The Saskatchewan Economic Development Association held its annual Intersections for Growth Conference on May 2 and 3.
Topics of discussion are ones that are impacting all Saskatchewan communities, including Humboldt, says Humboldt and District Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Stacey Poss.
Community collaboration was a major focus of the event, she says, especially within rural environments.
With collaboration comes social enterprise, says Poss, and that is being successfully utilized in many places around Canada.
Instead of communities waiting for the government funding, they are making projects happen themselves.
In Olds, Alta., they are taking that seriously, says Poss, by creating their own broadband network.
“They have control of that now and it’s an income for themselves.”
Water and sewage was anther example of communities creating their own social capital with there being a market for recycled water.
These communities are creating their own opportunities, she says, and with government cutbacks, they are doing this successfully.
“They are taking responsibilities and action back into their own hands, in fact, in a way that helps them generate their own income...it’s time to take it back into our own hands and rely on the government to make it happen.”
Finding problem solvers to bring these new ideas into a community was something that stood out to Penny Lee, communications manager with the City of Humboldt.
Hiring people from a pool of unemployed individuals and creating jobs tailored to them as a way to get them back into the workforce was an interesting idea brought forth from Shaun Loney’s presentation on An Army of Problemsolvers.
Another fitting element of the conference was the talk on disaster response, says Lee.
Considering the work that went in to responding to the Humboldt Broncos accident, Humboldt grew with an influx of people.
Lee spun it that way to the presenters asking how to respond when your community grows from a disaster and how to manage that economically.
While presenters did not exactly have a response, Lee says that that response is still on going as the city and surrounding area works together to move towards rebuilding and rebranding in a way that is appropriate and sensitive to the ongoing situation.
The networking ideas such as these are an important aspect of the conference, says both Lee and Poss, with so much more getting done if we put our heads together.
“There are so many great projects that are happening in the region. I walked away with a lot of connections and ideas for collaboration,” she says.
This works with her position with the chamber since her job is to inform members of the bigger picture, trends, and possibilities.
