saskatchewan, the Economic Developers Alliance – which helps locally-based committees and organizations across the province with education and programming – has developed a toolkit communities can access. It kicked off with Indigenous Economic Development Day on Monday.
The topic of economic growth and community resilience is one that never goes away but is important for a province like Saskatchewan which has a big land mass but small population. Sparse population can threaten things, such as air service as we saw with the SunWing and Air Canada decisions in recent months or having enough people to fill the jobs being created by industry.
This is one of the reasons the province has established a Growth Plan with a focus on economic expansion, something this week highlights by drawing attention to local economic development agencies and committees pursuing those objectives.
