In November of this year, the City of Estevan hired Doug Griffiths and his company 13 Ways Inc. to take a look at the city in a number of ways to help spur economic growth in the community. Now that he's had some time to chat with community members in both formal and informal settings, he's been able to come up with a few ideas of what members of the community can do to improve life in Estevan. He has spent time in the city before the pandemic hit, and got an even better look at things three weeks ago.

"I brought someone from our team, and we toured Main Street, talked to a bunch of business owners, saw the recreation facilities, and then toured around ourselves because everyone always likes to brag about what they have, but part of the reason why you bring in some outsiders is for the outside perspective, both to see what challenges might be, but also to see what opportunities are out there because when we live in the community, we often sort of become blind to what all the opportunities are and the things we need to fix so."

Starting off with the strengths of our community, Griffiths said that there is a lot of easily noticeable things like our recreation facilities, power generation, and the location to the border, but with the over 80 different people Griffiths talked to in a short time here, there was one common theme that struck him.

"The attitude of the community. I know that people are frustrated with changes to the coal industry, the oil and gas industry is down and so there are some challenges with that, but there was a lot of, not excessive pride in the community, but pride that the community has struggled through things before and it will reinvent itself and be a leader in in the region if not the whole province coming out of you know the current global climate."

The character and sense of community that Estevan has lends itself to great potential according to Griffiths, and he also mentioned the level of service in the businesses downtown is something that not many communities our size have.

On the flip side of that coin, there are things to work on in the city as well. The downtown area came up again in the negatives of the community.

"There's so much mass improvements that can be made by some beautification and reconditioning some old buildings. There needs to be more restaurants on Main Street. We really need to focus on drawing people back downtown in the core and maybe to live there, too. We kind of killed our downtowns and we pushed everyone out to the suburbs and caused then they didn't come back downtown."

When it comes to simple things that can improve a city's economy, Griffiths pointed out a trend that has already been picking up steam in the Estevan area over the last few months. It seems like more and more businesses have been putting up online services whether it's online ordering or shopping, and that ease of access to a business is key for both consumers and businesses alike to get their product out, while still maintaining a presence in the community.

"I know a lot of people keep saying 'shop local'. That's always a responsibility for consumers to spend their money locally, but business owners have an equal responsibility to give people a reason and opportunity to shop locally. You need to be online. It's not just to service the people in Estevan. We have examples of countless businesses across North America that actually sell more of their stuff online than they do in their local community, so there's all sorts of opportunities and instead of shop local, we encourage people to be local, to think local, and to act local because it's not just about spending your money in town. It's about volunteering. It's about being present."

Even things like the layout can come into play for economic growth, including things like the train tracks that cut the city in half in Estevan. With only three ways to cross one of the main CP rail lines that is often busy in the city, it can be seen as a hindrance at times. Griffiths himself though has been a part of a community that has turned that into a positive.

"Look at what's happened to the the the airline industry given the pandemic. I can see trains becoming more significant. We actually worked in a community in Minnesota. They only had a population of about 4000, but the train bisected the community perfectly and they thought it was a horrible disaster because we always had to wait for the train. The State actually invested to add more passenger trains just this last year and now they use it as a stop to attract people and they have festivals when trains are going through and people stop or they go back because they want to see what's going on."

Griffiths is still working with the community to get more growth spurred in the area, and will be for some time. The next time he and other members of their group come through, talking with them may result in some ways to help your business that you hadn't thought of before.