Northern Manitoba’s only Crown Corporation is hoping to help business in Flin Flon.
The Communities Economic Development Fund (CEDF) discussed its annual report in a meeting with business leaders and media on Nov. 20, pointing out ways the fund aims to aid northern commerce.
This year’s report details a rough fiscal year for the north, with announcements of major job cuts and ownership changes for each of the region’s four largest cities.
“The 2016-17 years saw some significant economic bad news in the north, especially in the main urban centers of Thompson, The Pas, Flin Flon and Churchill,” reads the report.
“Many of these communities saw their long term large employers affected due to ongoing struggles in the primary resource based industries such as mining and forestry. This has resulted in a lower investor confidence that impacts demand for capital.”
Since 1992, more than $30 million in loans have been given to businesses in the four communities mentioned, including $1,724,587.02 for Flin Flon in that time frame.
The two main ways CEDF offers support to northern communities are through business loans and fish loans – the group estimates it has more provided more than $87 million in loans to northern Manitoba-based fishing companies since 1993.
Most commercial fishing operations near Flin Flon are located in Saskatchewan. While CEDF CEO Oswald Sawh said the group would be open to providing funding for Saskatchewan-based fisheries near Flin Flon, funding through the group is not currently available.
“Being in a border town is a tricky place to be. The people aren’t necessarily affected by your group. They do exist – right next door,” said Dianne Russell, past-president of the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce.
“Unless we got our two provincial governments to realize that we have a special case, I don’t know if we’d ever have that. I think it’s a project that we would like to do.”
“We said we’d have no problems, as long as the government tells us we could do it. They haven’t been told that we could do that,” said Sawh.
“It’s something that we’d be willing to look at, too.”
Since fish loans would have a negligible effect on Flin Flon, the priority for the group will be to make loans available for locally-based small businesses.
“Lots of times, when communities talk about economic development, one of the things that always gets discussed is, ‘What business can you bring in? What factories can you start up?’” said Sawh.
“The stats show that over 90 per cent of economic activity doesn’t come from the businesses that come into the community. Most of the impact comes from the existing businesses and individuals in the community that want to start a business.”
Sawh said that the positive effects for small business are “vastly huge, compared to chasing after smokestacks.”
Attendees also asked how CEDF could make loans more accessible to Flin Flon business owners.
“Unless you’re in the right circle, it’s hard to know that these things exist,” said Russell.
