Industry as Ecosystem Builders with expert guest Tyler Thorn

In this episode of Paths to Prosperity, host Crystal Froese sits down with Tyler Thorn, President of Celebration Ford and a founding leader of the Moosomin Community Builders Alliance (CBA)—a volunteer-led organization that brings together local businesses and industry to work alongside government and community partners to build a stronger regional economy.

In just four years, the CBA has helped make a $10 million regional airport project a reality, secured nearly $1 million for housing, and united businesses, local government, and community leaders around a shared vision and a strategic plan with measurable results. 

Tyler shares how collaboration—not competition—is creating regional momentum, and why every community can learn from this powerful example of an economic ecosystem in action.

Paths to Prosperity is a platform for exploring how communities can build resilient, inclusive, and future‑ready economies.

Through thought leadership, practical insights, and conversations with leaders from across Saskatchewan and beyond, Paths to Prosperity examines the forces shaping local and regional economies—and the choices communities can make to navigate change with confidence.

Our focus is on what works, what’s emerging, and what leaders should be thinking about now.

To go deeper on the ideas shaping Saskatchewan’s future, https://seda.ca/about/paths-to-prosperity/ for more podcasts, thought leadership, and resources from the Saskatchewan Economic Development Alliance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:12

And we get many priorities forward to all the quicker data. So let's find out it is so great to be able to welcome Tyler onto our podcast today. We're going to jump right in. So, Tyler, in many communities, industry is still seen as a supporter, maybe even a sponsor, maybe just a job creator. What does it look like when industry becomes a true partner in building a regional economy?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, so I think that, you know, in our case here in Moosman, the it's easy. You know, the the easy part is the money sometimes, right? I mean, you want to you have a project on the go and you kind of knock on the doors of the business community and everybody writes a check to help support it and get whatever the project is off the ground or the event. But but I think in our case, you know, being more of a partner with local governments and the provincial government requires more than money. I think in our case, we bring some time and some energy to to a lot of projects. We bring some passion. And I think in a in a number of instances, we bring some expertise to the to the table to be able to help, you know, government in some areas where maybe they don't have that expertise at the council table. So, you know, whether it be some creative financing or some creative fundraising or or maybe construction of a special project where you know we've got somebody in the community that's in that business. We seem to be able to tap on those on those shoulders of those folks and and get them to the table to sort of help move those projects forward. And I think that's where you know you become a partner, you're not you're not just a donor.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

It's like the community builders alliance does at the table in a different way, alongside, like you said, local government and leaders and community partners. Can you walk us through how industry is actually showing up in Ruseman, not just individually, but collectively through the alliance?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

So I, you know, one example I would give, you know, we had a an airport project here that was kicked off. You know, the RM was was working on that project along with the flying club. And, you know, they worked away for a number of years trying to trying to sort of put the funding together for that. And then after the launch of the CBA, that was one of the priorities that was identified when we met with local councils. Building that airport was one of the priorities that came out from from all groups. It was an important project to not only the RM and the Flying Club, but but to the business community, to the healthcare community. So when we came out of that meeting and had that as a priority, we were able to work with the with the groups involved to develop a funding model. What we ended up doing there was, you know, we did some lobby work with the provincial government. We we were able to get some funding committed there to the tune of about 25% of the project. We were able to work with Nutrion to come up with about 25% of the project. And then we went to the local business community and we were able to raise another 25 there. And then we helped develop a funding model for the RM and the flying club to go to surrounding RMs on a per capita model to approach them for support as well. And we're able to, we're able to raise the other 25% that way. So you've got you know a number of you've got the provincial government, you've got the private sector, you've got sort of large industry, and you've got local, smaller local governments. I think there's a dozen or 15 sort of surrounding towns and RMs have also helped fund that project. So I think that's probably our best example of of how you can collaborate on a regional basis, not only RMs and towns collaborating, but bringing in the private sector to also collaborate and work alongside. And and you know, we were I think we were about 12 months from the time we started that to the day that all the funding was announced here in town with Nutrient and the provincial government. And so it it really sort of got that project rolling, I think. They'd done a lot of work for five or six years, and then you know, I think we were able to sort of fast track that a bit by helping bring some of those things to the table. So that's probably one of the best examples of sort of how we've collaborated regionally, you know, with the private and public sector.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah, and that that type of project brought industry together. And we're not talking little dollars here either, are we? Like it was a significant amount of uh funds that you had to raise.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Right. That was you know, that was about a $10 million project to get that built. We've got a you know 5,000 foot paved runway. And you know, the the sort of the original where that all started was we didn't have access to air ambulance here, and we've got a you know, we've got a a pretty good health care system in town here. We've got 10 or 12 doctors, and you know, we've we draw from a big area and we didn't have access to air ambulance. So that's where it all sort of started was uh you know, we need to have access to that that fixed-wing air ambulance. And and then, you know, sort of secondary to that was uh industry and the economic development that that sort of follows uh an airport, right? And and one of a great example a friend of mine always brings up is you know, there's not a lot of new startup businesses nowadays. You've got businesses who are looking for new locations and and the airport gives them access to to the Moosman region, right? Like we're not like real accessible, but I mean it if you if you're flying into Regina, you've got a you know, two and a half hour drive to get here, and you gotta drive back, and you know, so this really opens us up to to bringing in some industry into the region in a timely fashion.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

