A recent economic development project by leaders from Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach has won a Saskatchewan award.
The FDC (Flin Flon Denare Beach Creighton) investment portal project was named as the winner of the Marketing Innovation Award, Population over 5,000 winner at this year’s Growing Communities One Idea at a Time Awards, organized by the Saskatchewan Economic Development Alliance (SEDA) and announced Sept. 26.
The investment portal, released by the Regional Economic Development Commission (REDC) last summer, was designed to promote and encourage business owners to open up shop or to maintain operations in the area. The project, which was created by the REDC with money from the Manitoba Mineral Development Fund and with Winnipeg-based consultancy firm Richard+Wintrup, was announced back in June.
“The northern communities of Creighton, Denare Beach and Flin Flon have been a nurturing hub for mineral exploration and extraction operations for a number of years,” reads the SEDA announcement.
“With the dominant employer in the region initiating its closure plan to transition operations to another area, the three communities established a formal partnership as the FDC Regional Economic Development Commission.”
The portal includes several profiles for business opportunities for Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach, as well as a brief descriptor of different sectors of the local economy. The community profiles cover each community’s population, demographics, services and areas where local government may be making land available for business. A list of possible areas for development is also included in the portal.
The REDC is a group made up of elected officials and senior civic staff from Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach - each community’s mayor, as well as one member of council and the communities’ respective chief administrative officers, sit on the commission.
“The core delivery of the toolkit is via an online portal which integrates the communities’ value proposition and investment pitches along with a site selection tool to guide decision-making,” reads the SEDA announcement.
Hudbay, until recently Flin Flon’s biggest employer, shut down much of its operations in the community this year and left the three communities in need of a new industry or business attraction - at the time of its release, mayors of all three communities hoped the new portal could soften the blow of Hudbay leaving.
