Jeff Cole new economic development officer
For Moosomin and Rocanville area:
February 2, 2026, 9:58 am
Ashley Bochek
Jeff Cole previously worked as Moosomin’s Economic Development Officer (EDO) in the early 2000s and has decided to return to his passion of economic development in the region. Cole started January 26 as Moosomin’s EDO, and he says he is excited to jump back into plans and creating strategies going forward for the region.
Moosomin Economic Development has grown to include a larger area and was relaunched in June as Gateway Economic Development, which encompasses the Town of Moosomin, RM of Moosomin, Town of Rocanville, and the RM of Rocanville. Cole will be implementing the board’s vision for the future goals of the Moosomin-Rocanville region.
Following is an interview with Cole as he prepared to start his new role.
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your new role as Economic Development Officer (EDO).
I have resided in Moosomin since about 1995. My background is economic development. In fact, we actually had the Government of Saskatchewan funded economic development and I was a Development Officer and Director for Moosomin. The name then was called Gateway Regional Economic Authority. I looked after that from 1996 to 2009. So roughly about 13 years and then in 2009 the province decided to shut down the Regional Economic Development Authority funding.
Through the REDA, I worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs from Spy Hill, Rocanville, Wapella, and Moosomin, and a lot of newer business expansions and startups. It is good to see our community leaders believe in the process, benefits, and opportunities of economic development and I am excited to work with them all and grow our region.
How excited are you to get back to doing economic development work?
I am very excited. I have always had interest, it is what I am trained in, and I have history of being involved in business development.
The nice thing about economic development is there is never a dull moment. You’re always preparing, planning, and working hard to execute ideas and sometimes you may wait on funding or announcements.
I believe I have some key partners in the region that I have worked with and could make things happen. It is great to see that our new economic development group is a partnership between the Town of Moosomin, RM of Moosomin, Town of Rocanville, and RM of Rocanville. They have a 10-year plan that they rolled out at the end of November.
Gateway Economic Development worked with Derek Murray Consulting Associates firm to build the plan and it will be some of my road map on things we are working on. There has been good forward thinking from our leaders that had been involved with the process and I will be early kicking off this new economic development strategy this week.
Its goal is to kickstart our region’s efforts to increase the strength and diversity for our local economy. They have done a really good job with it. It is broken down into sectors for what we want to work on and report. Things in it might change depending on budgets and funding, but it is really nice to have that foundation. It is nice to have something set out with a mission, a vision, and a place to go from. I would like to congratulate our leaders and partners for believing in our local economy and the region’s growth and opportunities.
Years ago, you were the EDO and, in this role, what made you interested in coming back and doing it again?
I have always had a passion for business and economic development, and I did some thinking. I was also happy to see that they were putting a plan in place because I have seen other groups start up, but struggle with planning ahead and having a vision and focus, and those are tools that I looked at as important to grow the region.
I have lived in this region a long time and have a pretty good network I have built up over the years, and I just see a lot of opportunity between Rocanville and Moosomin with mines, agriculture, the Trans-Canada Highway, and our business environment.
There is just a lot of excitement, and you are seeing it daily within the communities. We are vibrant.
The 10-year plan is ‘grow where you’re planted’ and a nice tie-in for our region is the mine and agriculture of course.
Our region has worked hard on getting to where we are today. In the past, we were told Moosomin can’t have or doesn’t need an airport, but guess what we did, or the community couldn’t raise the funds for a new hospital, well we did that too, and a new daycare is being built at the moment. Rocanville was told they wouldn’t get a new indoor swimming pool, well they have it now and it is being used.
We are creative out here, united, and we have the right attitude. I just think we have lots more potential. People are seeing more value of some of these other projects and see it is a good region to relocate to.
We do have some growing pains with infrastructure, but those will be some of the things we will be working on with our leadership as well.
Housing is one of our biggest focuses at the moment. We have the housing accelerator program that was launched awhile back, and the question will be if there is going to be more federal funding when the budgets are announced in the spring. We have lots to look at and plan.
Why do you think your job is important?
Economic development is a process right from your tax base to labour pool of employment, so every dollar circulated in the community could circulate 10 times before it ever leaves the town or RM and that will be something we are measuring.
In the 10-year plan we’ve got doesn’t just look at projects, it looks at taxes, labour, and growth. We are hoping we can maintain what we have and build on some capacity we have here.
Years ago, Kevin Weedmark, now our MLA, was chair of the Gateway REDA, and I used to do a lot of strategic planning with our board and at that time we didn’t have any of the hotels along the highway. Kevin said we needed three, and now we have them—Canalta, Best Western, and Motel 6.
I drove to Drumheller and did my study on hotels, and Canalta that was headquartered in Drumheller were the only hotel that would invest an extra million-dollars-plus in a swimming pool and I wanted a swimming pool in the hotel for the region, so when families would come the kids would have something to do.
So, my buddy, Dan Davidson who owns the Red Barn, and I drove out there, met with the hotel group and within that year we had the Canalta Hotel being built in Moosomin, which was a huge project for the community and we were the only small centre at that time that had a waterslide, and sure enough they were also tied with A&W and built it beside the hotel.
Then, not long after, the other hotels were being built along the highway with the Best Western and Motel 6. So, it is cool to look back and see how far we’ve come where that area wasn’t developed at one time.
Today we’ve got three hotels and if we want to advance on our terms, we probably need to look at other options because sometimes the rooms are sold out and if we want to get into regional tourism for Moosomin-Rocanville, then people need places to stay.
What are you most looking forward to in this role?
Right now, we will be working with my committee and the region’s leaders. We’ve got a good relationship and connection so I think we can start right away.
In Saskatchewan you got your seasonal times where you can get projects rolling and then cold snaps where if you are doing development projects, then they need to be planned out.
I am looking forward to working with our committee, building relationships, and I am excited to hit the road running with this 10-year plan.
It hasn’t been circulated too much other than to the committee and some of the partners, so it will be some of my job to get the people brought up to speed and ease some of their concerns. The committee has some pretty broad stuff planned out and then it is always about dollars and partners to tie it together, and that is something I am looking forward to as well.
We do have some strategic areas of focus and one area is to support and grow the local economy, help create a vibrant and liveable community, attract and retain talent, and collaborate to get things done.
I found these were nice to hear from the 10-year plan—make it easy to do business here, keep small businesses open and thriving, attract business and employment opportunities in the region, and capture more traffic and dollars in our communities, which is tied with the tourism part I had mentioned, and establish the Moosomin-Rocanville integrated regional employment and service centre.
Those are a few things that have been talked about broadly. It is not going to be easy, but with economic development it does take a process, a team, funding, and time, but if we can get things prepared, and market- ready, it is all about how can we make it work for us and then make it happen.
