It’s well-documented that the last few years have not always been easy on the Estevan area.
For a variety of reasons beyond local control, we’ve seen the price of oil drop, we’ve learned that Units 4 and 5 at the Boundary Dam Power Station will be retired rather than retrofitted, we’ve seen job losses at the mines and now we’re in the midst of a pandemic.
But something encouraging is happening: there’s a handful of new businesses – brick and mortar businesses – opening throughout Estevan.
It’s not like they’re clustered in one area, or limited to one type. There are a couple of healing centres. There’s a new restaurant, a gym, a tattoo parlor, a business that showcases a variety of local vendors, and another that helps connect people with contractors, among others.
(You can look forward to seeing stories on these new businesses in upcoming editions of the Mercury).
We’ve also seen other businesses change ownership. And while it’s not considered a business, we’re also getting close to the opening of the new addictions treatment facility at St. Joseph’s Hospital – a facility that will help the community because of the work created for local contractors, and the employees that it will bring to Estevan.
You can’t overstate what a positive development this facility is for Estevan.
Even during the boom years, you would rarely see this many new businesses open within a few months.
And the diversity is a positive, to see men and women from different age groups opening a business.
The bottom line is that these investments in the business community reflect confidence in this city. Even before the pandemic, a lot of people weren’t exactly feeling warm and fuzzy about the future of our city. Now that the pandemic has hit, and has hurt the price of oil, the pessimism is even thicker.
However, these businesses reflect people willing to invest in Estevan.
Nobody opens a business expecting to lose money. You open a business because you see a need in the community, you want to fulfill a dream, you want to provide a service, but you also want to make a decent income and provide a decent living for your family. (Most entrepreneurs don’t do it to become rich, either; most who do make a decent amount of money are putting in 80 hours a week).
The arrival of several businesses isn’t a turning point for our city, a sign that everything’s going to be great moving forward and we can regain our place as the economic driver of the province. But it is encouraging.
We have some great people in our community doing great things through the economic development committee in Estevan. They’re working tirelessly to preserve our community’s future. These efforts will continue after the upcoming civic election, regardless of who’s elected.
But we also have to remember that economic development tends to move at the speed of a tectonic plate. And so when things don’t happen as quickly as we want, it’s easy to become impatient or even cynical.
It’s tough, but we have to be patient.
***
Speaking of business leaders who made a difference in Estevan, I would be remiss if I didn’t pay tribute to last week’s dedication of the new dressing room for the Estevan Eclipse Downhole Solutions U18 AAA Bears.
The dressing room has been named after the late Ron Areshenkoff – a guy I knew almost from the moment I moved to Estevan more than 20 years ago. We were in Rotary together, and I dealt with him a lot through a number of different organizations in the community.
He was such a big part of Estevan, a man who parlayed his friendships in hockey to boost the city.
His connections brought long-time NHL executives and friends Brian Burke and Ken Holland to Estevan. Through Burke, we had NHL commissioner Gary Bettman here in 2007 (the first time Bettman had ever made a public appearance in Saskatchewan); Holland brought all-time NHL coaching wins leader Scotty Bowman and beloved hockey icon Steve Yzerman to Estevan. Yzerman’s victory came less than two weeks after the Yzerman-built Team Canada men’s hockey team won gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
A lot of people did a lot of work to make Affinity Place the venue that it is, but it wouldn’t be as good of a venue without the five new arena fundraisers that Ron chaired and generated $1 million.
And it’s hard to imagine what Estevan would have been like without him.
