SaskMilk’s entrepreneurial support was established in May 2022 with launch of its Saskatchewan Cottage Industry Program policy. | Screencap via facebook.com/sk.saskmilk

Program devised to help entrepreneurs

As an on-farm processor and retailer, Twin Peaks Creamery has worked with both SaskHealth and SaskMilk to establish itself. To long-timers in the dairy industry, it may be surprising that SaskMilk is open to the concept, but Art Pruim believes the organization is growing with the changes rather than challenging them. Related story: Sask. creamery […] Read more

Mill Maximets founded her Solberry company almost as an afterthought as she followed her desire to adopt the eating ethics of her childhood, when her grandmother taught her all about foods' nutritional and medicinal properties. | Ed White photo

VIDEO: A practical outlook

Manitoba entrepreneur applies personal philosophy about using local, healthy foods
to create thriving business

As a rich, marzipan-like scent wafts out of a tiny container of brass-gold oil that she is holding, Mila Maximets muses on years of painstaking efforts to use all parts of the tart cherries she processes. “I’m not into juices,” said Maximets, who has been manufacturing a seabuckthorn puree for five years and has just […] Read more

A fourth industrial park has just opened in Winkler, Man. The community is home to a growing number of local manufacturers and continues to attract more skilled workers and businesses.  |  City of Winkler photo

Winkler: ballooning with community spirit

Manitoba town’s soaring population attributed to a skilled workforce, immigration and spirit of co-operation

WINKLER, Man. — If visitors to Winkler drive around the small city looking for the multinational-owned factories that one would assume have powered the tremendous growth in the local economy, they won’t find any. However, they will see a lot of factories ringing the community of 12,000 people, almost all of them owned by local residents. […] Read more


Kim and Brian Cruson, owners of Airguard Industries, say they are proud of their role in improving the lives of farmers here and in developing countries through technology or other services.  |  Barbara Duckworth photo

Improving lives, part by part

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — A small warehouse here is supplying the world with new and improved parts for air seeders. Airguard Industries owned by Brian and Kim Cruson has doubled business since they started three years ago. They deal with farmers from Norway to Australia selling specially designed parts Brian assembles in a corner of the […] Read more

Dominic Paquette shows off the unique cuts of pork offered by Gaspor Fermes St. Canut. Producers from across Canada supported by Community Futures, the developmental lender and business support organization, were featured during meals and presentations and at displays.  |  Karen Morrison photo

Turning loss into new ventures

LA MALBAIE, Que. — Losing a job in rural Alberta can have a silver lining for those who have harboured dreams of creating their own businesses. Shane Stewart, chair of the Community Futures Network of Alberta and a building contractor near Blairmore, said many would like to get started but need support and money. “That’s […] Read more


Evelyn Yelinek helps her son, Devon, with his cookie making business at Swan River, Man. Devon, who is blind and autistic, prepares cookie orders for individuals and groups. | Karen Morrison photo

Brothers not held back by blindness

Rural enterprise | Twin brothers operate home-based computer and baking businesses in Swan River, Man.

SWAN RIVER, Man. — Wrangling computer viruses and tempting palates are no small feats for two twins from Swan River. The 29-year-old entrepreneurs are both legally blind. Christopher Yelinek repairs, sells and sets up systems at Cat ’N’ Mouse Computers, while Devon prepares an assortment of cookies on order at Devon’s Cookies. They grew up […] Read more

Al Gordon, Edgerton village administrator and one of the founders of Ribstone Creek Brewery, pours a beer during a tour of the facility.  |  Mary MacArthur photo

Small town suds soak up praise, out-of-town traffic

Ribstone Creek Brewery | Craft brewery energizes local economy in Edgerton, Alta.

EDGERTON, Alta. — Edgerton isn’t on everyone’s driving destination yet, but at least 150 pins are stuck into a map indicating the home towns of visitors who stopped at the brewery. The original owners of Ribstone Creek Brewery didn’t set out to make the brewery into one of their village’s tourist destinations, but it has […] Read more