Community growth; there is no magic formula
For some rural communities, there are ways to thrive and there are ways to not.
What surprised Brandon, MB City Councillor and Researcher with the Rural Development Institute, Lonnie Patterson, is that these factors of growth and decline are hardly ever measured.
Patterson presented her findings of a recent Rural Development Institute study at the SEDA conference on Nov. 4 measuring factors that contribute to the growth and decline of rural communities in Manitoba. Five rural municipalities; Pipestone, Coldwell, Argyle, Montcalm and Grahamdale, and the Town of Russell, MB were included in the study.
Patterson says she stresses analysis of initiatives.
“It’s really important, if you’re going to undertake a major initiative to take some time to evaluate it and see if it worked.”
This was one thing that was missing across the board in all the communities studied, whether they were growing or declining.
The study itself looked into different strategies that growing and declining rural communities use and the initiatives implemented locally, says Patterson
With this being a preliminary study, nothing is definitive. Patterson says, they have not narrowed down a secret formula for growing rural communities. What they have discovered is eight different strategies that communities undertake to grow or retain their populations:
- retaining and attracting people;
- housing;
- retaining, expanding and attracting businesses;
- tourism;
- community capacity;
- regional cooperation;
- health and wellbeing;
- and recreation and culture.
All of these factors play a role in a healthy community. Retaining a population is obviously important and describe focused efforts for keeping the community thriving.
A lot of rural communities have a focus on tourism playing an economic role.
“Natural amenities that you find across rural Canada, it’s a way to draw people in. And sometimes, communities try to use it as a way to entice tourists to stick around more permanently.” Says Patterson.
Community capacity measures a community’s ability to understand problems and solutions, says Patterson, even when it comes to time and effort put into these projects to solve problems.
Cooperation on a regional scale means that no one has to go it alone, says Patterson.
“Their neighbours could be facing similar challenges and if they work together, they might be able to accomplish more.”
Health and wellbeing includes access to basic needs like healthcare, education and access to food.
“I’m sure in Saskatchewan, as well as in Manitoba communities, hospitals and schools can be important parts of rural communities.” Says Patterson.
What Patterson found is both growing and declining communities were putting resources and energy into initiative to help grow their community.
“Some folks would assume the declining communities aren’t doing as much but they were.”
Even with the study being preliminary, Patterson found three of the eight factors that successfully growing communities focused on.
Population retention was one with immigration was a big part of that, whether it was bringing newcomers in to fill job positions or bring them in to become residents.
Business care is also a big focus to make sure that businesses remained open in the community. Whether it was a new business or an old business, the focus on local business and helping them succeed helped the community as a whole.
Regional cooperation was another focus of growing communities because a single community wasn’t implementing an initiative on their own.
Declining communities tended to put their focus elsewhere, says Patterson.
Health and wellbeing, recreation and culture and community capacities were the focus of declining communities but Patterson says, “I’m not going so far as to say that that is what has caused their communities to go into decline, it’s just some of the insights we’ve gotten after doing the research.”
The study is available online at https://www.brandonu.ca/rdi/files/2011/02/Growth-Strategies-for-Rural-Communities-A-Preliminary-Investigation.pdf.
Attracting entrepreneurs to town
Bruce Firestone wears many hats. Along with being a founder of the Ottawa Senators, he is also an author, a real estate agent, and has an interest in bootstrapping.
His closing keynote presentation at the SEDA conference on Nov. 4 talked about how to atrract entrepreneurs and young people to town and how to keep them there.
“A lot of communities, not just in Saskatchewan but around the world, have found that if you go out and you attract companies to come and open a branch, they generally are not as committed to the community as people who are actually living there.”
Attracting the “right” kind of entrepreneurs comes down to low cost programs that work, says Firestone. It would be nice for the Saskatchewan government to give out $10 million for economic government but just is not the case, says Firestone.
Communties are in control when it comes to making themselves economically sustainable.
“What we have to find is programs that are low cost that can be implemented locally.”
A simple example of that is when Firestone goes into a community, he advises every entreprenuer in that community to register on Google Plus. It does not matter whether they are homebased, commerical, industrial or farm based, everyone then shows up on Google Maps, says Firestone.
Gig-prenuers are part of this entrepreneurial class that people should want to have in their community, says Firestone. These the people who go from gig to gig and a lot of them can do it remotely.
“You’re a software developer, there’s no permanent jobs in that. You might work remotely from Humboldt for Waterloo based Blackberry or you can work for Cupertino based Apple. They don’t care where their coders live anymore.”
This is the creative class towns should want in their community, says Firestone, who considers himself a gig-prenueruer going from speaking engagement to speaking engagement.
Bootstrapping, or self capitalization, is finding alternative sources of funding, also an attractive type of entrepreneur.
“It’s a way of capitalizing your new enterprise that’s not dependant on a bank or an investor.” Says Firestone.
Pre-sales is a source of capital that supports a new business without having to sell shares or ownership of the company, he says.
This kind of local capital is more attainable for businesses, says Firestone, since large investment firms are less likely to give a business capital to get started.
