The following notes represent a consolidated record of all group discussions held in Gladstone on February 17, 2006. The final Creating Opportunities report reflects the input received at this and other consultations held throughout Manitoba.

Opportunities | Supports | Entrepreneurship

OPPORTUNITIES

A number of value-added opportunities exist in Manitoba.

What opportunities exist for value-added business in this area?

• Ideas generated by young people.

• A youth room/centre

• Energy efficient buildings

• Tourism, including Big Grass Marsh, Riding Mountain National Park and Lake Manitoba.

• Cooperation between tourism, hunting, birdwatching, guiding and bed & breakfast enterprises, toward a common goal.

• Promotion of ecotourism at Big Grass Marsh, Delta Marsh and Spruce Woods Provincial Park – market the natural scenic beauty to appreciative urban dwellers.

• Camping and cottage development, especially along Lake Manitoba.

• Promotion of wildlife and agri-tourism to U.S.A.

• Outfitters and bed & breakfasts that accommodate American hunters.

• Holistic management

• Windmills on Lake Manitoba or Big Grass Marsh.

• Small dams, possibly for the benefit of the potato industry.

• Attraction of people to water resources.

• Affordable housing

• Apartment blocks

• Security in small communities

• Energy money (fuel, fertilizer, etc)

• Sustainable agriculture initiatives

• Alternative and renewable energy sources, including ethanol, bio-diesel and hydrogen fuel.

• Pasture Co-op (Big Grass Grazer Co-op Inc. in agreement with the RM of Lakeview).

• Custom grazing

• Forage production

• Partnerships between grain and beef farmers.

• Trucking industry

• Organic and natural foods.

• Bread baking

• Branding of locally produced products.

• Expansion of existing feedlots and manufacturing facilities.

• Meat processing facilities

• Carcass disposal (composting, anaerobic digestion)

• Co-operation with other communities and the province.

• Promoting support for existing local businesses.

• Promoting community to larger centres.

• Promotion of rural lifestyle

• New use for Westbourne School Building and other school buildings that close in the future.

• English emersion program for mature foreign students, perhaps using old school buildings.

• Agricultural education and mentorship programs for youth.

• Packaging industry, making use of two railway lines (for such products as forage seed, dehydrated vegetables, bulk products).

• Manufacturing

• Local centre to collect information and promote the community.

• Bring people with common problems, interests and solutions together, as a catalyst.

• Develop community leaders

• Expansion of highspeed Internet access.

What is preventing the area from taking advantage of these opportunities?

• Educated and skilled young persons are leaving the province and moving to places such as the oil fields, creating the need for subsidies aimed at encouraging young people to stay.

• Lack of business clusters that would be created if young people remained in the community.

• Older people who are not prepared to assume financial risk.

• Vulnerable communities

• Negative attitudes, due in part to past experiences - need for a bright vision of the future.

• Fear of change

• Lack of leadership

• Lack of entrepreneurial spirit

• Lack of capital within community, and difficulty attracting venture capital.

• Need for equity financing, such as a rural RRSP.

• Lack of awareness of, and investor confidence in, community economic development tax credit.

• Money leaving the community as people retire and inheritances pass to people in urban areas.

• Lack of local government funds.

• Lack of co-operation

• Lack of communication, sometimes due to cultural differences.

• Organizational structures that create a gap between “initiators” and “operators” – people that build ideas need other people to take over the idea and operate it.

• Lack of population

• Lack of seasonal labour

• Lack of competitive wages

• Lack of youth education and apprenticeship programs.

• Lack of business management training programs.

• Lack of affordable housing

• Difficulties maintaining present health facilities, services and businesses.

• Lack of jobs and services in smaller communities, due in part to centralization of government agricultural jobs, and resulting disconnection between government employees and agricultural industry.

• Fear of doing things differently.

• Government programs that target the wrong demographics.

• Lack of co-operation between farmers and farm organizations.

• Need for more creative and imaginative municipal policies.

• Lack of vocational programs in rural areas.

• Lack of support for local businesses, residents buying “out of town.”

• Although there is a recognition of the need for some regulations, government regulations (especially under Environment, and Fisheries and Oceans) create stumbling blocks that discourage value-added initiatives, by creating too much red tape or intervention:

  • Regulations that act as “legislation,” not “mediation.”

  • Regulations that are carried too far.

  • Discouraging entrepreneurial spirit

  • Taking too long to resolve problems.

  • Requiring environmental studies

  • Liability regulations that hinder volunteer services, such as by requiring costly (time and expenses) training.

  • Regulations that hinder the provision of services, such as requiring an ambulance to take a patient from a carehome to a hospital for an appointment rather than using the Handi-Van.

• Marketing boards that squeeze out small producers.

• Opportunities at Big Grass Marsh are hindered by infrastructure (roads), need for an “action” group to push the issue forward, and the need for it to be made a priority.

• Lack, or poor maintenance, of infrastructure, including water, highspeed Internet and roads.

• Affordability of water treatment for small communities.

• Removal of rail lines, preventing future development opportunities.

• Lack of access to modern communication tools required by progressive agricultural businesses.

• Political control of rights affect initiatives such as hydrogen power generation.

• Large industries are restricted by availability of water and wastewater infrastructure.

• “Big” may not be the answer for industries such as meat processing, but federal and provincial inspection criteria is cost prohibitive for smaller operations.

• High freight costs

SUPPORTS

Communities, industry and government can support value-added development in a number of ways.

What can the community and industry do to promote and to support the development of value-added opportunities?

• Financial services need to work with entrepreneurs.

• Provide business management training.

• Provide mentoring for youth

• Encourage positive attitudes, community promotion and community pride.

