Third Avenue on Main chosen to receive Young Entrepreneur Bursary
One of 57 businesses in Sask to benefit from new program
November 3, 2025, 1:46 pm
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Third Avenue on Main in Moosomin is one of 57 businesses in Saskatchewan that has been chosen to receive $5,000 through the provincial government’s new Young Entrepreneur Bursary.
On Tuesday, Trade and Export Development Minister Warren Kaeding, along with Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce CEO Prabha Ramaswamy, announced recipients of the 2025-26 Young Entrepreneur Bursary. A total of 57 young entrepreneurs from 48 communities across the province will receive $5,000 each to help their small businesses get off the ground.
The Government of Saskatchewan is providing the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce with nearly $1 million dollars over three years to deliver the program. Entrepreneurs eligible for the program are between the ages of 18 and 35 years of age and have been in operation for 10 years or less.
“It’s a brand new program that is recognizing the importance of young entrepreneurs around the province,” says Moosomin-Montmartre MLA Kevin Weekmark who is also the president of the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce.
“It will run for three years and each recipient of the bursary will receive $5,000 as well as access to mentorship workshops and a complimentary Chamber of Commerce membership. It will be wonderful to see the difference that’s going to make for some of these businesses.
“Right around the province young entrepreneurs are a really important part of our success and in our region, we seem to have an awful lot of young entrepreneurs at the moment. We have new stores, new businesses opening in Moosomin in the last few years that are owned and operated by very, very young people and I see it all around the riding.
“I pop into a coffee shop in Moosomin run by a very young person who moved from Alberta to set up a business in Moosomin—Trends Mercantile. I can stop for coffee and Wolseley and stop in at the Garden Cafe and the young woman who runs that business graduated from McGill University and rather than starting her career in New York, or Montreal or Toronto or Vancouver, she chose to move to Wolseley, Saskatchewan and start a business.
“I see the same thing all around the region, young people deciding that they want to live in rural Saskatchewan and they want to built their communities by setting up a business and starting to build their lives there.”
Weedmark says the new program was set up to encourage young people to be entrepreneurs.
“The idea is simply to recognize young entrepreneurs and to encourage people to consider that. One thing a lot of young people in high school don’t think about is the possibility of becoming an entrepreneur and setting up their own business,” he says.
“It’s something that can be very, very rewarding and it’s something not everybody thinks about.
“This entrepreneurship program is awarding 57 entrepreneurs around the province this year, and it’s also getting the word out that you can be a young person going into business. There are challenges but there are great rewards going into business for yourself.
“I have to admit, if I could do one thing differently in my life I probably would have gone into business a little bit younger than I did.”
He says he’s happy to see someone in the Moosomin-Montmartre riding was awarded the bursary.
“It’s wonderful. We tried to distribute these around the province, so each local Chamber will be handing out one of these awards. In the case of the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce we will be inviting Tia Cedarstrand from Third Avenue on Main to come to a meeting and receive the cheque from the Chamber of Commerce for $5,000 to help her in what she is doing.
“She is an excellent case of what can be done with the Young Entrepreneur Bursary. She is a young person who was working at a store in Moosomin called Kassie’s Jewelry. The owners were ready to retire and sell their business. She was a young person who was working in their business. She did not have the capital to buy their business but she had the skills, she had the knowledge.
“So the Community Builders Alliance stepped in, she got some silent partners to help her buy the business, and now she’s in business and doing very, very well. She’s filling a need in Moosomin. It’s a jewelry shop and she’s added a florist business to that so she’s expanded the business.
“So that’s the exactly the kind of thing we need to see in small communities. That adds so much to our communities. Every new business like that makes a difference.
“And in our case there are so many young people. Down the street at Trends Mercantile it’s wonderful to see another young person there running a business who has added something that Moosomin didn’t have before. And you have many other young people show have gone into business in the area just in the last few years, and I think that’s absolutely phenomenal to see.”
“It is encouraging to see Saskatchewan’s next generation of entrepreneurs contributing to the economic success of our province,” Trade and Export Development Minister Warren Kaeding said. “This government recognizes the role that young business owners play in creating jobs, driving innovation and growing our economy.”
The program received 326 applications from young entrepreneurs in the areas of health care services, construction, recreation, agriculture and more.
Applications came from all corners of the province, with 39 from the Northeast, 52 from the Northwest, 36 from Southeast Saskatchewan, 41 from the Southwest Saskatchewan, and 158 from the province’s two largest urban centres.
“As a provincial chamber, it is important for us to ensure that entrepreneurs in every corner of the province have the opportunity to thrive,” Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce CEO Prabha Ramaswamy said. “Through this program, we are proud to create opportunities for young leaders to grow, collaborate, and contribute to a stronger provincial economy.”
The bursaries encourage the next generation of entrepreneurship and support economic development across the province.
In 2024, small businesses in the province totaled 154,278. That gives Saskatchewan a per capita rate of 124 for every 1,000 people, the second highest rate in the country.
This year’s Saskatchewan Small Business Profile shows that small businesses in the province have grown 4.9 per cent from 2014 to 2024.
A small business is defined as one that has less than 50 employees. Small businesses make up 98.8 per cent of businesses in the province, employing over 30 per cent of its workforce, and paying out nearly $7.8 billion in wages and salaries.