Another way to attract people and business is relaxed zoning codes, says Firestone.
Firestone ventured out to the politicians in the audience, advising them to come up with ways to make their community a live, work, play, learn community.
People want that building on main street, not just to work but to live, says Firestone.
“A lot of ways you want to animate your main street is by relaxing your zoning code.
Commerical assessment is more desireable because it is more profitable, says Firestone, receiving up to 3 times the property tax compared to housing but communities need to look more indepth in mixed use zoning to allow living and working close by.
From the trenches: keeping communities healthy
Keeping communities healthy in Saskatchewan is not an easy job.
That is why there was a session dedicated to that at SEDA on Nov. 3 with panelists from four Saskatchewan communities and one municipal alliance discussing how they are making their communities better.
The discussion focused on what is working, what’s not working and some solutions and options for growing Saskatchewan communities.
Economic Development Director Sean Wallace with the Town of Tisdale said focus on what you have already and help that grow.
“Tisdale is very fortunate that we have a vibrant downtown core,” he says.
Economic development can be hindered by a lack of funding for smaller communities. There are costs to going out and bringing in business that would help a community grow and sometimes, the funds just aren’t there, said Wallace.
“If we want to pursue businesses from other countries or other provinces, we really don’t have the budgets to travel, to go to those important conferences.”
Economic Development Officer Samuel Twumasi with the City of Yorkton said the resilience of small rural communities is helping Yorkton thrive.
“When a businesses is wanting to locate in a place, they don’t only look at population...What they are looking at is that surrounding area.”
Surrounding communities working together is something that needs to be done to make sure that all Saskatchewan communities thrive. Twumasi said growing regions should be the focus instead of growing community by community.
“How can we grow the region? How can we combine our resources to build up our infrastructure that can take us to the next 25-50 years.”
Foreign Direct Investment from any avenue outside of Saskatchewan is a number one priority for Wallace and the last federal government had programs for these avenues to be explored. Wallace said, he does not know how this will be affected by a new government.
This federal funding, like money through the Building Canada fund (http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/) is very important, said Twumasi, and he hopes the federal government will continue to see it as important.
“Basically, (my community is) relying on it to fix some infrastructure needs or be able to build up some infrastructure needs to allow businesses to expand here.”
When it comes to supporting locally focused initiatives, this investment will increase traffic through these areas with local businesses. Increased population and supply also will help local businesses grow.
“I know here in Tisdale, I’ve noticed people are really about shopping local which is another really important component we have that people here in Tisdale seem to shop in Tisdale.”
Another way of supporting local business is promoting it as a way to stay in the community, said Twumasi, educating both businesses and consumers that they do not have to shop in the bigger centres.
“We can basically grow our community within ourselves,” said Twumasi. “That’s how it plays in my community and that’s how it should play in all the other communities.”
Another positive statement about Tisdale’s downtown is their lack of “teeth missing,” says Wallace.
“We’ve had a phenomenal year with new businesses opening up and we have no blank spaces on our main street. That keeps people coming through”
When it comes to trade deals like the TPP, Wallace said small communities should be looking at ways they can be contributing to the discussion.
“Are there going to be any opportunities for any small towns in Canada to look at those agreements and go ‘our town can participate because we have resources or human capital that people can take advantage of.’”
Twumasi sees huge investments in Yorkton when it comes to Foreign Direct Investment and two canola crushing plants that has helped grow the city.
“Foreign investment is key to growing our rural communities, it’s something that both the provincial government has to continue to help and foster. It’s very important to communities that sometimes could be forgotten about,”
Buying Local in SK
Roshan Hoover of United Digital Marketing wanted to support the Saskatchewan buy local movement.
Along with two friends, he has done just that with his group, Sasklandia.
They presented at the SEDA conference on Nov. 3 about this initiative to buy to local and how it can help Saskatchewan communities thrive.
Their first step in their Sasklandia initiative was getting the Saskatchewan government to support a monthly buy local day on the first Saturday of the month.
“We spent six months to a year trying to get public support to get the government to initiate that day.”
On May 16, 2015, their work paid off with the government proclaiming June 6, 2015 the first official Buy Local Day in Saskatchewan with the first Saturday of every month being Buy Local days. Unfortunately, the initiative has not gotten a lot of government press.
According to the Saskatchewan government, small businesses employ 31.7 per cent of Saskatchewan’s workers.
Hoover’s next step for promoting buy local is through United Digital Marketing platform to give consumers their options when choosing to buy local.
“A person of the public can go on the site and look for deals on whatever category but everything is specifically a locally owned store.”
It’s essentially a deal site, says Hoover, but it’s more than that. If a buck off gets people into a locally owned coffee shop instead of Starbucks, that’s what Hoover is looking for.
There is a big impact with buying local that people do not seem to know about, says Hoover. Getting people aware of this is also an important part of the project.
“If you learn a bit more about the economic impact of buying locally, you might start switching your behaviour.”
According to sasklandia.com, there are three main reasons to buy locally; circulating money locally, growing community character and local businesses are more likely to support local nonprofits.
