Town, RM of Rocanville join Moosomin economic development
March 17, 2025, 8:17 am
Kara Kinna, editor
The town of Rocanville and RM of Rocanville will both be joining Moosomin Economic Development.
Under the revised funding agreement, the Town of Moosomin will pay 25 per cent, the RM of Moosomin will pay 25 per cent, the Community Builders Alliance will pay 25 per cent, and the Town and RM of Rocanville will share the remaining 25 per cent for a cost of 12.5 per cent each.
Previously the Town of Moosomin, RM of Moosomin, and CBA each contributed 33.33 per cent.
The Town of Rocanville and RM of Rocanville will each have one representative on the economic development committee.
“We have been talking a lot about how economic development shouldn’t just be one town, it should be a regional thing because we recognize that a win in Rocanville is a win in Moosomin. And a win in Moosomin is a win in Rocanville,” says Casey McCormac, Moosomin’s economic development officer.
“For example with the pool in Rocanville, they are going to have an indoor pool and that’s something that is not on our radar in Moosomin at all. We don’t need to worry about building an indoor pool when Rocanville has one and you can drive 20 minutes to go to the Rocanville one.
“So we want to share in those successes with Rocanville.
“And I know it will be good because for a long time Rocanville and Moosomin have had kind of a rivalry and we think that this will maybe bring us together. I’m really excited to see the joint collaboration between the two towns and the two RMs and the CBA. It’s really cool and it’s not something you see very often."
McCormac says talk about Rocanville joining Moosomin started about a year ago.
“About a year ago, Rocanville messaged me,” she says. “The rec director, Andrea Logan, had asked about sharing my services, and we kind of talked about it and it didn’t really go any farther. We were going to meet with Rocanville and everyone got busy and nothing happened. Andrea currently tries to do economic development, but she’s also rec and she doesn’t have a lot of time to do economic development.
“Around two months ago we decided that we would try and expand the funding agreement. We sent letters to the RM of Rocanville, the RM of Martin and the town of Rocanville. RM of Martin declined. And then Mayor Murray Gray and I went to the town of Rocanville’s council meeting to discuss it. We thought it would be easier to do it in person for any questions they had. And then we went to the RM of Rocanville’s council meeting and I heard back from both of them within a week that they had decided to join.
“So they are just joining on a year trial to start and then after that year they will decide after that.”
Rocanville Mayor Ron Reed says the town felt that Moosomin could provide more expertise than Rocanville when it came to economic development.
“The biggest reason is we kind of saw a gap in what we had as far as expertise and skills in that area,” says Reed. “We actually posted for an economic development position last year and we just didn’t really find the right candidate at that time. So when this opportunity came up, it just seemed to make sense, to work with someone with a little more background in economic development such as Casey, and the opportunity for that regional partnership was the biggest thing.”
Reed says developing housing in Rocanville that would keep the town’s older residents in their home community is one of the priorities the town would like to tackle.
“We’ve got a lot of residents in town and we don’t have that option for some of our long-time residents that are maybe looking to downsize to stay within the community. If they did have that option, it would free up some of the single family homes or smaller family homes within the town and help get some new people in town.”
He says there was discussion between the town about the decision to join the Moosomin EDC.
“There was definitely some discussion. Obviously we wanted to have a discussion with the RM of Rocanville at the very least just because that is our close neighbour as far as the municipality goes and we have a big relationship with them so we wanted their input. We did feel that we would commit regardless of if the RM decided to join. With everything happening in the area, we felt that we had the opportunity to grow, that maybe we were missing out on a little bit. Maybe there are businesses that are looking to come into Moosomin, and maybe it’s too big of a town or there is too much competition, and so it might be a good fit for Rocanville as well.”
He says partnerships are not unheard of between towns and RMs, but this particular partnership is a first for Rocanville.
“Definitely not on the economic development side of things, we have not done this before,” he says. “Obviously we got some mutual aid agreements with our fire department and surrounding communities, but never anything on the economic development side of things.
“We did commit to it for a period of time, and that is the other side of things is we know we’re not going to see instant results, so we see this as a long-term investment in our community.”
The motion to join Moosomin’s EDC was passed unanimously at the Feb. 5 council meeting.
“We are happy to be partnering with Moosomin Economic Development and the town of Rocanville,” says RM of Rocanville Reeve Melissa Ruhland. “We are hopeful that Casey will be able to bring some of her expertise to the challenges that Rocanville is facing.
“With a full daycare, a need for housing for seniors, and rural residents maybe looking to move into town, if we can bring some of those of amenities into town, residents will want to stay here instead of moving.
“It is a bit of an investment, but we are hopeful to see some benefits with grant programming and that kind of thing. They are letting us do it on a trial basis. We decided we would give it a shot for a couple years and see if we think it has been beneficial.
“These things take time. We are hopeful that if we try it out, we will see some benefits for our community.
“We like to work closely with the town of Rocanville. Obviously our rate payers use the recreation facilities and the amenities, so we do feel at the RM level, that it is really important.
“With the Town of Rocanville as partners, and them wanting to join, it made sense for us to try it out as well. I don’t think it is as common RMs to go after economic development as much as the urban municipalities do.”
