Four Communities Get Economic Development Cash

Four Communities Get Economic Development Cash

Thursday, January 07, 2010 at 12:13

Four northern Saskatchewan communities affected by problems in the forestry industry are getting a hand with reviving their local economies.

The Peter Ballantyne and Flying Dust First Nations, the Town of Nipawin, and the Sakitawak Development Corporation out of Ile-a-la-Crosse, have each been allocated a hundred thousand dollars to draw up economic plans and carry out business feasibility studies.

All four have been affected by the global economic downturn in forestry, which resulted in the closure or scaling down of lumber mills and operations that the communities depended on.

The Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation plans to develop a feasibility study on producing value-added wood waste materials, while the other recipients will draw up economic development plans, aimed at diversifying their economies.

The money is coming from the federal government’s billion-dollar Community Development Trust Fund, which was set up to help communities hurt by what the government calls “global financial and commodity market disruptions.”