“Local businesses contribute more to the local community because they live in those communities. They hire more people, more money stays here, it’s not going to some headquarters outside of the province. And the more local businesses here that are supported just makes a stronger economy that is resistant to a big company coming in and then leaving.” Says Hoover.
Hoover says they are not trying to make people feel bad by buying at Walmart, they just want to make people more aware of where their money is going and its impacts. This might give people a reason to give buying local a try.
This second phase might not be launched until December but Hoover says there has been quite a few delays.
There has been some successes too, says Hoover, with local media really embracing the idea. Buy Local Day took off on social media and general. Government support for the Buy Local Day, even if there was not much noise about it, was a big plus for them, says Hoover.
“It tells us we’re going in the right direction,” says Hoover.
Small business success still has to be earned in some respect. A business has to know how to compete with competitors that may have the ability to buy in bulk and have a lower price, says Hoover.
Staying on top of technology, taking advantage of social media and whatever else that could help promote you and get the word out is a big way of competing, says Hoover.
Have something unique about your business and give people a reason to stop, says Hoover.
The platform will be free for any local business for the first three months when the next phase is launched.Supporting this behavioural shift is just one of the ways Sasklandia is trying to help, says Hoover.
Much needed community support found in community foundation
With numerous infrastructure and program and services problems plaguing small communities, sometimes the solution is right within a community.
Char Slager of the Friends and Family Foundation serving the towns and municipalities of Langenburg, Churchbridge and Spy Hill says it was a local lawyer who saw the amount of money leaving the communities for outside charities, sometimes being donated as far as the United States.
“In speaking with business members, town councillors, and RM councillors, they observed that there were many needs locally that weren’t be addressed by these charities and the decision was made to get educated on the process,” says Slager.
From there is where the Friends and Family Foundation was formed in 2003, providing support for local initiatives that help grow the community.
Slager presented at the SEDA conference on Nov. 4 about the communities own foundation, how it got started and the contributions they have made to the economic strength of Langenburg, Churchbridge and Spy Hill.
“The reason SEDA wanted us to present is to show how this can help the economy of smaller local communities so that they can remain viable, as opposed to needing to search out money to get things done in their community when the community starts to fail.” says Slager.
The Foundation has three roles, says Slager, setting up the flow through funds and endowment funds, provide grants to charities and foster community leadership.
Flow through funds are for specific projects, says Slager. An example she gave was of an older gentleman who donated $300,000 to keep the local theatre standing. That money was not granted through interest, says Slager but granted directly to the project of renovating the theatre.
“If there is a need that someone sees, they can give and get charitable tax receipts.”
The foundation is also considered a non-profit organization so they get charitable status and can give out tax receipts, Slager says.
In the 12 years since the foundation started, they granted a million dollars and four million in assets, says Slager. Four hundred thousand dollars in grants have gone to healthcare related initiatives, like local care home beds, palliative care, and a CT and Mammogram machine for the hospital in Yorkton, “otherwise, people in our small communities have to go to Regina or Saskatoon,” says Slager.
Youth initiatives have also been frequent receivers of grants for anti-bullying, sports, libraries, art clubs, counselling and music problems.
One local man who died was really into sports, says Slager. The interest from a fund set up by his parents goes to fund sports related initiatives.
Contributing to these types of programs works two ways; drawing people in and giving them a reason to stay.
“Because our community is stronger, families want to stay. Because we have education going to the kids from everything from bullying to a young girl’s breast awareness at an early stage, because our healthcare in the care homes is good and we’ve provided things to EMTs, it’s not as frightening to live in a small community.”
A lot of small rural Saskatchewan is based on families staying and supporting the community, and even when young people leave to go to university, strong communities is where they want to move back to.
Slager also talked about how communities can start their own foundation. Her advice, do what they did and seek mentoring.
“We received mentoring from someone else who had already established that, just to see how it goes. The founding members got together and everyone was on the same page.”
Slager says they now do mentoring themselves for other communities.
Both businesses and communities contributed seed money along with the RMs and towns that can provides grants directly to those communities.
Slager says they were told that it would take 13 years before someone would leave estates to the foundation. The Friends and Family Foundation received their first one at 6 years and now in 2015, they have 8 estates donating money to the foundation.
“When you stop and think about how much money is staying in the communities to fund all of the projects that people want in a community to stay in a community, it’s quite profound.”
The last role of the foundation is fostering community leadership, which they do by not only encouraging financially but also encouraging human capital by all ages in the community.
All board members of the organizations are themselves volunteers. To pay them directly out of the funds they collected from the community would not have been right, says Slager. The foundation themselves have committees within the organization who organize a lot of local events. Those are also run by volunteers.
Promoting volunteerism in the schools is also an important part of fostering this leadership. Schools are in the middle of raising money for breast cancer and they are working like crazy, says Slager.
“It inspires the kids to say we need to give back all the time. It’s about doing kind things for people who are less fortunate.”
This creates a cycle of volunteering, with parents teaching kids who teach their kids, says Slager and this just does not apply to volunteering within the community but also when kids leave for university.
