CUTTING LOOSE
Swift Current turns the corner
by Doug Howorko
January, 2005

Swift Current lies in the heart of Saskatchewan’s great southwest. Home to just over 16,000 residents, it serves a regional population of 55,000. Fully six million people live within a 500-mile radius of the city. Traditionally, the Swift Current economy has been driven by the agriculture industry: cereal and specialty crops, and livestock. Oil and gas exploration and recovery also provide significant economic spin-off.

Yet 25 years ago Swift Current stopped growing. Our neighbour and one-time junior, Medicine Hat in Alberta, overtook us (it now boasts 55,000 people). Swift Current, the “Frontier City,” was starting to look more like a pit stop on the Trans-Canada.

What happened here? Why did we grow only so far and then stop? Certainly, you can point to external factors. The agriculture sector went into a prolonged down swing. Job opportunities in the energy sector have been cyclical. Manufacturing and diversification stalled.

But in my view, most of our difficulties were on the inside. We had become a community that was stubborn, sleepy, and stuck.

We stubbornly denied that the stagnation of our population and lack of business development was a problem. We did not understand our real market and development opportunities, and instead fancied that the attraction of international corporate investment was our key strategy for growth. Personifying this attitude was a group we called the “CAVE men” (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) whose negative assessment of local innovation carried a lot of weight in local circles.

We were sleepy. There was no common vision of what the city should become. Our expressed community development goals were uninspiring - investments in roads, sidewalks, and park maintenance. Businesses had lost their enterprise mentality; they were unwilling to challenge themselves with higher standards for success.

Finally, we were stuck. A fear of failure prevented us from considering innovative or alternative development opportunities. Well-meaning municipal and civic leaders and economic development practitioners were busy, rowing hard and fast; but were not rowing in unison and had a very modest idea of what could be accomplished.

Business Not As Usual

Yet here Swift Current is at the end of 2004, winning awards for innovative economic performance. We’re No. 1 among small Canadian cities in creating small business (Bank of Montreal, 2003). We received the “Home Based Business Friendly Community Award” (Toronto, 2003), the “Outstanding Economic Development Achievement of the Year” (Economic Developers Association of Canada, 2004), and “Economic Development Initiative of the Year” (Saskatchewan Economic Developers Association, 2004). Swift Current’s dramatic progress was also recognized by Business Retention and Expansion International (BREI) last May in Halifax.

How did we come to see the rut we were in, and then start to climb out of it?

It was about three years ago that the light bulb went on. Many residents understood that our population and economic base had not grown for over 25 years. Some understood how stagnation put the investments of every resident at risk, not just those of business owners. If the private sector actually began to shrink, people would seek employment elsewhere or relocate all together. This exodus would reduce the value of every home in the community.

What people needed to learn was conventional ideas of business development were no solution to the problem. If we kept doing what we had been doing we would keep getting what we had been getting: an underdeveloped wealth-generating sector, growing dependency on outside investors, and a population tilting into decline.

In January 2002 community leaders from the city and surrounding rural municipality decided Swift Current should focus on creating an environment where our existing private sector could survive and thrive in the new economy which involved: the removal of trade barriers, border closures, deregulation, hot competition and the globalization of markets. They formed Action Swift Current, a substratum of community leaders who, equipped with new information, have moved business owners and business development organizations from holding and controlling information, to sharing it; from a dependence on experts, to a commitment to building the capacity of local citizens; and from a uni-dimensional notion of community revitalization, to a multi-dimensional one.

What Action Swift Current implemented was a project management tool called Business Retention and Expansion. The BR&E philosophy is that if your community has a healthy growing business base, investment attraction and new entrepreneurs will follow on their own accord. They are actually bi-products of a healthy business climate.
Conventionally, too much emphasis in local economic development is placed on attracting new firms. Local, provincial and federal officials often ignore existing businesses and their problems in the course of going after “bigger fish,” offering more jobs and tax revenue.

