MOOSOMIN — It will be a busy couple of years in Moosomin as several new businesses and projects get off the ground.
There are various projects planned and being developed right now in the community including a new airport, an arts centre, new businesses, additional spots for child care and more.
“I feel like more people are hearing about Moosomin after the airport (announcement) and the assisted living facility, and everything else that’s happening right now as more businesses are growing,” said Economic Development Officer Casey McCormac of Moosomin.
McCormac is the EDO for Moosomin’s Economic Development Committee. She spoke about a few of the recreation and business projects planned for the community.
“A big project right now is the arts centre. I’m working really closely with them to work on grants,” she said.
“We’re also making a business plan for them right now, myself and Randy from the Community Builders Alliance (CBA), are helping them with that.”
The Moosomin Visual Arts Centre will serve as a space to host workshops and classes on visual arts, digital arts, kids’ arts and crafts, fibre arts, painting and drawing, pottery, culinary arts, and more for people in the community and surrounding areas.
The idea for having a dedicated spot for the visual arts community came after the Economic Development Committee heard feedback from local business owners, said McCormac.
“I started sending out surveys to all of the business owners, asking them what their favourite parts of Moosomin are, what Moosomin needs, what it’s lacking, why they started in Moosomin, just to have information from them,” she said.
“From that Krista Crellin, who’s a photographer in Moosomin, sent an email to me and said she believes visual arts is lacking. That we have an amazing sports community, there are good performance arts, but there’s little for visual arts.
“Once she sent that email, I took that to my committee and then we decided to meet with her. We met with her and we decided an arts centre is what Moosomin needs.
“She was very happy with the support from our committee because we all agreed that even though Moosomin is a big sports committee, we need to support the arts for all of the kids who aren’t into sports, or for all of the adults that aren’t as into sports as some people.
“We asked her to get a group together of like-minded people and from that, they already have a maxed-out board of 13 members who are all really passionate about the arts, or who are able to help out with starting a non-profit arts centre.”
Currently, McCormac is assisting the arts centre committee as they work towards applying for grants and finishing off the centre’s planning stages for a facility in town.
Company looking at new fuel site in Moosomin
In addition to the new businesses that are currently or soon to be under construction — Anytime Fitness, Skout Brewing, Johston’s Grain, Sunny Transport—McCormac a company new to the area has shown an interest in building a fuel facility in Moosomin.
“There was an article about them expanding in Saskatchewan and when something like that happens, we usually reach out to them,” said McCormac.
“I sent them an email. Whenever I reach out to someone I send a Moosomin overview which is about the industries, the demographics, everything about Moosomin that would be helpful for a business to know, and told them Moosomin would be the perfect location for them.
“They responded and said they weren’t interested right at that time, then about three weeks later I got a phone call from an engineer—who was working with them—who was interested in some land that became available in Moosomin.”
The site proposed for Moosomin is a bulk fuel dealership, card lock and warehouse.
After they showed an interest in the available land in the community, McCormac connected the company with the Town of Moosomin.
The business is currently in the planning stages of opening a new location in town.
The town is in the process of rezoning land to allow the development.
Power sports company reaches out to EDO
Sometimes quick action seems to work. A power sports company from southern Manitoba contacted McCormac with questions about Moosomin’s business community.
“Usually if a company contacts me they have their own questions, they want the demographics of Moosomin, they want similar businesses as to what industry they’re in, they want stats involving their industry,” said McCormac.
“I’ll look into that for them then send it back. I always just say whatever else we can do to help, please just let us know.”
In this case, McCormac was able to get information to the company within the day, including the dollar figure for sales of power sports equipment in the Moosomin Region, and the company is now talking to developers and landowners about a possible location in Moosomin
EDO working with local daycare to create more spaces
After hearing concerns about the need for additional child care spots in town, McCormac said EDC reached out to the local daycare board in Moosomin to help come up with a solution.
“We started working with the daycare because there was a need for more daycare spaces in Moosomin,” she said.
“We had quite a few mothers email myself or the town saying there was a need for daycare. From that, we figured out how we can get more spaces.”
After the EDC met with the local daycare board, they found out that by creating a bit of extra space inside Play Fair Daycare’s building—by creating some storage space outside—the centre would be able to add up to 12 additional spaces, which is at least a short-term fix while a longer-term solution for additional spots is worked on.
With the town council’s approval of EDC’s suggestion, and the town’s approval to supply a grant to Play Fair Daycare for each new space created, McCormac said she will be working with the local board to encourage the provincial government to allow the centre to add those 12 additional daycare spaces in the community.
Population stats make the case for more development and services
One of the various projects McCormac has been working on includes the projected numbers of people in Moosomin, and its surrounding area, who utilize and rely on the town’s facilities, such as health care.
“We’re utilizing Sask Startup Institute, which will gather population stats for the areas you want. I always ask for the population of the town, for the town and a 50-kilometre radius, and the town and a 100-kilometre radius,” McCormac said.
“We then put all of that information in an Excel document, and compare Moosomin with other towns and with cities. I’ve been getting different places just to compare the sizes. We got Estevan’s (numbers), and Estevan has 12,000 people less than Moosomin in their 100-kilometre radius.
“We got Kindersley who has 30,000 people less than Moosomin. Assiniboia, even with Moose Jaw in its 100-kilometre radius, there are still 1,000 less people than in our region. The city of North Battleford is a larger centre, but North Battleford has about the same population within 100 km as Moosomin.
Based on the projected populations for the different regions in Saskatchewan, McCormac found Moosomin to be serving a larger number of people compared to other centres.
She said the purpose of the stats is to help show businesses and governments the wide range of people, and communities, Moosomin serves.
The information is vital for businesses looking at the area and has been used to show the provincial government that the area Moosomin serves has more serve if the town’s local hospital had a CT Scanner.
“This is to show that even though Moosomin is a small town, we draw from a really large radius,” she said.
“Because the closest city to us is always an hour and a half away, like Brandon or Yorkton, and Regina is two hours away because none of those big centres are not as close to us, we draw in that population from that 100-kilometre radius because people will drive that far for groceries, or shopping or restaurants.
“This is just to prove that even though we’re small, we need all of the things that a bigger centre needs.
“We’re hoping that will help with our pitch for a CT Scanner here because Estevan has one and they have 12,000 people less than us in that drawing area.”
McCormac said the figures may also attract potential retail and restaurant business owners into the community.
What sets Moosomin apart
With multiple projects being worked on in the community at this time, McCormac spoke about why she thinks Moosomin is seeing such strong economic growth.
“I think it’s a combination of all of the different businesses and everything that’s here, but mostly it’s the community and how supportive people are in so many different ways,” said McCormac.
“We were the number one seller of Smile Cookies in Saskatchewan, a small town like Moosomin, and we were eighth in Canada. That’s insane, and I think it’s just the way this community supports any and everything, like fundraising for different things.
“The playground committee didn’t have to fundraise for very long before they had all of their money, the Terry Lynd Court already has half of what they need.
“People realize how supportive this community is and they want to be a part of it.”
