ST. BRIEUX, Sask. – Banners hanging from street lamps bill the newly crowned town as the place to be in the 21st century.
This north-central Saskatchewan community of 600, which officially became a town in 2006, is holding onto its population and services at a time when less than a handful of villages have made the jump to become towns since the 1980s.
“Becoming a town, we’re beating the odds of what rural Saskatchewan is facing these days,” said mayor Pauline Boyer.
She, like town administrator Jennifer Thompson, believes the move will give the town greater prominence and draw more people to live, work and play here.
Read Also
Restaurant blends zero waste, ancient farming
A Mexico City restaurant has become a draw for its zero-waste kitchen, which means that every scrap of food and leftovers is reused for other purposes.
“It was the next step for us,” said Thompson.
The town owes much of its longevity and prosperity to Bourgault Industries, which has spawned expansions, related businesses and developments since it established here in the 1970s.
Named for St. Brieux in France, the town was established in 1904 and has an abundance of French names on its scrolls, but little of the language is heard in the increasingly multicultural community.
Set in a mixed farming country, the town has weathered the ups and downs of agriculture like its major employer, Bourgault, which has succeeded by reaching markets well beyond the Prairies.
Thompson said the stable business community gives families the security to settle.
“A lot more would prefer to live in small towns if they had work,” said Boyer.
Jean Maltman and her late husband emigrated from Scotland and lived across Canada before settling here. Now retired, she praised St. Brieux’s strong sense of community.
“On Thursday night, my husband died and by Saturday, the town came out. I feel a part of the community,” she said.
“You know everyone. And if you need help, you get it.”
Thompson moved here with her husband, an employee at Bourgault, where she once also worked. The couple and their young family like the town’s mix of ages, easy access to stores, school, work and services and opportunities for recreation at the nearby regional park.
The town has built on those assets by offering interest-free loans for three years and tax breaks for five years to those building homes. The program called 50 in five seeks to add 50 families within a five year span.
“Incentives give people the ability to grow themselves,” said Boyer.
Workers are also drawn by a benefits package offered by Bourgault and related companies, she said.
“It started with someone who had a vision and the guts to take a risk,” she said of the establishment of an implement factory in a small community a half hour’s drive from the nearest city.
Paul Leray invested in the fledgling agricultural implement company with his neighbour Frank Bourgault, who wanted to build a multi-purpose cultivator that could handle stones thrown in its way.
They believed business would create jobs and retain and attract young families, perhaps even help farm families by providing additional
income.
“The thought of not succeeding never occurred to us when we were starting Bourgault,” said Leray.
“All benefited from the success of Bourgault,” said Leray, who served on town council for almost two decades.
There are no house vacancies in town, a waiting list for rentals and more than 500 employed in Bourgault and related businesses in town.
Leray credited an attitude of optimism with continuing to sustain St. Brieux. Council explored ways to get people to build homes here and provided services for a housing development at the lake near town.
“We are doers and not scared to take risks and get things done rather than wait for someone else,” he said.
Now retired, he and his wife Lilianne live in town where they can access groceries, banking, medical or legal services and a hospital only half an hour away.
The Rural Municipality of Lake Lenore and the town share offices in the same building on Main Street and both team up to support local firefighting and first responder units and lobby for repairs to the crumbling highway to Humboldt.
Teamwork is in the best interest of the region, said reeve Bernard Ferre, an area farmer and a customer service representative with Bourgault.
“We are aware to bring people into small areas, there has to be a joint effort,” he said.