Yet communities can achieve a much greater economic impact if they take care of their home-grown businesses:

• Generally, 60%-70% of new jobs originate in existing businesses.
• It is less costly to retain existing businesses and jobs than to attract new ones.
• Programs to attract outside business are more likely to succeed when existing firms are successful and happy.

The churning of business creation, expansion, contraction, and dissolution is a natural part of a local economy. The challenge to Swift Current and other communities is to capture the expansions while taking preventive action to reduce the number of dissolutions and diminish the contractions.

In brief, our focus had to move from attracting investors to building the businesses in our own backyard. And who should spearhead such an approach but the people who know those businesses best - local business owners?

Some might worry that this would lead to more of the same narrow, unimaginative outlook on local development that we had seen in the past. But that has not been the case.

Actually, once business owners were invited to assume the role of economic leader, civic leaders and economic development practitioners were no longer flying solo. People came to have a deeper appreciation of the challenges that businesses face. The general public began to understand that ultimately it is businesses (not government) that undertake the expansions and new initiatives that create jobs, wealth, and community growth.

Viewing one another as teammates rather than opponents, business owners, bureaucrats, and other groups and organizations managed to agree on how the community must grow and to co-ordinate their actions to that end. A true community movement has taken shape around local revitalization.

The BR&E 7-Stage Process

The BR&E program is community-based and volunteer-driven. Local business leaders are its cornerstone. But federal and provincial business service providers, municipal officials, representatives from community and business development organizations, utilities, education and labor also provide guidance and oversight in developing and implementing a framework for improving the local or regional economy.

In addition to retained businesses and jobs, business expansions, and new jobs, BR&E measures success in terms of increased tax assessments, export contracts, import replacement, and increased regional capacity for business and industry development.

Perhaps the most important goal, however, is to build community capacity. BR&E aims to strengthen collaboration between all community leaders, increase understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the business climate, and create better linkages between local leaders and provincial and federal business development support. More and better information is shared, analyzed, and put to work in a planning process on which more players are determined to follow through.

1. Gauging Community Readiness (2-3 months)

Prior to undertaking the BR&E Visitation Program, it was extremely important to determine whether or not the community was ready to commit the time and resources necessary to carry the process through. Gauging community readiness required numerous “back-door” discussions amongst key economic development professionals and community leaders.

Gauging readiness and involvement at this point required more than an endorsement of the initiative but a commitment that BR&E will be made a priority within their organization and preferably some indication of financial and/or in-kind support. Endorsement and commitment was sought from the Chamber of Commerce, City of Swift Current, the Regional Economic Development Authority, Community Futures Development Corporation, Saskatchewan Industry & Resources and the Entrepreneurial Center. These organizations were best suited for the BR&E program implementation because they have the following qualities: community economic development focus, business and strategic economic development mandate, broad based stakeholder group representation, effective use of local volunteers, organizational infrastructure to sponsor BR&E process, and a partnership mind set.

It was this strategic alliance that was able to unify and jointly bring the initiative to the community and become active spokespersons. This collaborative approach showed credibility that enabled recruitment of other community leaders to become participants on the BR&E leadership team and champion the initiative. This strong network of leadership provided the overall coordination in building community readiness. A series of information sessions on the BR&E program were held to create awareness, acceptance and involvement from the business community.

2. Leadership Team Recruitment (2-3 Months)

An ability to co-ordinate and facilitate the entire BR&E process is critical to its success. The selection of the leadership team therefore requires great care. To ensure a multi-dimensional approach was used to growing the community, a wide range of key stakeholders was sought out to ensure breadth and depth of community perspective. These stakeholders included: business owners, city councilors & employees, financial & legal institutions, provincial & federal government agencies, crown corporations, education officials, and other leaders representing (agriculture, oil & gas, manufacturing, tourism, environmental, social & religious groups).

