Economic development focus of Chamber meeting
March 2, 2026, 11:03 am
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Economic Development was the focus of the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce meeting on Tuesday, with new Moosomin Economic Development Officer Jeff Cole and Mayor Murray Gray speaking to Chamber members about everything from long-term planning to health care to housing in Moosomin.
“We’re working on some new economic development in our region—and when I say region, our brand right now is a partnership between the town of Moosomin, the Town of Rocanville, the RM of Rocanville, the RM of Moosomin, the CBA and our other partners,” Cole told Chamber members.
“So we’re not a big region, but this new long-term plan that we have developed looked at a lot of our strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats in our region. And obviously, we’re stronger when we are united.
“We’ve got a lot of labor force that is employed out in the Rocanville area, plus the Moosomin area with ag and some of our other services that we have here at the local level.”
Cole says a lot of input went into creating a long-term plan for the region.
“There were some focus groups at the local level, from Rocanville to Moosomin. We also had leadership meetings. So it wasn’t just a plan that was thrown together by a consultant—this has got some merit. We will have to update it and change it annually. We’ll also be doing annual report on it.
“Some of our strategic areas of focus are to support and grow the economy, and create vibrant, livable communities. I’ve heard from some of our entrepreneurs here why you are in Moosomin or Rocanville or the RM, and those are some of the reasons—we’re vibrant. It’s a good place to do business. We’re not too far away.
“I believe the number one highway is a real strategic advantage for us. When we look at long-term projects, they told us we couldn’t do the airport. Well, we pulled off the airport. There are other things with infrastructure we’ve got to improve on, but you know what? When you’re having to improve on infrastructure, that means your community is growing because there’s a lot of places not too far away where they’re struggling.”
Cole also talked about the attraction and retention of people, and how things like the new daycare being built will help with that.
“With the daycare in town here, there’s over 300 moms and dads combined set to hit the labor force,” he said. “It’s a big impact to our community doing well.
“And we don’t want to just survive here. We want to thrive. Our partners are really crucial to this plan. How we get to the next phase of the plan will be some of our building blocks that we’re working with our committee on.
“We’ve got about nine pillar projects that we’re working on right now, and there’s going to be some pretty neat things happening here. We’ve got 17 other projects on the go right now as well, and some are related to the housing initiative, some are related to business. In my position, I can’t disclose too much of the details right now, but there’s a lot of good things happening as far as the towns and RMs and their partnerships.
“What we’ve heard loud and clear is affordable housing right now is a challenge. So we’re trying to tackle some of that. It won’t be easy, we need partnerships to do this business and make it grow.
“A little update on the housing accelerator fund—it’s going pretty well. We’ve got a couple projects on the go right now that look really good. If you have a project that you’re looking at, I’d say, be active with it. I think we’re going to capitalize on hitting all those targets.”
Cole also spoke about some of the area’s major tourism advantages and how they have had an economic impact.
“I ran some numbers a while back on the Living Skies Fireworks weekend before Covid, and I looked at what was the best economic impact for Moosoman, and believe it or not, those firework weekends were the best economic boost for us. So I’m thankful that committee’s back ramping it up, because at one time, we didn’t know if they were going to kick start this and keep it going.
“One area that I want to close on is in our plan to support and grow the local economy. Our goals make it easier to do business here. And that’s one thing that I’m hearing from people that have come to our town, whether or not they worked with the RM or the town, or the town staff and team.
“We want to keep small business open and thriving. We want to support succession planning—we don’t want to see a business just close the doors. If we can use our network here, if somebody’s got a business for sale, let’s work with the local entrepreneurs or our local group or our office to make it work, because we can’t afford to lose anything.
“We want to attract business and employment opportunities in the region. We’re doing a pretty good job of that, but that’s something that, strategically, we have got to keep moving forward, capture more traffic and dollars in our smaller communities. If you visualize maybe a new rink, some tourism along the highway here, I think we can really put Moosomin on the map. We’ve got the downtown, we’ve got a little bit of a destination, and I think we can establish Moosomin and Rocanville region as an integrated regional employment cluster and service centre.
“If you’ve got any ideas, always stop by the office. I’m willing to sit down with you.”
Gray says Moosomin is full speed ahead
After Danielle Rhodes introduced herself at the Chamber meeting and told Chamber members why Broadhead Electric had decided to move from Alberta to do business in Moosomin because of its strong business and community supports, Mayor Murray Gray said he was inspired by that, and it spoke to the reasons that make Moosomin a great place to live and invest.
“Danielle, I love your story about why you moved here. We need to tell our story. We need to tell our story loud and proud about why Moosomin is what it is,” he said as he addressed Chamber members about economic development following Jeff Cole’s presentation.
“It’s the people that make things happen, and how we have a get’er done attitude, and we want to make this a business environment. We want to be able to have it so people don’t have to leave town. We want to be able to provide every service in the community, so people don’t have to go to the city, and so people from the surrounding area can come here and do business in Moosomin. I love that point that you made on it, and it’s really what economic development is about.
“There are so many things that we deal with, but at the end of the day, we want people to want to move here and live here. So that’s fantastic.”
Gray gave an update on a few things the town has been working on.
Housing
“I wanted to do a little bit of an update on the housing incentive. We are getting very close to the 43 doors we wanted to add—we don’t have enough permits but I suspect within a couple of weeks we will.
There are a couple of projects that are going, and once we’ve completed that 43 doors, then we need to find out how we will be able to secure the last payment from the housing accelerator fund. To date, we have checked off enough boxes that we get the first three years of payments, which is roughly $745,000 and, so that has gone well.