And then you have large expansions going on there too, like IJAX.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yes, uh yeah, IJAC is a is a great uh great homegrown story. You know, Danny's born and raised in Mooseman, and uh and him and his wife Olga have done just a tremendous job uh growing that business. They've just doubled their footprint. I don't know how many square feet they've got of of of space there now, but it's massive. They're building a new home in town, they've they're contributed to the airport, they're they're working on helping with a new arena project. I mean, they just uh they've just been uh well the community's very fortunate to have uh have the McCarthy's and uh in their business here in town.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

So with all this growth going on, are you seeing businesses start to think beyond their own operation and more about the regions and the system, you know, tackling the workforce challenges and housing availability and even the infrastructure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Yeah, you know, we I mean we housing is is comes up often. I I sit on the Economic Development Committee here locally, and you know, affordable housing is always seems to be on the agenda. One of the things that we've been able to do again through the CBA working with with the town and Moosman, we've helped apply for the housing accelerator fund grant from the federal government. So we work very closely with the town on that. We work closely with them on developing the the incentive plan on how to spend that money once it's approved, which we were fortunate to get approval on that of close to a million dollars. And it's worked very well. We've we've built over 40 new doors under that program. We've got six more going up here, another six-unit apartment that's coming this summer will be built. There's two or three brand new homes being single family homes being built currently in town. So so that that project has worked very well, or that that um funding stream, I think. And and again, that a real collaboration between the private sector and the local government to to really you know put some thought into that on into that. And and you know, if you when that was announced, you know, we were we were the most popular town in the country there for a couple of days. Like the media, national media caught wind of that. And you know, you move to Moose and build a house, we'll give you thirty thousand dollars. It was very marketable. And uh and it's been very successful. And and I suspect um, you know, we'll continue to see some success. There's still a little bit of money left in the pot there for to get a few more doors built. And that's been a good example, I think, of you know, that the whole infrastructure thing, getting housing built. And yeah. We do have a a new uh residential development. One of our CBA members is is it's a private development, but just north of town in the RM that's also under construction. There's a few houses being built out there, so you know that's that's nice to see some you know acreage style housing out there in that development.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah, and that's such a critical point, Tyler, that you know, housing isn't separate from economic development anymore at all. It's really central to it. And I think when employers are part of that whole conversation, the solutions tend to move faster. And one of the things I think we've learned through CEDA's work is that this level of collaboration doesn't happen organically. It really needs a structure, you know, pretty much a table that people come together. And and in your case, that's the Muslim Community Builders Alliance. So what what role does the alliance play in turning the individual industry voices into that collective action?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Well, I think so, you know, probably if we back up to, you know, about 2021, 2022 when we first started, one of the one of the things we we real we had a strategic planning session. You know, there's like five or six entrepreneurs in the room, and probably the most important thing that came out of that session was you know, we we can't do these things on our own. We we can't, the private sector can't build an airport, and the private sector can't build arenas. And you have to be able to work with the local government and the provincial government for that matter, but local government for sure. So that that was sort of our first step was to go to the local government and say, you know, here's here's our vision. You know, we have a pretty simple vision. We want to make MooseMen a a better place to live, work, play, and invest. And we're gonna sort of key on on four pillars of a of a strong community, and that's healthcare, education, arts and recreation, and business. So, you know, we we went to them and we we had some planning sessions with them. And one of the things that we took away was was, you know, let's establish an economic development committee that has representation from all the stakeholders. So the town, the RM, uh, and the CBA, we'll all fund it. So everybody gets two seats at the table, we'll represent our our organizations, and and we'll put our our money where our mouth is and and and fund it also. So we've we've set it up, we all funded a third of it, we had representation, and that was really where it started, I think that sort of that collaboration of working together with the town and the RM. We've we've since added the town and RM of Roakenville to you know expand it even more regionally by bringing them on board. And so yeah, I think it's been working, you know, pretty well. It uh it it you have that regular contact with them and and you know, we can discuss these projects and if there's any sort of issues and and and sort of build that relationship. That's probably the most important part of that. That committee is building that relationship between the the organizations. But and it's working well, I think.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Um Yeah, because really that's turned the activity into an ecosystem. You know, without without structure, you just kind of get good ideas, but not always the sustained momentum that you need to actually get things to actually happen. So and I I want to connect what you're doing locally to what we're seeing provincially through CEDA because there is a really strong alignment there. Like CETA's been implementing a two-year project aimed at increasing investment readiness in rural Saskatchewan and we're helping communities identify investment opportunities, but the strongest ones are grounded in industry demand. And in Usman, you've got the growth of manufacturing and the demand for trades and services and that corridor-based opportunities that you're working on. So, how how is how important is it to have industry validating those opportunities right from the start, very early on?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, I think it's pretty crucial, right, to have industry sort of at the table early on. I I think, you know, again, in my opinion, and whether this is a popular opinion or not, but I I think when you've got industry or private sector at the table, things can happen a little more at a little faster or a little higher velocity. When, you know, we we're just we're not quite as handcuffed by policy and regulations, etc., that that local governments are. So and I and I think our local governments appreciate that, right? That they they understand and they see that you know we can maybe help move things along a little faster than than they can on their own. And we recognize that there's certain things that can't happen without you know government, you know either the regulations or deregulations or whatever it might be, right? Or policies. So yeah, I think by having industry at the table early in the process for whatever the project is, it can certainly help move it along much quicker.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Um like when I I see it, it's really kind of in the early stages of regional cluster forming, particularly around your manufacturing and construction and trades and service industries. But then you also have the community side, you know, as growth is accelerating, you've got the housing, workforce stability, the community services. But are employers in Muslim stepping into those conversations about supporting the economic development and working alongside those initiatives?