• Communities need to adapt to people’s needs.

• Increase rural policing to help maintain image of a safe community.

• Enforce penalties for vandalism in the community and promote more effective justice system.

• People and communities need to support local businesses – economically, financially and emotionally.

• Encourage seniors to provide financial support for good ideas and projects, or to provide volunteer time.

• Locate outside sources of funding and support, especially from all three levels of government.

• Industry should lobby provincial and federal government for incentives to locate in rural communities, because local governments have limited funds for such programs.

• Provide tax breaks for new businesses for a short period of time.

• Provide industry and trade mentorship.

• Provide incentives such as tax breaks to industry that encourage apprenticeships.

• Local governments need to:

  • Be open minded

  • Listen to ideas

  • Improve infrastructure

  • Creative an attractive infrastructure

  • Encourage investment, through initiatives such as offering building lots for $1.

  • Collaborate with neighbouring municipalities, to accomplish tasks that they could not manage by themselves.

  • Participate in Planning Districts

  • Hire Development Officers

  • Adopt a regional focus

  • Develop a power magazine/explosives warehouse.

  • Participate in tax sharing agreements.

  • Consider municipal amalgamations

Which government activities would be the most effective in supporting value-added development?

• Provide single access point for access to government information.

• Streamline the process of business development, making sure money gets to small business.

• Focus on creating support structures, not red tape.

• Make programs “more inclusive – less exclusive.”

• Increase accessibility of government by placing government representative in the community to address questions and concerns, explain government regulations and promote better understanding of problems.

• Government departments need to improve inter-departmental communication regarding programs and policies that affect rural Manitoba.

• Government loan guarantees

• Increase awareness of programs.

• Government support to farm industry must be more clearly defined.

• Teach people to WOTB (work on the business), not WITB (work in the business).

• Business mentorship programs

• Business planning programs

• Schools should promote careers in rural Manitoba.

• Support for young farmers

• Farm production must be profitable.

• Government should commit to financing agriculture and affordable food policy.

• Government should work to put farmers on a level playing field with farmers in other countries that are subsidized.

• Programs that attract new people to the community.

• Continued construction and maintenance of infrastructure, including highways and internet.

• Construct new highway connecting PTH #10 with PTH #13.

• Broaden government infrastructure policy, and support roads, rural water systems and highspeed Internet.

• Use of the gas tax to fix provincial roads.

• Support value-added research by funding feasibility studies, making existing research data more accessible, communicating research to the public and funding more research positions.

• Avoid “reinventing the wheel” – use and learn from past projects.

• Decreasing government involvement in Regional Health Authorities.

• Consider alternatives to expensive federal inspectors.

• Reform the Canadian Wheat Board to give producers more flexibility with their product, create opportunities for producers to capture more wealth, encourage export of processed wheat products.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship drives value-added development and innovation.

What specific efforts or programs are currently being pursued in this region to support entrepreneurial development?

• School programs

• Producer organizations, such as Benchland in Gladstone.

• Internet service

• Community Development Corporation (CDC)

• Regional development corporation (RDC)

• Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC)

• Rural Chambers of Commerce, such as the Gladstone Chamber which has initiated a Youth Mentoring Program with youth and local businesses.

• Support for local economic development officers and committees, through the Community Works Loan Program and commitment from local government.

• REDI – capital loans

• Research funding from ARDI and MRAC.

• Conservation districts

• Community foundations

• Promotion of “one-stop shopping” for government services.

• Tax sharing agreements between municipalities.

• Small business loans

• Industrial parks

• Big Grass Grazer Co-op.

• Credit unions

• Infrastructure such as rural water lines support entrepreneurship.

• Young Entrepreneur Program (YEP), which needs expanded and modified eligibility criteria and a more rural focus.

• Junior Achievement Program is a good fit with mentoring program.

• Ag in the Classroom provides agricultural promotion in the school curriculum, but is underused.

• Work experience program

• Career days

• “Take your kid to work” Day

• Relocation incentives that provide tax breaks for business and residential development.

• Groups attracting professionals to communities.

How can entrepreneurial development be supported better?

• Education, including mentoring programs and programs delivered through training facilities.

• Highschool credits for students serving their community, volunteering and participating in community organizations such 4-H or the fire department.

• Highschool trades apprenticeship programs, coupled with financial incentives for mentors.

• School teaching business management skills.

• Change in attitude

• More “risk-takers” in community and government.

• Businesses supporting other businesses

• Focus on positives

• Increase access to seed capital, possibly through non-traditional methods that avoid banks, or by changing investment regulations.

• Encourage community lending programs that consider how an idea will benefit the community.

• Provide management training for entrepreneurs, including courses on human resources, options trading and foreign currency.

• Chambers of Commerce can provide formal support programs that offer practical experience and advice, and inform people of available resources.

• Local economic development success stories, especially those relating to youth, can be promoted.

• Need to sell community through advertising.

• Informational videos can be used as a tool for accessing and sharing information.

• Community newspapers and newsletters, and access television, are a valuable community resource – some newsletters are supported by a federal grant that covers postage expenses.

• Communities need a community meeting centre.

• Culture and sport activities are supported by lottery funds – there is a need to positively promote what is being done with this funding, and to access a bigger share of the funding.

• Networking between economic development “players” need to be encouraged – MAFRI needs to work with Economic Development Officers, and Association of Manitoba Municipalities needs to promote programs to councillors.

• Reducing government interference, by removing or reforming regulations.

• One-stop sources of information, physically and by phone.

• Providing an attractive infrastructure at the municipal level.

• Municipal amalgamation to streamline services.

• Single desk selling