Economic action discussed for Neepawa and area
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- Published on Thursday, July 2, 2015
Community reps from across the region participated in the Regional Economic Analysis Process meeting
By Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Banner
Neepawa and area is getting serious about attracting new business and tourism dollars to the region. Officials from several local municipalities gathered on Monday, June. 30, at the Neepawa Public Library for a presentation from the Regional Economic Analysis Process. The REAP project is a provincial enterprise established to help rural communities identify economic development priorities and assist them in pursuing those priorities.
Ruth Mealy, a representative with the Value Added and Rural Economic Advancement Branch of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, chaired the meeting in Neepawa. She said the REAP initiative has already been adapted in many other parts of the province.
“We’ve been doing this work for the last couple of years, where there are groups of communities that want to work together. Dauphin, Russell, Swan River are some of the communities, along with their surrounding regions to previously participate in the program to identify regional marketing,” said Mealy. “So what we have done is an analysis to help the region. Figure out some of the demographics, business data, labour and the existing industry strengths in the region and then help too figure out the strategies and actions that they want to go forward with.”
The Regional Economic Analysis Process includes five steps: preparing a report on the region, presenting it to local organizations and its partners, receiving feedback from the stakeholders, creating an action plan and then taking action. Tuesday’s session was step two and three in the process and explained to community leaders what the regional economic strengths and weaknesses appear to be for the future. The sectors of comparative strength for the area are public administration, manufacturing and agriculture while there are notable gaps in the tourism industry. It was also pointed out that there might be potential business opportunities for more building and contracting companies, retail clothing sales and RV parks in the area. Neepawa mayor Adrian de Groot said these discussions should prove to be very helpful in planning for the future.
“Ruth Mealy has worked with other communities to pinpoint their regional growth opportunities. What tonight really underscores is that there is a tremendous potential in the Neepawa region,it’s just a case of identifying what they are and focusing our attention on those things and working towards them,” said de Groot.
Economic Development Officer for the Town of Neepawa, Marilyn Crewe, facilitated the partnership with REAP and agreed that the session was very beneficial.
“It was great to see not only the data that came out from it, but how those stats can move us forward. I’m excited to see where we can go with the information that was gathered this evening,” stressed Crewe.
The next step will involve taking all the information gathered and focusing on a few specific economic priorities. Mealy hopes that once the information is assessed and suggestions brought forward, Neepawa and surrounding communities will be able to take the information and use it to drive some type of action.