SPEAKER_01 15:06

I think for sure, and and again, through you know, through the CBA, we've what it does is it sort of has we've got that network of people. There's 40 of us that are that are belong to the CBA currently, all you know, local entrepreneurs, and you know, there's some farm operators in there. And but you know, generally speaking, we're all entrepreneurs. And I think having that network sort of very accessible, you know, if and when opportunities arise, or if and when we need industry to step up and make an investment, you know, we can get that group together very quickly. Sometimes it's as simple as an email, right? You can you've got all 40 people on an email and whatever it might be, we can we can access those or or have contact with those, you know, and they're all like-minded, they all understand the the sort of the purpose of the organization. And but yeah, they're very, very accessible fairly quickly, right? We can um that we can have that group in a room, you know, within a day or two if we need to to to help move something along.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

So we're working together really cohesively that way. And and how long, how long has the community builders alliance been in the works?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

I think we started in it was either late 21 or or 2022. So, you know, we're you know, we're like four years into this. You know, we're still live sort of learning and growing every day. And but uh it also had you know, the one thing I was gonna say on the when you when you when you bring those 40 people together, there's a number of people in that room that that I had you know lots of previous business relationships with or personal relationships with. Um but I've also I've also met some, particularly some of the younger folks that I didn't know that well, right? I knew them to see them and and they've they've become good friends, and in some cases they become business partners in a couple of small ventures. So so really that you know that networking has has really it's been interesting too. And you know, there's a few that are from outside the region that we've we've been able to meet and and sort of bring them into the fold and get their perspective on things. And so that that becomes an important part of it, that networking of you know, just sort of having that group of folks that's available. And and even just, you know, we get together and have a meeting and and just you know, you can imagine the ideas that start to flow when you've got 30 or 40 entrepreneurs sitting in a room for a couple hours.

unknown 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

We're all pretty smart, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:29

So how do you re how do you rein all that how do you rein all those ideas in, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Right. That's sometimes the biggest challenge is how do you, you know, how do you sort of prioritize them all, right? Because the there's so many good ideas come out of a room like that.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

So that's that's a that's a good segue. Like how do you prioritize when you know?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

