Ogema, Saskatchewan – “It’s Working in Ogema!”
Ogema is an appealing small town located 125 km south of Regina and 80 km east of Weyburn and 80 km west of Assiniboia on Highway 13 in southern Saskatchewan. This community has been built by people who care about each other and also about the development of their community. It is this dedication that has made Ogema the success it is and it will contribute to a progressive future.
Ogema is a full service community and has an excellent cross-section of businesses which expands the trading area to an 80 km radius. Ogema also offers a full range of cultural and recreational facilities. The primary business for the area is agriculture. Ogema is located on the Red Coat Road and Rail line and has the largest grain handling facility on the short line. The Ogema Elevator is a farmer owned commercial enterprise which cleans seed for planting and shipping, and a storage facility and loader of rail producer cars. North of Ogema, Big Sky Farms Inc. has and intensive livestock operation which was the first 5,000 sow, farrow to finish operation in Canada. They also operate a feed mill to mix the feed for the swine in the nine barns.
OGEMA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEESTRATEGIC PLAN
Purpose of Plan
The EDC felt that it was the time when we wanted to have the whole community involved with the direction that we were headed. We didn’t want our slogan to be, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will do” We wanted to focus our efforts and have the community involved with the projects and keep them informed.
Planning Process
In November, 2002 we had a consultant, Dwight Percy come to our community and had representatives from the community forge a community strategic plan. We had to limit the amount of people in attendance but got a cross section from the youth to the seniors and included the majority of the organizations in the community. After the strategic plan was formulated, we held a community meeting and had Al Scholz as the guest speaker, followed by Wayne Myren, President of Ogema EDC speak to the Strategic Plan. Again we had to limit the amount of people in attendance to the supper and informational meeting because of the hall size. Over 100 people attended and were equally interested in both speeches.
Project Identification
We identified five overall goals for Ogema and Region.
- To attract additional business activity.
- To retain and expand services.
- To enhance positive community involvement.
- Options/Strategies to attract capital.
- Expansion of Economic Development priorities to other communities where there is mutual gain.
Progress to Date:
Under the heading to attract additional business activity we listed “Motel”. Although we already had a Hotel in Ogema it wasn’t large enough to fulfill the need that kept arising. We would get different crews come to town, only to have to turn them away because there weren’t enough rooms and we would be filling the rooms in adjacent towns for them. In March, 2005 we decided that now was the time to go ahead with this project. Our Home Coming celebration was in July and there were many people coming home as well as the crews that were working in the area. The funding for the motel was rather unique for our community in that it was bought with 40 shares which could also be self-directed RRSP’s. The Board members and volunteers worked to have the Ogema Motel open on July 1, 2005. It was full for most of the summer and is showing a profit for last year. We have had good response from this project, from local people as well as the patrons of the motel.
High Speed Internet was becoming more and more important and three members of the EDC lobbied the Provincial Government for three years before we were able to get High Speed Internet in November, 2005. This was a great accomplishment because without High Speed Internet, we were on an unleveled playing field as both neighbouring towns had High Speed.
In 2004, Ogema won the Provincial Communities in Bloom award for the 1-500 population category. This was the first year that we had participated in the competition and the whole community pulled together to win this award. In November 2004, another community meeting was held to explain to the community where we had excelled and where improvements could be made. The community was also asked the question “ We have been invited to participate in the Canadian Communities in Bloom Competition in 2005. Do we enter this competition?” Everyone agreed whole heartedly and so Ogema was in the Canadian Competition in the 1-1000 Category. Ogema didn’t win their population category but they did win the new category “Best Sustainable Development” throughout all of Canada. This caused great excitement for our Community because we were the smallest population (320) in all the communities that participated in the Communities in Bloom.
In May 2005, Ogema was invited to be part of a documentary called, “Resurrection” along with Leroy and Shaunavon. It spoke about successful economic development in these communities and how they addressed the problems and are trying to keep their communities from fading away.
Big Sky Farms has decided to build another set of hog barns in our area and preliminary GeoTech and Enviro studies have begun for this project.
With another set of barns in the works, we are looking at immigration for our community. With the first set of barns north of town, jobs were filled from not only the Ogema District but by a 30 km radius. With the next set up barns coming to the area, we will have to address the job issue by looking outside our area and are looking at immigration to help with this concern.
Six to eight new jobs have resulted from the Saskatchewan Grain Car Coalition designating Ogema as one of the five hopper car upgrading centres in the Province. There is the possibility of even more jobs if the project continues to expand. On a proportionate basis, this is the equivalent of a 4,000 person plant locating in cities like Regina or Saskatoon.
The Train Station Project is continuing as the money is found to renovate and refurnish the relocated Train Station back to its original glory. As of January, 2006 the main part of the renovating is completed with the finishing to be done this summer. The Transportation Division of the Deep South Pioneer Museum is looking into a train tour on the Red Coat Road & Rail which would include the seven working elevators along the line as well as our train station. This would envelope the communities along the rail line and be a regional initiative.
Ogema has held a Trade Show in 1993, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2004 and on April 21 &22, 2006 Ogema will be hosting their sixth successful Trade Show. This involves a tremendous amount of volunteer support from the community.
The mayor has been asked to speak at many different conventions and different communities as they try to understand what has to be done to save their communities and are eager to hear how Ogema has accomplished their success stories.
The EDC are looking into hiring an Economic Development Officer for the Community. A job profile is being gathered and they are looking at what works for other communities.
Throughout all the meetings that the EDC held, we would always go back to the Strategic Plan and make sure that we were still on track In November, 2005 we reviewed the Strategic Plan and we identified strategies and projects, prioritized our projects and their champions and also added a new time line to each project. These will be revisited at each meeting and adjusted as necessary.
Message from the Mayor….
When asked about his philosophy, when he won the Saskatchewan Economic Developers Association Volunteer of the year award in 2005, Mayor Wayne Myren replied;
“I think volunteers demonstrate the values that individuals in many communities have. These individuals are the threads that knit the community together.
I enjoy the challenge of helping to build our community into a productive and more thoughtful environment in which to live.
Contrary to the popular belief that rural Saskatchewan is dying, I am committed to protect this great way of life and the values that it demonstrates. Like our forefathers, sacrifices have to be made to protect this great way of life.
I also believe that the volunteer work efforts are a great tool with which to teach our children unselfish values. I personally enjoy the sense of accomplishment and community spirit which it creates.”