The initial leadership team began making calls & visits to personal connections with the target groups above. They educated people and sold them on the need for such an initiative; and soon had over twenty stakeholders that would participate on the BR&E leadership team and champion the process. The leadership team has changed & evolved over the past few years making way for new leaders to breathe fresh ideas and energy keeping the movement going. There is no shortage of people wanting to get involved and making a difference in their community.

3. Project Planning (2-3 Months)

The Visitation Committee recruited 150 volunteers to survey over 200 willing businesses representing all business sectors including retail, wholesale, service and manufacturing. The committee ensured that a good cross section of business was surveyed to ensure validity of the survey results. About 20% of the total 1,000 eligible businesses were surveyed. The committee helped train volunteers on conducting surveys (how to ask questions and on issues around confidentiality), coordinate the survey visits and set up survey teams to complete the business surveys.

The Media & Milestone Committee established and maintained contact with all the media (radio, television and newspaper) to ensure the communication of ongoing project results was communicated. The committee also arranged event celebrations as various milestones in the BR&E process was achieved. This on going communication, community appreciation acknowledgement and celebration of successes helped build trust in the leadership team & BR&E process, as well as keep project momentum strong.

The Survey Committee developed the overall survey to be used. The committee role modeled a number of other surveys from communities that implemented a BR&E program. These surveys were customized to reflect questions appropriate for the business sectors of Swift Current.

The Red Flag Committee addressed urgent concerns or requests voiced by survey participants that can reasonably be addressed immediately, so that people had the satisfaction of seeing that this long-term process also offers short-term results.

The Finance Committee was responsible for overseeing the financial affairs to implement the BR&E program. The committee put on sponsorship luncheons seeking corporate donations and funds from various federal, provincial and municipal government groups. The committee raised $30,000 dollars to move the initiative forward to pay for costs that could not be contributed in kind. The committee has estimated that over “the last three years a total of $400,000 dollars of in kind coordination, administration, marketing, printing, photocopying, office supplies, etc., has been contributed to the initiative from various community partners. To this date an additional $200,000 has been raised from government funding programs to implement two of the chosen priority projects (community branding and the regional cluster initiative).

4. Business Visits & Follow-Up (3-4 Months)

Working in teams of two, 150 survey volunteers visited 1-4 businesses each. To choose which businesses were to be surveyed an alphabetical list of all registered businesses in the city and surrounding rural municipality was compiled. A random method involving the selection of every third business on the list was used. In the end, 498 businesses were approached, 260 were willing to be surveyed and 200 business surveys/interviews were actually completed.

Two hundred is an impressive number of visits made especially considering the extensive logistics involved in getting teams of volunteers to that many personal visits. The high response is likely due to a variety of reasons, including: (1) the program’s reliance on visitors instead of mailing the survey, (2) the involvement of community leaders which demonstrates the program’s commitment to businesses and action, (3) the promotion of the program in local media sources, and (4) a vigorous sense of urgency by Action Swift Current in mobilizing the community to prepare a brighter future.

The types of firms in the visited sample fell into several categories. In order of decreasing size the largest categories were: retail (27%); other (23%); food and beverage (9%); auto and petroleum (7%); construction and manufacturing (6% each); health services and financial services (5% each); business services and professional services (4% each).

It was a milestone for the community to have engaged in such important dialogue via an interactive survey process. This was the first step to building community capacity in regards to the challenges and opportunities that business sector was facing. Once the survey process was finished, personal letters of acknowledgement and media press releases were sent thanking all the people and organizations that participated. A volunteer appreciation event was also held which involved a celebration barbeque to acknowledge the volunteer surveyors and businesses that cooperated and donated their time and energy in completing the survey.

5. Research Report Review & Prioritizing (5-6 Months)

Michael Darger from the University of Minnesota was contracted to compile the survey data and develop a written report. Michael was chosen because he was very familiar with the BR&E program and had excellent experience in working with other communities in developing a strategic plan. Based on the survey results, a research report with 21 suggested action initiatives to grow the business community were recommended. In addition to local business retention and expansion initiatives, the initiatives involved local housing and health and employment services, regional partnerships, joint marketing and information initiatives – and more information gathering.

