Casey McCormac Moosomin’s new EDO
May 19, 2022, 11:19 am
Kevin Weedmark
One chapter is closing and another is about to open in the story of economic development in Moosomin.
Greg Gillespie, the first Economic Development Officer hired by Moosomin’s Economic Development Committee, is leaving his position and returning to his roots in Atlantic Canada, and Casey McCormac is starting as the new Economic Development Officer.
The Economic Development Committee has been restructured. It is now a three-way partnership between the Town of Moosomin, the RM of Moosomin and the Community Builders Alliance.
With the change, the committee is moving from a part-time to a full-time Economic Development Officer.
Gillespie says he has learned a lot in his time as EDO.
“I learned that there’s a heck of a lot of opportunities for every jurisdiction, whether it’s downtown Regina or whether it’s a two hundred person community,” he said. “Moosomin obviously has a lot of advantages over most of rural Saskatchewan, its proximity to the highway, its engaged community, its good base of industries like the mines and agriculture.
“It has got a lot going for it now. The biggest plus I see is the recent partnership with the Community Builders Alliance. I think that is very exciting.
“We’ve done a lot of work and we’ve brought in some small businesses, we brought in the audiologist and we have a psychologist coming, we brought in the CPAP business and the lawyer and helped get the dance club started. This is an exciting time for Moosomin, we have Cobblestone House coming we have lots of businesses coming.
“At the same time we’re working on some very large possibilities that would transform Moosomin, but I can’t talk about the specifics. I do think we need another large business here, whether it’s industry, manufacturing or processing.
“I think that’s really what will take Moosomin to the next level. Its good to add to all of these services to help round out what we offer in our community here, but to get to that next level, I think we need to bring in a major business that will complement what we already have.
“There’s all the other things that are going on too, everything from the airport and the CT scanner, the multiplex and residential development. So those are critical pieces of the pie as well.
“But I think it’s the projects that we’re working on now, that could really benefit the town—hugely. I wish I was here for two more years because it’s really, really exciting here right now.
“The conversations are going in the right direction. No one was talking about sewer capacity or residential development. That wasn’t brought up until we started pushing that hard and now it’s top of the list, and its the only way all of this other stuff that we want to do is going to move forward. Bringing that to light and bringing that to focus, is going to do more for this community than anything else we did over the last two years.
“What we did, what we accomplished, what we worked on, was done during Covid and done in a half-time position.
“So now, with the economy coming on gangbusters and Casey will be able to work full-time in this and having the CBA involved, the sky is the limit. It’s exciting.”
Groundwork has been done
Murray Gray, chair of the Economic Development Committee, said the groundwork has been done for economic development in Moosomin and now is the time to build on it.
“We have built processes and the whole structure of economic development for Moosomin, and now we have all the tools, between the research that we’ve done and the partnerships and collaborations that we have. We’re organized, and we have everything in place and now Casey should be able to run with it.
“There are different factors that add up to this being a good time for economic development in Moosomin, obviously the economy of the entire country is poised to spring back because we’re coming out of Covid when a lot of investment wasn’t made in business and now the economy and investment will be catching up. There has been a lot of work done that will make it easier to finalize some of these projects in the next couple of years,” Gray said.
Excited about economic development
McCormac earned her Bachelor of Commerce degree and has been working in the town of Moosomin’s recreation department.
She said she is excited to be starting in the area of economic development.
“I am really excited,” she said.
“I have a lot of learning to do about economic development, but I’m excited to do the training, to learn, to meet people and make connections with people—and just see where it goes.
“I think Moosomin has so much potential. It will be great to help it develop. I hadn’t ever really thought a lot about economic development before, but when the opportunity presented itself, I looked into it a little bit more and I think that it’s something I can become very good at and become very passionate about.
“Promoting Moosomin and showing people the potential that Moosomin has is the most important part of the job, to bring people in, to make Moosomin grow and become something amazing.
“I’ve decided to be in Moosomin because my family is here. I was born in Moosomin and raised here. I have not had, really, any desire to go anywhere else.
“I like that it’s not a giant city. It’s small enough that you know a lot of people but it still has everything that you need, and it has the opportunity to grow and become something even better.”
