The Saskatchewan government has created a new department to handle rural economic issues.
Effective April 1, the department of rural development will combine under one office some of the rural services being provided by other departments.
Deputy premier Clay Serby, who had been responsible for rural revitalization in the agriculture department, will head the new department. Louise Greenberg moves from agriculture to become deputy minister.
Rural development will include the rural issues office from the agriculture department, the business and co-operatives services division from industry and resources, the small business loans association program, the co-operative development assistance program and the Saskatchewan Made program.
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The department will also support the Regional Economic Development Authorities, except those in Regina and Saskatoon.
Ironically, it was just weeks after the creation of the REDAs in 1993 that the NDP government axed the former rural development department.
But premier Lorne Calvert said the new department will function much differently than the old.
“The department of the early ’90s was a department much more focused on municipal governance,” he said at a news conference. “The focus of this rural development department is economic. The focus is different; the name is the same.”
He said the government acted on a recommendation from the Action Committee on the Rural Economy in creating a one-stop office.
ACRE co-chair Audrey Horkoff said it’s all about co-ordination.
“Often in order for us to accomplish what we need to do, we have to work with two or three departments in order to get that done,” she said.
“If we have a minister who is going to be putting his efforts into having that happen, it’s certainly going to speed things up.”
Serby said the problem with having the rural revitalization office in the agriculture department was that larger, immediate issues like BSE and farm assistance took over.
“It dominates all of the work within the department and doesn’t give you the kinds of capacity that you need to work on the economic development, rural development piece,” he said of an issue like BSE.
There will be no new money or staff allocated to the new department.
