Budget ends economic regions

The provincial budget delivered last week will mean the end of the Saskatchewan East Enterprise Region.

Wednesday's budget signaled a "refocusing" of economic development priorities to the provincial and local levels, said Enterprise Minister Jeremy Harrison in a statement on March 21, echoing comments made by Premier Brad Wall a week earlier. As a result, all funding is being cut from the province's 16 regional economic development bodies: a move that will save about $4 million per year.

"It was quick and unexpected," said Kim Wondrasek, CEO of the Saskatchewan East Enterprise Region (SEER). "From what the premier said the week before when he was at the SARM convention, we got a little hint of some major changes coming, but no one knew it would be this drastic."

SEER's Melville-based operations are now in the process of shutting down. Wondrasek's job is one of six that will be lost.

"I think it's unfortunate that they've taken economic development off the books for all of our offices, especially at a time when Saskatchewan is growing and when there's a need for major economic development and an opportunity for it," said the CEO.

As an organization, SEER provided consultation services to local businesses and organized initiatives such as the annual TransACTIONS conference and the recent Potash Impact Study.

The $260,000 it received annually from the province through Enterprise Saskatchewan made up almost the entirety of SEER's budget. While the provincial government has suggested the enterprise regions could continue as independent entities through private and municipal funding, Wondrasek said that is not a realistic option for a region as large as SEER.

The end of the Enterprise Region program represents a drastic reversal for the Saskatchewan Party government, which was responsible for creating the regions in 2008 as part of a wider policy of amalgamating administrative organizations such as school divisions and health regions into larger, more centralized bodies. At that time, the government phased out the Regional Economic Development Authority (REDA) system, a network of smaller and more localized development organizations, in favor of the larger Enterprise Regions.

"It's too bad that they cancelled one program to bring in another and then pretty much are telling everyone to go back to the old way of doing it," said Wondrasek.