“I’d like to say that adding the additional doors has helped with housing affordability. I don’t know that it has, but the pressure on our housing market is why it’s so expensive, and I know that’s something that we need to address. And so if we continue to work on the housing and continue to have a better inventory of rentals and of homes to own, then I think eventually we can lower that pressure.
“The other thing that we need is more housing in order to add the things that Jeff’s talking about—new businesses. Where are the employees going to live if you hire them? So housing is huge. It’s probably the top of list for the town of Moosomin of what we as a council need to work on, and having the housing accelerator fund kind of helps with that and keeps us focused us on it. Even though we’ve added 43 doors, I think we need to keep working on it in some way, shape or form.”
CT Scanner and health care
Gray said the town would also keep pushing for a CT scanner in Moosomin, especially with such a large and stable group of doctors in the community.
“Because of that, the CT scanner and some of the other things we’re doing, we need to keep beating our hand on the table. Because that group of doctors that we have is fantastic, and they’re not going anywhere. That’s another part of economic development—making it so they want to live here, making sure that they want to move to Moosomin and take the residency program here.
“So that is very important for our residents and for the area. A CT scanner will be a lifesaver, between that and the airport working hand in hand in order to diagnose people with strokes.”
Second ice surface
Gray also spoke briefly about plans for a second ice surface in Moosomin. He said while the second ice surface is not a town of Moosomin initiative, and would not be funded by the town of Moosomin, if it comes to fruition, it would be operated by the town.
“There’s a group of individuals working on a project that would add a second ice surface, without any public or municipal money being put into it. So they have come to us and said, ‘we see a need.’ They’re working on a plan for getting it built, and at that point in time, then the town of Moosomin would just operate it.
“There’s maybe some concern out there for taxpayers, but believe me, the town of Moosomin has a lot of infrastructure and important projects that we need to do, and building a rink, we couldn’t put that ahead of all the other things we need for sewer and water and all those other things. And this group of individuals sees that and is taking the bull by the horns and bringing forth a plan that I hope will happen fairly quickly.
“They have some great ideas, and we’re listening, because sports and the economic development spin off with hotels and restaurants, the people that come to our facilities and the ball diamonds and the rink, is huge as well. Literally thousands of people come into the community for sports every month. So that’s a great idea that they’re working on. But I do want to assure you that that’s where it sits in our priorities. We love the idea, but if we can’t get the sewer out to the lagoon, and we can’t get water to every home, then that a second rink is of no value.”
Alyssa Jeannot with Jeannot Electric was at the meeting and told Chamber members that Moosomin is actually turning down hosting sporting events due to the lack of a second ice surface.
“The rink we have now is kind of kneecapping us in some ways for putting bids in for bigger events,” she said. “Because if you look at the playoff tournaments for female hockey and some of these other male hockey tournaments, you need two rinks within earshot of each other to even bid on them. So a lot of our teams, like our female teams, are traveling to Swift Current or Estevan for these tournaments that we’d love to host, but we can’t.”
Regional co-operation
Gray also spoke about the formation of Gateway Economic Development.
“The regional aspect, or Gateway as we are now called, is very exciting. We know from the provincial government and the federal government that if we’re working together, we have a greater chance of having involvement from both levels of government. And I think we all have to realize that—you know, hockey rivalries from 30 years ago need to be put to bed. We need to work together in order to succeed. And we are, and as community leaders, when we do that, only good things can come from it. So that is really exciting.”
Questions on highway bypass, census
There were some questions from the floor about the Ministry of Highways exploring different plans for a Trans-Canada Highway bypass around Moosomin, and also about the town’s push to ensure everyone is counted in the 2026 census after Stats Canada adjusted Moosomin’s census numbers after the last census due to them not being accurate.
One person said they were concerned any bypass around Moosomin would be harmful to the local economy, and both Gray and Moosomin-Montmartre MLA Kevin Weedmark, who was at the meeting, said they agreed.
“Those proposals had come out from people within the Ministry of Highways, and they were floated, and none were well accepted by the local municipalities or anyone else,” said Weedmark. I spoke with the highways minister and let him know what local opinion was, and his comment was that if Moosomin doesn’t want it, it’s not happening. End of the story.”
Weedmark said that uncertainty around highway development has had a negative effect on business in Moosomin in the past, and could have the same effect now, which is why he had raised the concern with the minister.
Gray said the town had also spoken to Ministry officials and listed all their concerns with any bypass plans that would see Highway 1 entrances to Moosomin close. He said the conversation had simply started with wanting plans for a truck bypass around the town, and when a highway bypass was floated, the town was extremely concerned.
“The last place they left it is they would still maybe like to secure some land for the future for a truck bypass to go around Moosomin, but not closing any of our accesses and keeping everything this the way that it is right now to get into town. That was our biggest concern with a bypass, is if they closed entrances into town at Highway 1 and they closed entrances into town off Highway 8, that was really going to hurt us in the future, especially if the plans were for 20 years down the road, and nobody wanted to invest due to the uncertainty.
“And so they listened to us. We were loud and clear about it. We won’t stand for that. The safety concern of semis down Main Street was how the conversation started, and the safety concern at our intersections on Highway 1. But safety was the only aspect of it that we wanted to address.”
There was also a question about filling out the census, with one person pointing out that it’s mandatory to fill out your census, and wondering what happened last time.
Gray said, since stories on the census have come out in the paper, he has been contacted by people around Saskatchewan who worked on the last census informing him of a number of issues with the last census, including an online component creating a lot of confusion and some issues, and doing the census coming out of Covid with safety concerns around Covid causing some issues.
He said they expect a smoother process this time and more effort on ensuring everyone is counted, with the town ensuring everyone gets the help they need to make sure they are included.