On the basis of the research report a publicly advertised research review meeting was held where participants were asked to review the suggested projects from a local perspective, make additions or changes, and finally, rate the projects as to their priority for the business sector. Approximately seventy business & community leaders including representatives from health; education; business; financial; enforcement; federal, provincial and regional governmentsalong with other key community leaders participated in reviewing, discussing and selecting recommended initiatives.

From this meeting, a top ten list of priority initiatives was developed. A project was not considered as a priority project unless at least three people from the community were willing to take responsibility to see that steps are taken to implement it. The people who agreed to lead and work on each project did not need to be experts on the topic and could recruit others to work on the project as well. During the last part of the meeting, each group met to begin planning the implementation of its project.

To date the leadership team has moved on 18 initiatives for action. Some of these initiatives have been completed and others are still a work in progress. None-the-less, progress continues to be made on all initiatives. Initiatives have differed in terms of priority, length of time, volunteer commitment and money required to implement. In the beginning the “low hanging fruit” initiatives that did not require much capital investment were chosen first to complete in order to begin building momentum and excitement.

6. Community Commencement Meeting (2 Months)

The community commencement meeting was organized to celebrate the end of the visitation and strategic planning phase and the beginning of the implementation phase. This was a community-wide event. All of the leadership team members, volunteer visitors, and firms were invited. Other local government, business and community leaders were invited, as well as regional and provincial agency representatives and citizens from the community.

The meeting helped inform the entire community on the survey findings, the chosen top ten priority projects and to recruit other community leaders to get involved and work as a volunteer on a project that they had passion, expertise and interest in seeing come to fruition. At this meeting, approximately 200 people showed up and from this group an additional 50 champions signed up and joined a project team. Later in the process each project committee was eventually set up with at least 10 committed volunteers. The community at large was very receptive to the chosen projects and willing to volunteer.

7. Implementation of Priority Projects (1-3 Years)

Individual project committees proceed individually, each reporting their progress to the leadership team on a monthly basis.

Results to Date

Business Service Retention & Expansion

Swift Current’s downtown has witnessed some dramatic improvement already: an $8 million Credit Union building, two new restaurants, and a $2 million, 20,000 square foot Myers Norris Penny Accounting Firm expansion. A number of independent stores have filled vacant buildings and old buildings have been demolished to make way for the new.

The City has implemented a property tax incentive policy for new and expanding businesses (0% year 1, 0% year 2, 25% year 3, 50% year 4, 100% year 5) proposed by Action Swift Current. Since the tax incentive program came into effect 12 months ago, about 15 businesses have made use of it, resulting in over $20 million of commercial construction. They are expected to create close to 80 new jobs, apart from those in the construction trades.

All City-owned highway commercial properties have recently been sold for commercial development. City Hall has also approved borrowing the largest sum of money in the city’s history to help pay for numerous infrastructure projects. Prominent among these are a $15 million wastewater treatment plant, a $6 million Civic Center expansion, relocation of City Hall, and a skateboard park.

There are also some new information services to advance business development. To help businesses investigate start-up, expansion, and investor opportunities, the Chamber of Commerce, the Southwest Regional Economic Development Authority, Southwest Community Futures, City Hall, the Entrepreneurial Center, and Saskatchewan Industry and Resources have together launched a toll free hotline, the “GROW Line For Business.”

The Southwest Community Tool Box is an on-line cluster of networks to provide people with general information about business start-up and expansion, general health information, and education opportunities in the southwest region. Finally, an Employer Apprenticeship Registry has been established to connect students with employers in the trade sector and reduce the “brain drain” of young people away from Swift Current after high school graduation. The premise of this initiative is to create more student awareness and interest in the trades sector. If the interest and demand for specific trades training increases, the College along with other private institutions are prepared to respond and provide more trades programs.