A couple of times what we've done, it was interesting. You know, it's just a whiteboard session where and we did this the first one we did, we had the town council, the RM council, we had the administrators there, we had CBA members in the room, and and everybody had a sticky notepad and a pen. And and everybody just wrote down, you know, here's here's something that one idea per sticky note, right? We need a new airport, we need a whatever. Everybody wrote them, and then we had all these sticky notes. There was hundreds of them on the wall, and then we grouped them all together. And, you know, whichever ones had the most number of sticky notes, those were the priorities. So at our very first session, we came out of there with four priorities. One was to get the airport built, one was to build a new residential subdivision, one was a new arena, and one was getting a CT machine in our hospital. So those were sort of the four top priorities of of all three groups. So that was kind of how we defined our priorities when we started. You know, and today, three or four years later, we've we're landing planes at the airport. The land has been purchased to build a new arena on, and I suspect we'll start seeing a little bit of activity on construction in the next month or two there. CT machine, you know, you're dealing with government and SHA, and I mean that we're still working on that one. It's taking takes time, right? Anything in healthcare takes time, but our understanding is it's still a potential anyway. So we're we're still working with with um the provincial government on that. And then on the housing, the housing development, we haven't been able to you know buy a chunk of land and get started on that yet in the town limits, but we have seen we have seen uh an 80-acre development north of town in the RM. Private, it's a private development, but it's underway. So, you know, we've kind of checked like three of the four boxes in a matter of three years, right? So uh, you know, I think we've done some good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Yeah, that's that's that's a quick turnaround. So what were some of the challenges? I mean, when you talk about having 40 people, but you're also talking about elected officials, different levels of government, private interest. How did you get everybody kind of at the table? Did everybody kind of buy in right away or or what was your uh what was your strategy around bringing all these people together?

SPEAKER_01 20:16

You know, it took some time so to get the CBA folks together, it took a bit of time, right? To there was a lot of just one-on-one conversations and and you know, we didn't just need their their membership, we needed some of their money to get this thing rolling. So we we asked them to purchase a membership. That's how we funded this organization. And so everybody wrote a check to to be founding member, and then everybody chips in a few bucks every year to help with the operations and and help us with our share of you know the active funding, that sort of thing. And then, you know, when we went to the local governments to that, that first whiteboard session was sort of the the first interaction, I guess. And and I, you know, to be quite to be quite honest, there was a lot of skepticism, I think, between the sort of the three organizations at the table whether or not this would work. And and I and the you know, the current Reeve told me, I don't I don't think I'm telling anything I I shouldn't hear, but it he told me he, you know, he didn't think this thing was gonna work, and he was he was probably one of the most skeptical folks. And then since then we've had some conversations and you know he finds the CBA as a as a pretty good asset now to to have. Yeah, but yeah, but you know, it it like anything, it takes time to sort of earn that, right? And I think we've been very fortunate. We've we've had some successes, and and I think all the parties involved realize that you know we we may have our differences on a lot of things, but we can we can there's certain things we can work together and and accomplish. And and I think we're seeing that here in town.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Well, that that's really ecosystem. in action, you know, where the economic development and the community well-being are kind of no longer separate conversations and people are just coming to the table for you know for the the good of of seeing things actually get done. And for communities across Saskatchewan that want to build what you're building, obviously stronger in industry engagement. What advice do you have for them? Where should they start?

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Well you gotta have a few people that are you know pretty committed I guess to the community. And and I you know we we've got 40 members. I mean not not all 40 are are active, right? I mean you've got you know half a dozen or ten people that kind of do and there's not a lot of legwork but but you know we've got an executive there's about six or eight of us on the executive and we kind of do most of the work and try to represent everybody and but but you gotta have some people that are passionate about the community I think. You know and we had that here. You know I've been here most of my life and have a number of businesses in town have a lot of investment in town. I raised my kids here and we and we just want a community that that you know there's gonna be some opportunity for my kids someday if they want to go away to school and come back. That's we want there to be opportunity here for them, right? So so we've got, you know, people that are committed time wise. We've got people that obviously everybody's committed financially. And that I mean whether you like it or not it it takes some money to make the world go round so everybody's committed to it financially. And then I I think you need to you need to be able to to sort of build that relationship with local government so that that you can work together. You know and there has to be a level of trust and and respect I think. And and in our case, you know we like to we like to try to come with solutions to the to local government and I think they appreciate that right and they're so used to just you know people complaining and and you know demanding things right where we try to come forward and say like you know here's a problem but maybe here's a solution we can help work on with you and so I I think you know doing that and it's not that we don't have our differences absolutely we we have you know differences of of of opinion and and but we work through that and I think we may not like it but we understand and appreciate each other's position. And but yeah I think it at the end of the day it really comes down to people. You've got to have people committed to the to the community and and making it better and making it a you gotta make your community a place people want to be. Because if if you don't have people you don't have economic development. So you gotta you gotta have a town where people want to be and I and I think those sort of those first three pillars education, healthcare and arts and arts and recreation are I mean that that's what brings people to your town, right? People gotta have and especially you know if you want young families like the the arts and the recreation stuff is so important that you know people nowadays people are so mobile you know they'll they'll they'll live in a different town because you know their their son or daughter has a a better opportunity to play hockey in that town. They can work from from anywhere or they can commute to work or whatever, right? But you know they'll they'll actually move to give their their child a better opportunity for whatever it might be, right? So you want to make sure you've got those things in your community that that makes people want to come there.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Yeah exactly and for start for starting the community builders alliance what made the difference in Musiman was it the leadership or was it the timing you said just kind of coming out of COVID time maybe or or was it the specific project that was really the catalyst that caused the action to get everybody together?

