WEYBURN - Celebrating Weyburn and area businesses was the highlight of the annual general meeting for the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce held on March 25.
Chamber members had the opportunity to hear Bud Grohn, Reeve of the RM of Weyburn, and Jeff Richards, Mayor of Weyburn, speak about the importance of community support during current challenges.
“For those that know me, you know I take every challenge optimistically. And with faith in people that are around me. I’m not afraid of a challenge,” said Reeve Grohn.
“Our close ties with the city of Weyburn certainly provides us with opportunities in education, recreation, spiritually, arts, almost anything you need.”
“Currently we’re facing some unprecedented economic times over which we have no control,” said Grohn. “Our opportunity is to work together with a plan to put Weyburn, the RM, their residences, their residents and businesses first.”
“I was voted into a position that I ran on speaking up for the people. To listen and bring positive change. That’s a promise I intend keeping to the best of my ability.”
“Community matters,” added Grohn. “I’m tasked with helping to decide the fate of some families’ income, other families’ quality of life. There are valid reasons on both sides to any argument.”
“What matters these days? Money? Health? Quality of life? Progress? Big business? Our neighbours? Our community? That question varies greatly on the person you ask. I personally think it’s a balance and we need to find the balance for everyone in the RM. Options that improve the quality of life for everyone,” said Grohn. “Please remember that we must work together as a community.”
“The Chamber is important to our community for a lot of things,” said Mayor Richards. “The Weyburn Chamber has got a long history of punching over its weight, especially on the provincial stage. Also, the Chamber here is a great link for us to places like the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, where great work is being done, great research is being done on how to best grow our economy. And that work needs to happen.”
“Weyburn is in good shape. We had a six per cent tax increase this year. And we’re just going to be honest with one another, that trend is most likely going to continue, and it’s got to continue because now is the time to invest in Weyburn,” said Richards.
“It is important to build the Weyburn that we need today and for our families for the future,” said Richards.
After highlighting some of the investments, projects and goals that will be the focus for the year for the city, Richards said, “Now is the time to invest, and to invest in Weyburn. There’s a lot of stuff going on that is out of our control and we have got to take the reins on the things that we control.”
“Be an ambassador to the extent that you can. It is also important to thank the people that own the businesses in this community.”
“As a community, the research would tell us we’ve got two choices. We can grow, or we can shrink. And I don’t think anybody in this room is in the mood for shrinking or playing small,” said Richards. “So we need to grow, and we can do that. We need to be open to the new population in our city, so let’s be open to investment and let’s build our community. We can attract investment and we can make our own investments. I’ll say it one more time, because right now, now is the time to invest in Weyburn.”
