The town of Leader, Sask., knew it had to do something when Paul Martin killed the Crow Benefit rail subsidy in the 1995 federal budget.
Leader’s leaders could see that within a few years many rail lines in the sparsely populated Saskatchewan southwest would be cut, towns would disappear and people would drift to the few communities that remained.
Leader was determined to be among the survivors, and has fought to obtain the building blocks needed to construct its future.
“When the freight rates jumped, that changed things,” said Bill Dearborn, chair of the local economic development committee.
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This week, the town located about 140 kilometres northwest of Swift Current, Sask., will launch a drive to raise money from local townsfolk and farmers to build a 20,000-head feedlot.
A couple of years ago a large-scale hog barn was built north of Leader. Last year an $8 million grain terminal opened nearby.
Dearborn, who has spearheaded the town’s efforts to stay economically alive, said the pieces of the puzzle are falling in place one by one, in the right order and not by accident.
Though many thought the emphasis in the post-Crow world should be on livestock, Dearborn was convinced the first step was to secure the town as a long-term grain centre.
“We realized if we didn’t have a grain terminal we would be a ghost town in the future,” said Dearborn, a local farmer.
“If we’d gone with a hog barn first or some other minor (agricultural operation) we would have lost everything.”
At the time the Crow was killed, the economic development committee invited a pair of Ernst and Young business analysts to report what they saw as necessary for a small town like Leader to survive.
They said the top priority was to get a major grain terminal into the town, because the grain economy is still the foundation of the rural Prairies.
That was music to Dearborn’s ears, because he’d been making the same argument.
“Whatever town got a grain terminal would become the hub of all future grain deliveries,” said Dearborn.
“When someone from outside the community said that, it had credibility with everyone in the coffee shop.”
The town set out to raise money and find a corporate partner for building a grain terminal, and at the same time Dearborn analyzed what the town would need in order to attract families and businesses.
Recipe for success
Apart from the grain terminal, survival would rest on having a hospital, a high school and an aggressive group of local municipalities that would give tax breaks in exchange for economic development.
Leader had all of these things, but only four other communities west of Moose Jaw and south of Kindersley did. Dearborn thought the town had a good chance to succeed in its goal.
Local fundraisers raised millions for the terminal and found a partner in Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
The project went ahead and the Great Sandhills Terminal was completed in July 1999.
The town’s attention then turned to the next level – value adding through intensive livestock operations. Fortunately for Leader, a group of farmers and investors north of the South Saskatchewan River had raised money to build a large hog barn complex, and decided to locate it 13 kilometres outside Leader.
That allowed the town to focus on building a feedlot. With grain freight rates increasing so dramatically, feeding calves at home began to make a lot more sense.
Dearborn estimates it costs $700 for a super-B to haul a load of barley to “feedlot alley” in southern Alberta.
By keeping the barley home and feeding it to local calves, local farmers will gain a lot of value.
The town hired a Swift Current consultant to analyze the feasibility of setting up the operation, and its report, released this week, suggests the town continue working for the feedlot.
The town intends to begin raising money this year, build facilities in 2001 and start feeding 5,000 head in 2002. By 2006, if everything works out, Leader will be operating a 20,000-head feedlot, which will fatten 44,000 head per year.
That will give farmers more money, bring more business to Leader, give local people jobs and cement the community’s future.
