By Derek Cornet

Business restoration key to disaster recovery: Economic Developer

Mar 7, 2018 | 7:00 AM

Leaders from across northern Saskatchewan gathered in La Ronge last week to better prepare themselves for when a disaster strikes their community.

The two-day workshop was facilitated by Economic Developers of Alberta CEO Leann Hackman-Carty, and included northern representatives from places like Buffalo Narrows, Deschambault Lake, La Ronge and Sandy Bay. Senior Policy Analyst Jim Andrews, with the Ministry of Government Relations, also attended.

“I was there to listen to what the presentation was about and how it might relate to our emergency preparedness plan in the North,” Andrews said. “It was like giving individuals the tools to prepare for disasters or emergencies.”

One major theme of the workshop was the importance of ensuring local businesses are operational as soon as a crisis is over. Andrews said it’s a vital point to focus on, because not only could companies lose inventory and infrastructure, but local people also can’t work which means they’re not earning any money.

When a wildfire forced residents to evacuate the tri-communities in 2015, Andrews said many of them lost at least three weeks of wages. He was tasked by the Ministry of Economy to submit a weekly report about the state of local businesses and how quickly the were reopening. The reports were meant to provide information just in case the provincial government needed to come to La Ronge and support the economy, Andrews said.

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“Some could have used more assistance financially, but we didn’t have any businesses that were lost,” he said.

The workshop was the first of it’s kind for Saskatchewan, Hackman-Carty said. She said the content came from the International Economic Development Council in the United States, and it was customized for the Canadian market in the past year.

Hackman-Carty said the training covered community economic resilience, the stages of a disaster, the federal government and their role before and after, how to provide business assistance, creative financing and more. When an emergency does occur, she said many leaders don’t know what to do after first responders leave.

“Most communities think it will never happen to them, and then when it does they’re not prepared,” Hackman-Carty said. “If you don’t get your businesses up and operating very quickly, there’s a potential for long-term problems. People will leave the community and businesses will go under. The problems become magnified.”

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno