With the economy in Canada having as tough a time as it has been in recent years, diversifying what we do to add more revenue streams can be an important way to help boost it back up again. Our Economic Development Coordinator Dwight 'Fitz' Bramble, along with Mayor Roy Ludwig, a local business representative, and Lindsay Quick from the Ministry of Trade and Export, all traveled to the Netherlands to try and bring foreign investors into the city of Estevan.
"We had pre-scheduled meetings with companies that had already expressed an interest in coming to Canada and setting up shop so to speak," said Dwight Bramble. "We met with the Embassy of Canada to the Netherlands and that was a very very good meeting. We have established a partnership where we will continue working with them to find investment opportunities between Dutch companies and coming to Canada and Estevan in particular."
The meetings with the embassy and other large companies were a part of the Invest Canada Community Initiative that provides small communities with the funding to make these trips and grow those relationships. Estevan was the recipient of $30,000 from the program as a result and used it for the three-day trip.
"We also met with a University in Holland specifically dedicated to research in agriculture and agri-value called Wageningen University. We had a very good meeting with them, they have some very cool technology going on and partners. Hopefully, that would be something that will materialize also. We were particularly interested in having them partner with our local Southeast College to provide training in the different technologies."
Another thing that caught the attention of the Economic Development Coordinator was the greenhouse and incubation technology in the Netherlands. During their meetings in the World Horti Centre, one of the premier greenhouse/horticulture centres in the world, they met with a number of companies that produce tomato seeds for greenhouse producers, another business that helps share these technologies in cities the size of Estevan around the rest of the Netherlands, and a number of other companies.
Source: Discover Estevan (Nick Nielsen)