Carol Baldwin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
The second instalment of “Walk”-aw Day was by all accounts, “a huge success.”
The purpose of the days is to promote economic activity and bring tourists and local shoppers into town to take in the Farmers Market, which opens at 10 am every Saturday throughout the summer and engage with the neighbours who operate businesses in town. Marketing Wakaw as a place to live and conduct business is vital to economic growth and development, a fact playing out in small towns all over the province.
‘Hook’ events draw people out to engage with the event and the ‘Ride n’ Shine’ for the youngsters did just that. Polished bikes, scooters, wagons, and tricycles with costumed riders, demonstrating their safety awareness by wearing helmets brought parents, grandparents, and friends to 1st Street South to take it all in. As well, local businesses The Oasis Elite Beauty, Backroad Spirits, SHE Can Boutique, and Wakaw’s Espresso Café hosted Beach Radio and Blue, a custom 2012 Nissan Murano, giving everyone a chance to see Blue up-close and enter to win.
Although activities are held on a section of 1st Street South, any business wishing to get involved in one capacity or another is welcome. The Wakaw Lions Club were involved and hosted a ‘come-and-go’ bingo in the Recreation Centre, the synthetic ice surface at the Jubilee Arena was available for practicing stick handling, shooting, passing, goaltending, or agility, and Lakeview Pioneer Lodge joined in with a bake sale.
Dwane Burke is Wakaw’s Recreation & Community Development Manager, a position only a few years old. The Council and Administration determined that economic and community development was something they wanted to focus on and combining that with the recreation portfolio was an important use of funds.
Rural towns that can afford an economic development professional have a better chance of seeing plans implemented, but not everyone has the resources, says Verona Thibault, Chief Engagement Officer of the Saskatchewan Economic Development Alliance (SEDA). Thibault suggests Saskatchewan is ‘playing a bit shorthanded’ compared to its neighbours.
Since 2020, Manitoba has been funding the Rural Manitoba Economic Development Corporation (RMED) and Alberta is investing very heavily in rural economic development. In 2012, Saskatchewan shifted from funding rural enterprise regions to revenue-sharing grants for municipalities.
