The Saskatchewan government, for all its talk of positioning the province to take advantage of the recent economic upturn, lost sight of how best to tackle regional development.
But it dropped the ball in terms of regional economic development.
The former Regional Economic Development Authorities were seen as too localized by the Saskatchewan Party.
The Brad Wall-led government disbanded REDA, replacing them with much larger regional entities.
The new entities proved largely ineffective. They had no real impact on the largest developments with mines and major processing looking to work directly with the province.
But the new economic groups were also too-large to be particularly effective in helping a new hairdresser, or automotive repairman establish in a small town, or village.
The large region approach did not last long, and the province pulled the plug.
That left regional economic development as a void, with the provincial government offering little in the way of leadership in offering a viable option to fill the void.
The situation was one where any gains made in having local communities get away from long-held competitive rivalries, and instead co-operating of economic development were being lost.
Locally Yorkton is taking a lead in trying to hold a regional approach together by spearheading the creation of a new Regional Economic Association (REA) encompassing municipalities and First Nations within some 80-kilometres of the city (see related story Page A1).
To see a local initiative like this is good news for economic development in a region which already has a track record of co-operation, including the successful Last Cattle Frontier effort to attract Alberta cattlemen to the region.
Yorkton is a natural catalyst for the creation of the REA based on being home to the major airport in the region, being the primary service centre, and the likely site of a new regional landfill, all things which build local municipal connections they can build on.
To see such a forward-thinking approach to economic development, after the province dropped the ball, speaks to the local desire to see development which helps build community beyond the borders of any single municipality.
