Friday, July 3, 2015 • Vol.26 No.36 • Neepawa, Manitoba dr y, To o ho t, To o we t, To o To o tir ed to co ok ?
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Open new Neepawa locations Section B
The day the teddy bears have their picnic
PHOTOS BY JOHN DRINKWATER
On June 24, the popular Teddy Bear picnic returned to Riverbend Park in Neepawa. Above: Local EMS personnel patched up teddy bears in attendance. Right: Children and parents enjoyed the obstacle race set up at the park .
Economic action discussed for Neepawa and area By Eoin Devereux The Neepawa Banner Neepawa and area is getting serious about attracting new business and tourism dollars to the region. Officials from several local municipalities gathered on Monday, June. 30, at the Neepawa Public Library for a presentation from the Regional Economic Analysis Process. The REAP project is a provincial
enterprise established to help rural communities identify economic development priorities and assist them in pursuing those priorities. Ruth Mealy, a representative with the Value Added and Rural Economic Advancement Branch of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, chaired the meeting in Neepawa. She said the REAP initiative has already been adapted in many
other parts of the province. “We’ve been doing this work for the last couple of years, where there are groups of communities that want to work together. Dauphin, Russell, Swan River are some of the communities, along with their surrounding regions to previously participate in the program to identify regional marketing,” said Mealy. “So what we have done is an analysis to help the region. Figure out
some of the demographics, business data, labour and the existing industry strengths in the region and then help too figure out the strategies and actions that they want to go forward with.” The Regional Economic Analysis Process includes five steps: preparing a report on the region, presenting it to local organizations and its partners, receiving feedback from the stakeholders, creating
an action plan and then taking action. Tuesday’s session was step two and three in the process and explained to community leaders what the regional economic strengths and weaknesses appear to be for the future. The sectors of comparative strength for the area are public administration, manufacturing and agriculture while there are notable gaps in the tourism industry. It was also pointed out that
there might be potential business opportunities for more building and contracting companies, retail clothing sales and RV parks in the area. Neepawa mayor Adrian de Groot said these discussions should prove to be very helpful in planning for the future. Continued on page 2