Housing and Health Services

Action Swift Current, the Doctor Noble Irwin Foundation, Cypress Health Region, rural communities, and the City of Swift Current have been working to see a new hospital built, the Regional Healthcare Center. Construction is slated to begin in March 2005 at an estimated cost of $35 million. With the new hospital, Swift Current can meet the future health requirements of residents of the entire southwest region. This new state of the art hospital will draw professional health care individuals to our community and ensure that health care, being a key to quality of life is available. This will play a key role in ensuring Swift Current remains a great place for future business investment and attraction.

We have also seen a tremendous increase in housing and condominium starts and renovations, including a new $2 million seniors’ residential condominium downtown. Housing prices increased approximately 10% in 2004.

Regional Initiatives/Partnerships

A business network coalition (BNC) has been established in the region, initiated by a broad range of regional leaders. The purpose of the coalition is to work on and support the formation of strategic alliances among small and medium sized businesses and foster a climate in which these networks can grow and flourish. This project will ultimately see the development of four regional business networks involving the key industry sectors of the region: agribusiness, energy, manufacturing and tourism.

A key relationship is emerging between Swift Current, First Nations People, and the Provincial Government. The community has worked with the File Hills Qu’ Appelle Tribal Council and the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority to plan a $23 million entertainment complex involving a casino, hotel, performing arts and convention center. It is projected to create over 200 full-time jobs, $4.8 million annually in local salaries and wages, $1 million in government revenues, and $1.5 million for community development initiatives.

Another project, currently at the pre-feasibility stage, is the Southwest Beef Initiative. SBI is bringing together stakeholders from across the southwest including the Rural Municipality of Swift Current, the City, First Nations, the cattle industry, research and financial institutions, and economic development organizations to explore the development of a beef processing plant that would test 100% of animals processed.

Tourism/Marketing

A committee worked with the City to develop a “brand” to market Swift Current as a place to do business, live, and visit. The community has remolded its image to emphasize what Swift Current has to offer in terms of accessibility, affordability, culture, education, environment, health, recreation, and security.

“Experience This” is a project that is conceived as a way to turn Swift Current into a tourist experience economy by helping business owners get passionate about tourism and lead the way by creating unique and fun visitor experiences. In that vein, a Petroleum Park Interpretive Center is currently at the pre-feasibility stage. It is projected to require $2.5 million for capital construction costs and to attract 40,000 tourists annually.

Next Steps

Action Swift Current has become a true community movement where individuals, businesses and organizations are sharing ownership in the work and resulting successes of building a thriving community. This win-win situation for all involved is what sustains momentum. Action Swift Current is not seen as a short-term project and three years later continues with many active volunteers.

Action Swift Current next steps into the future require:

• Continued coordination of leadership team meetings and project committees.
• Strong leadership from economic development groups, business and the community.
• Community commitment to economic development growth.
• Continued implementation of new and old projects, progress must be attained.
• Continued trust in the BR&E process from the business community.
• A positive community attitude and dedicated volunteer base to champion initiatives.
• Continued budget to cover operational costs, marketing and celebrating successes.

Secrets to Our Success

The Secrets to creating a successful growth oriented community and to keeping the Action Swift Current movement strong and making continuous progress are as follows:

Act Now

Today matters… not next week or next year, but today. Successful communities make important decisions early in their community’s life and then they manage those decisions the rest of the time. If you can take care of today correctly, tomorrow will take care of itself. Remember, it is not where your community starts out, but the decisions that are made about where your community is determined to end up that matter. Once we set the community goal of growth, we immediately began to take action to create momentum. Since then we have not missed a day without taking some action that moves our community towards achieving the goal of growth.

