It was an opportunity for business members to come together and share their ideas with the City of North Battleford to help make improvements for the future.
About 10 representatives from various organizations gathered for a meeting at North Battleford Library recently to discuss what they would like to see to help make the community better for business interests.
The city's economic development team is hosting three meetings that wrap up on Sept. 4. The city wants to hear how business owners hope to see city bylaws and policies "evolve or change to improve the business climate in the community," and to hear general feedback from business owners in the community.
Some of the issues people discussed included reducing loitering downtown to improve safety and encourage more people to shop downtown.
"People aren't going to put businesses where nobody wants to go," one participant said.
City Manager Randy Patrick said there are two points the city is looking at to attract and retain business: "How do we keep people and how do we bring people in?"
"What we're looking at is: 'How do we grow?'" Patrick said. "We can't grow without the business. It draws people here."
He will be bringing the feedback from these meetings to council in the future.
One participant noted at one time residents needed to have businesses close to where they live, but now 90 per cent of people here drive, and the city offers the Transit service, so residents can access businesses farther away within the city more easily.
Melanie Roberts represented the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce, the Gold Eagle Lodge, and the Battlefords Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP) at the meeting.
"What I'm really hoping for is that we take a more flexible approach in business attraction and retention, and ensure that ones that choose to come here will stay here, and that we can really attract some businesses to the community," she told Â鶹ÊÓƵ.
She also hopes to see something done to support the businesses that are already operating in North Battleford, to help "grow their entrepreneurial dreams."
"Some of that needs some flexibility in how we approach different rules of the city," Roberts said.
She said there are regulations for example that offices and banks need to be downtown, so it can be limiting to a business wanting to expand.
"That means if somebody wanted to add an office structure into their building for sustainability, they can't do it unless it's downtown, for example," Roberts said.
"There are different things that need to, yes, protect the community from [for example if someone feels] I don't want a bar in a residential area, I get that. But there likely [could be] some greater flexibility in those rules that could promote entrepreneurialism," she said.
Randy Patrick said the meeting also looked at the needs of businesses in the Parsons Industrial Park area and the Frontier Centre mall area.
Patrick noted overall what he is hearing is that the city needs to take a look at its bylaws for zoning, and make some updates.
"It's one of the things we wanted to do anyway," he said, adding that the city can take some feedback from across the community on that issue.
"[We] also received some suggestions on how to attract business," Patrick said. "A lot of it is [about] what in the city is actually attractive to people. Part of it is: Does it attract business, does it attract people, or does it attract both? And how do we tailor that message? Is what will come out of that - for both business and for attracting people to work here, whether it's plumbers, to doctors, and to retain them."
