The fall season will be a busy one for Christina Birch, Community Futures (CF) Sunrise’s newest staff member. Birch, who recently took on the position of Regional Economic Development Coordinator for CF Sunrise, has embarked on a big project…gathering input from business owners, municipal leaders and other stakeholders to identify what the opportunities and challenges for business development in the region are. From this feedback, a regional business development plan and targeted business supports will be put in place to address the needs of the business community.
“I will be spending the next couple of months speaking with businesses, municipalities, economic development professionals, Chambers of Commerce, lending institutions and other stakeholders throughout the region,” said Birch. “We will be creating a regional business development plan based on the feedback we receive, so we encourage all of our stakeholders to take a few minutes to participate. Whether you own or run a business, are the administrator for a municipality, or work with the business community on a regular basis, we want to hear from you.”
The Business Survey is public and will be open October 7th. It can be found on the CF Sunrise website: www.cfsask.ca/sunrise. When contacting municipal offices, Birch plans to connect with them directly through email, telephone or a personal visit. “We want to make sure that everyone who wants to provide feedback has an opportunity to do so. I am looking forward to visiting businesses and communities throughout southeast Saskatchewan and listening to what they have to say,” comments Birch.
Birch’s position was made possible through funding from the Canada Coal Transition Initiative.
If you would like more information on this initiative or would like to provide input, please contact Christina at (306) 842-1767.