Community Futures Sagehill

Sagehill Community Futures Development Corporation Staff
Every business is important. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in our region and we’re pleased to provide answers to your questions, to lend a compassionate ear, to listen and to support you on your journey to small business success. Our staff has more than 50 years of experience working with small business owners and look forward to speaking with you about your business idea. We can help! Call us.

Susan Wehage, Chief Executive Officer

Jenny Glessman, Office Coordinator

Holly Marshak, Business Development Officer

Our History/Our Volunteers

In 1984 the federal government made a decision to close several stations located along what was known as the Northern Pine Tree Line. For our region that meant that the Canadian Forces Station Dana would close. That closure meant an immediate loss of 400 people in the region, 42 civilian jobs and millions of dollars that would no longer be spent in our local economy.

The communities most affected included Bruno, Cudworth, Prud’homme, Vonda, Meacham, Colonsay, Viscount and Wakaw.  In an attempt to counteract the negative impact on the local economy of the closure of CFS Dana the federal government invited the local communities to use a programming tool called a Labor Market Adjustment Strategy. 

Representatives from the Towns of Bruno, Cudworth, Colonsay, Vonda and Wakaw as well as the Villages of Prud’homme, Viscount and Meacham joined the Rural Municipalities of Bayne, Hoodoo, Grant, Colonsay, and Fish Creek to begin a planning process to address the closure of CFS Dana, described by most as a ‘catastrophic’ event.

 The members of the original formational committee included:

Through the 12 months that followed, our local municipal representatives completed a study to determine what strategies might be best implemented to ensure that the local economy could stay strong after the closure of CFS Dana. One of the strategies was to make application for Community Futures status.  This program was administered by Employment & Immigration and provided funding to regions that met certain stringent requirements one of which was that they were experiencing a traumatic labor market event and consequently had an unemployment rate higher than the provincial average.  

At the time only 1 region in Saskatchewan had been accepted into the Community Futures Program - the area around Broadview.  Our local committee arranged to have a community person from the Broadview region talk with us about the benefits of the program.  On the strength of that presentation and the ideas raised in the study our local municipal representatives made application for Community Futures status.

The name 'Sagehill' was chosen for our 

 Committee to honor the important 

contribution CFS Dana made to the region.

The Sagehill region was awarded Community Futures status in 1985.

Being awarded Community Futures status meant the municipal members of the Sagehill Community Futures Committee were permitted to source specific government contributions that would provide the seed money to start making their plans to encourage positive communtiy development.  The municipal representatives, of the day, dedicated countless personal unpaid hours to the job at hand knowing they had been given an incredible opportunity to make a difference.

There were two major outcomes of the Sagehill Community Futures Committee work:

1. to engage positive community development strategies to assit local municipalities to help grow our communities, and
   
   
2. to establish a business development center.
   
   

The members of the committee felt that historically our region was very entrepreneurial and given some additional tools would rise to new opportunity.  The business development center was a component of the Community Futures Program that if established would be able to provide financing, counseling and training for potential as well as existing business owners. 

The members of the Sagehill Community Futures Committee were successful in their bid to create a Business Development Center and the doors opened, December 13, 1989 with a staff of two.

Between 1989 and 1994 two boards operated.  One was the Sagehill Community Futures Committee (18 boards members) while a second board managed the Sagehill Business Development Center (7 Members). 

 The members of the Sagehill Community Futures Committee included:

  The members of the Sagehill Business Development Center board included:

The Directors for both Boards were appointed by the 13 municipal members. Through those four years the Boards realized that their paths were crossing continuously.  The two Boards met several times to determine whether the current structure was appropriate to move forward and to utilize the resources we had in the best possible manner. They also considered a number of requests they had from neighboring municipalities to join the region. 

1994 was a significant year for Sagehill.

In 1994 the Boards were amalgamated into one organization called the Sagehill Development Corporation. The mandate of the amalgamated corporate was to encourage positive community and business development. 

In 1994 an inaugural 7 person Board was selected by the 13 municipal members to lead the Sagehill Development Corporation.

 In 1994 that inaugural board made two fundamental structural changes to the Corporation:

1. Individuals would no longer be appointed but elected to the Board from a membership base and that those individuals would serve two-year terms that could only be repeated once. Later modified to a max of three two-year terms.
2. They adopted a modified ‘Carver’ model of governance. In its simplest form that model of governance subscribes to the philosophy that members of the board should focus on the bigger picture rather than the day-to-day operations of the organization. They created the Chief Executive Officer position for the Corporation so that individual could manage the day-to-day.

In 1994, the Sagehill region

expanded from the original 13

municipalities to 72.  The expanded region

created in 1994 remains the same today.

                One other significant

development in 1994 was that the

federal government made a decision to

change the responsibility for the

Community Futures Program from

Employment & Immigration to the

regional agencies.  The regional agency charged with responsibilities for the western provinces is Western Economic Diversification.

 Many years have passed since that first meeting in the Officer’s Mess at CFS Dana. And certainly programs, services, and circumstances have changed as well. What has remained constant is that Sagehill has been extremely well served by each of the volunteers who committed their time and energy.  Each of them has a special spot in their heart for that place we call home. It matters little how big or how small our communities are when we make a decision to volunteer.  And when others ask us why we would go to all that trouble most of us would answer “because it’s my home”.

The Sagehill region is large and it is diverse. And while each corner of our region is different, one from the other, we all share that sense of ‘place’ that we call home.  For each of the Members of the Sagehill Board it is what’s important.  We all have a duty to be good stewards; to take responsibility for creating appropriate and effective programs and services that provide the people of our region with the critical tools and support they require to achieve their dreams.  We help nurture and grow communities by working to develop local and lasting solutions.  

The men and women who volunteer their time, their experience and their energy to Sagehill Community Futures Development Corporation by serving as members of the Board occupy a very special position within the Corporation.  They have a unique challenge to lead, to counsel and to serve.  Those good folks include: