The process of wrapping up the business of the Saskatchewan Southeast Enterprise Region (SSEER) began last week at a membership meeting held in Stoughton.
Nineteen members were in attendance, said SSEER board chairman Tim Schroh, and since the provincial government has pulled all funding from the Enterprise Saskatchewan programming, "it was a foregone conclusion that this is what we would be doing so the board recommended dissolution and the members voted unanimously to follow that recommendation."
Schroh said that "hopefully another entity will emerge. Some economic development organizations are already in operation but SSEER needs to disperse our assets now, especially the intellectual properties, to an economic development group of some kind."
The former chairman said the board walked the membership through the wind-down process and that SSEER's executive director Edie Spagrud will be retained until that process is completed, probably within the next two months.
"She is taking an inventory of all the physical assets as well as the intellectual assets and there is quite a bit there so it has to be evaluated," said Schroh. "We will then entertain proposals of interest in these properties and that will include our website and other things of value."
On the intellectual side, Schroh said that SSEER had done a lot of homework on the prospects and desires to have Highway 39 and Highway 6 south twinned. They had developed an extensive file on the local housing initiatives as well as having gathered a lot of information on the regional housing markets. There was also significant progress being made on an international trade corridor linking the southern and Midwest United States with Saskatchewan and northeastern Alberta and a file on businesses that had been established in regional rural municipalities.
"Because it's so early in the process, we have no concrete proposals yet regarding anyone wanting to carry on, but a leftover group from the board of directors will oversee the dissolving of the enterprise region even though the board itself, no longer exists," Schroh said.
There is a bit of money left for the dissolution process, plus some expected revenues from the sale of the physical assets and perhaps the intellectual properties that will be used to match the expenses that will be incurred while the volunteer group goes through the process of wrapping up.
"There are enough funds to oversee an orderly wind-down and the provincial government has agreed to help the enterprise regions wind-down if necessary. But we expect that by the end of this month we'll be getting our proposals out to see where the interest is and we should have dispensed with everything by the end of May," said Schroh.
The process of wrapping up the business of the Saskatchewan Southeast Enterprise Region (SSEER) began last week at a membership meeting held in Stoughton.
Nineteen members were in attendance, said SSEER board chairman Tim Schroh, and since the provincial government has pulled all funding from the Enterprise Saskatchewan programming, "it was a foregone conclusion that this is what we would be doing so the board recommended dissolution and the members voted unanimously to follow that recommendation."
Schroh said that "hopefully another entity will emerge. Some economic development organizations are already in operation but SSEER needs to disperse our assets now, especially the intellectual properties, to an economic development group of some kind."
The former chairman said the board walked the membership through the wind-down process and that SSEER's executive director Edie Spagrud will be retained until that process is completed, probably within the next two months.
"She is taking an inventory of all the physical assets as well as the intellectual assets and there is quite a bit there so it has to be evaluated," said Schroh. "We will then entertain proposals of interest in these properties and that will include our website and other things of value."
On the intellectual side, Schroh said that SSEER had done a lot of homework on the prospects and desire to have Highway 39 and Highway 6 south twinned. They had developed an extensive file on the local housing initiatives as well as having gathered a lot of information on the regional housing markets. There was also significant progress being made on an international trade corridor linking the southern and Midwest United States with Saskatchewan and northeastern Alberta and a file on businesses that had been established in regional rural municipalities.
"Because it's so early in the process, we have no concrete proposals yet regarding anyone wanting to carry on, but a leftover group from the board of directors will oversee the dissolving of the enterprise region even though the board itself,no longer exists," Schroh said.
There is a bit of money left for the dissolution process, plus some expected revenues from the sale of the physical assets and perhaps the intellectual properties that will be used to match the expenses that will be incurred while the volunteer group goes through the process of wrapping up.
"There are enough funds to oversee an orderly wind-down and the provincial government has agreed to help the enterprise regions wind-down if necessary. But we expect that by the end of this month we'll be getting our proposals out to see where the interest is and we should have dispensed with everything by the end of May," said Schroh.
