Parrish & Heimbecker donates $150,000 to the Moosomin Airport
July 15, 2024, 9:24 am
Ashley Bochek
Parrish & Heimbecker donated $150,000 to the Moosomin Airport last week. P&H presented a cheque last Thursday, to help advance the airport project.
Justin Watson, Senior VP of Grain Origination and Crop Inputs for P&H, says the organization focused on the improvement to health care services the airport will provide the Moosomin area with this donation.
“As an organization—you always see the economic benefits for smaller communities in rural areas. Moosomin is a great business centre, not just for agriculture, but a business centre for Southeast Saskatchewan.
“The reason we are here today is—when we talked to John Heimbecker, the owners, and the families about this project, the connection point really was the health centre and the air ambulance for the area. Some of that hits home.
“My first month of work in the organization, I was out in the area and my regional manager had a heart attack that day. We had to get him to the ambulance to go into Regina—the logistics of that day and the stress of that day makes you pay attention. Everybody living here in this community, all of our customers, and staff that live here need that type of connection. We’re excited about the airport, and if there are economic spin-offs and benefits then that is great too, but that is not really why the money is being put forward—it’s the health care that’s the important thing.”
The donation from P&H will go toward lighting and electrical installation at the airport, the last piece now that the new runway has been paved.
“With talking to the crew in the area, they say it’s a nice boost to the airport project and that it has been a lot of years of fundraising, and to get it to where it is today—they’re starting to see the finish line with donations like this.”
RM of Moosomin Reeve Dave Moffatt says the donation will go toward the final stages of the airport expansion project.
“It is a fairly sizable donation coming in from a local business and it is going to push the electrical portion of the airport forward. We’ll be able to keep moving on it and complete it. I am very positive of that.”
Moffatt says the electrical is one of the last steps to completing the airport project.
“The electrical and lighting is about all that is left, and a terminal for the electrical components.
“We are thinking we have about $500,000 left to raise for the airport,” Moffatt said.
Kristjan Hebert of the Community Builders Alliance (CBA) says he would like give credit to P&H for supporting one of their local communities. “The one thing I would like to point out about P&H is that, the one concern as rural entrepreneurs, as businesses grow and grow they become farther away from the communities they operate in. So, in our area, there is a number of retails, machinery manufacturers, that haven’t given a donation to the airport, so to see P&H be a leader and say we are going to invest in critical infrastructure projects where our business is done—where our customers are, despite our headquarters being in Winnipeg, that’s pretty awesome leadership.
“P&H has done it, Conexus did it, but then a lot of other money has all been local like IJack and Celebration Ford were a real leader, but some of these companies that have become national, they need rural customers—their business survives on it and yet some of them are real hard to get donations out of. So, I give a lot of credit to companies like Conexus, P&H, and a couple anonymous ones, that have led the way.”
About half the cost of the airport is being funded by government—the province and local governments—and about half is funded privately, by Nutrien and local companies.
“Right now the corporate side is not quite at 50%, I think it is at 44%, so you have a $10.6 million project and private companies—including Nutrien in that number—are probably right around $5 million,” Hebert said. “I would say you would be hard-pressed to find any project in the province or in the country that’s more a municipal or community project—50% funded by private. We live in a great area for that kind of support.”
Hebert says the support from local businesses with projects like the airport, show the value they put on our community and area.
“Private companies want the government to keep focusing on this area because they plan to keep focusing on the area. Our biggest issue is that any business that makes its money in a rural area—needs to have a reason for people to live there and if your kids can’t have the services provided and you don’t feel like you can get as good education, health care, or sports—if you can’t get that in your rural community, then when you expand your business you’re putting the next one in the city.
“This is just one step toward Moosomin saying we’re as good as a city and our area is as good as a city, so make sure you have a look at us not just Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, or Winnipeg. It is a pretty unique spot here.”
