By Brent Bosker

Big River poised to reinvent its economy

Feb 28, 2011 | 11:02 AM

The Town of Big River has received $2 million dollars to diversify its economy.

The funding comes from the Community Development Trust Fund (CDTF), which was established by

Ottawa in 2008 to support communities who suffered economic hardship from a downturn in global markets.

Big River will use the funding to roll-out the town’s Destination West project, an initiative aimed at enhancing tourism and attracting new industry to the community.

The tourism aspect gets the lion’s share of the cash for expanding the regional park, the creation of ski and snowmobile trails, upgrades to the Visitor Centre and the development of an interpretive centre.

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There is also funding for revitalizing the town’s downtown core and upgrades to the local airstrip.

“If we can show that the community is forward thinking and strong we can start approaching private investors,” said Big River mayor, Brian Brownfield.

The town’s economy took a major hit when their sawmill shutdown in 2006 and was further impacted by the reorganization of the Prince Albert Forest Management Agreement, which shut out the mill’s new owner EACOM Timber.

The town is hoping to resurrect the industry by developing a new industrial site for private sector investment. Using the remaining funding, the town plans to purchase 120 acres of land located north of the town’s existing sawmill.

“We’re just trying to entice (companies) here and give them a reason to be here,” he said.

Brownfield said the plan is to make the area a hub for the value-added forestry industry with the center-piece being a new sawmill.

“There are a couple different things that could be there, (but) because of the confidentiality with the people coming in, I just can’t tell you what they are.”

The Destination West project is expected to generate jobs during construction as well as about 25 permanent jobs.

We believe these initiatives will create even more jobs in the future, said Brownfield.
Saskatchewan’s share of the CDTF was $36.4 million.

bbosker@panow.com