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Well you know it it's kind of a funny story. Like I I was asked to sit on sort of our previous version of our economic development committee. I live in the RM just outside of town so I was asked to be they had a member at large of from the RM to sit on ECDev. So they'd asked me to to be there and I went to my very first meeting and I kind of you know just sort of took it all in and one of the things I took away was we're trying to attract new businesses and new industry or or we're trying to help somebody expand or and and what I took away from that meeting most of the folks at the table are are counselors and you know they're very limited to what they can do. If you know if somebody wants to come to town and set up a a widget factory they're somewhat limited particularly from an investment that they're not going to invest in real estate to help you know bring that guy to town right so that was sort of the takeaway for me was you know we got to have a group of people who are sort of investment ready that that ECDev or the town or the RM can come to and say hey we've got an opportunity here's some people that want to come to town but we need some investment either in their business or we need a a real estate investment or somebody to be their landlord whatever it might be right so that's sort of where it started and I I kind of took that away and I did a little presentation to the Chamber of Commerce one day that you know this is I think we should we should try to put this investment group together. And then Kevin Weedmark had covered it in the paper and about two days after the paper came out I was dropping my daughter off at a birthday party and she was like five years old at the time or six years old. And and it was Christian Hebert's daughter Ivy it was her birthday party. So and Christian and I you know we we sort of knew each other but but you know we probably didn't say more than about 20 words to each other up until that day. You know we're different in age and just you know different industries whatever. So anyway him and I had a conversation for about you know 20 minutes, half an hour that day and that that was sort of where it started you know and then it kind of snowballed from there to you know let's let's look at more than just an investment you know club or group whatever you want to call it and you know and that it just kind of grew from there. We we brought in a we we I think our first meeting we had like six or eight people and we sort of floated it by them and they all seemed to like the idea and that that was sort of the five from there we had like our five founders five of us wrote a check to get the thing started and then we went out and recruited the sort of the rest of the crew and and I guess the rest is history.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Yeah like really it was it was community leadership. It kind of like yourself seeing the gap in the community that was there and figuring out how to how to fill that with something that was cohesive that brought everybody to kinda to the table.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Right. And and to be quite quite blunt, like you know a lot of us are we want to help you know we want to grow our community, we want to make it a better place to live but we don't have a lot of aspirations to to sit on council. Right. So this was sort of the next best thing where we're you know we don't have to put our hand up and and run to be on council but we can we can work with them and try to help on certain projects that that you know we're passionate about right so so um kind of gives a voice to industry where maybe they don't necessarily have it always at at a council table either yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Yeah yeah well this has been great Tyler there's a ton of information here that is going to be great for our listeners to to unpack and to share and I really applaud what you're doing at Moosman and all the projects that you have on the go and in such a short amount of time that really shows what the collaborative side of building an economic ecosystem can do when you have everybody at the table and they have they have their stakeholders in the community and they really believe in the potential of their community. So I really appreciate the time that you've spent here today and for sharing all the information. It's been really great to have you here. Thank you very much to Alex you're very welcome anytime wow today's conversation was a powerful reminder that industry as an ecosystem builder isn't just an idea it's a model for creating real regional momentum. And the Movement Community Builders Alliance they brought together industry and local businesses and local governments and community leaders and they identified their four shared priorities and they built a strategic plan around those and the results speak for themselves in just four short years they helped make a $10 million regional airport a reality security a million federal funding for housing an expanded regional collaboration and turned community priorities into measurable assets their story shows what's possible with community of these start building together I think it's kind of the one for sharing this experience on the left of the product we need to take away from the community building aligns the base conversation about the new idea to episode collective effects building product we need to have more conversations building stronger stronger we need to add stronger