Abandon the Fear of Failure

Often the difference between a successful growing community and a wannabe is not their better abilities or ideas but the courage that they as a community have to bet on their ideas, to take a calculated risk and to act. The greatest mistake community leaders can make is to be afraid of making one. In the past our community leaders had a fallacious premise that if no decision or action is taken, nothing can go wrong. However, let it be known that a step in the wrong direction in moving your community forward is better than staying on the spot. It is in nature that community’s progress by acting, making mistakes and correcting course. In fact, a guided torpedo literally arrives at its target by making a series of mistakes and correcting its course.

We could not correct our community course if we were standing still, so we got moving. We considered the known facts of our community situation; we imagined possible consequences of various courses of action, we harnessed our courage, we choose the action that seemed to offer the best solution, we bet on it and moved forward. Now that our community is moving forward, we can correct its course as it goes.

Role Model Success

We could have learned how to grow our community by one of two ways, either by our own experience or from the experiences of others. We were smart enough to not want to reinvent the wheel and learn different approaches by trial and error of our own experiences. If you want to be very old and very wise, then learn by your own experiences, and we can tell you from experience that is a painful way to learn. We are big believers that success leaves clues. That is, if other communities succeed at growing, it is because they do certain things over and over again.

Some of the best thinking, strategizing, and actions has already been done by other communities. So why reinvent the wheel, all we did was role model their success. Remember, you can always learn something from some community, even if most of the time you are learning what not to do. If you take the same actions and plant the same seeds as other successful communities, you can produce the same quality of results regardless of the state of your community.

Develop Positive Beliefs

Through our research in looking for communities to role model, we began to see that successful communities think more positively and believe they can attain their goals. Unsuccessful communities focus their thinking on surviving (getting by); average communities focus their thinking on maintenance (holding on); and successful communities focus their thinking on progress (how can we grow). Our possibilities expanded with this new unleashed thinking. We soon began to believe that our community could and should grow, and in fact wealth and prosperity is a good thing.

Yes, positive thinking is not everything but it was the difference maker. All things being equal, positive thinking gave us the edge to move forward. The accomplishment of our community goals is attributed to more than a matter of working harder; it is a matter of believing positively. This positive belief has been called the “sure enough” factor. If you expect to succeed “sure enough”, you will; if you expect to fail, “sure enough” you will.

Set Community Goals

The power of goal setting is the fundamental key to all community success plans. Through setting goals our community began to develop a focus, a sense of purpose, and a vision of what it wanted to be. To give relevance to the importance of having community goals, the following example is provided. Communities are built very much like a bicycle in many ways. A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium so long as it is going towards something. A community’s poise and equilibrium are maintained as long as it has goals, something to work for and hope for, something ahead of it, a place to go and move forward. Without goals that the community truly has a keen interest in attaining, it is apt to feel shaky, go around in circles and feel lost.

Success is Gradual

Gradualness is the secret to our community success. Choosing a community goal of growth and taking the necessary actions may cause only a slight change in your community’s direction at first. It’s like one of those huge freighters at sea: If the captain shifts course by just a few degrees, it won’t be noticeable immediately; but in several hours or days, this change in direction will bring the ship to a completely different destination.
Our community now arranges things so it can succeed in little things. Weight lifters start with weights they can lift and gradually increase the weights over a period of time. Good boxing managers start a new boxer off with easy opponents and gradually put them against more experienced fighters. The same goes for communities. Successful growth communities handle small community projects together first to create a positive environment. By doing this we have built an atmosphere of success that carried over into larger undertakings such as green-field projects and invest attraction initiatives.

Celebrate Success

As a community we got in the habit of celebrating our success. We became excited for other people and gave them credit and recognition of performance and contribution. We built on a community character foundation by reporting and showing the community every small success and large accomplishment attained. This was critical, because if you don’t report and show some substance for your efforts made to date, you will eventually lose trust in your business community, and once you lose trust it is almost always never regained.

DOUG HOWORKO is BR&E consultant for Saskatchewan Industry and Resources in Swift Current.