Business Administration

One of the three legs of the Rural Community Development program is "Business Development". Without a business and commercial sector a town, city or region is in serious trouble.

Manitoba, with its large capital region containing over 80% of its population is a fairly stable economy. It does not have the boom and bust cycles of Alberta's oil or the Industrial sector of many Eastern Ontario towns or the cyclical swings of the mineral and timber sectors. The agriculture sector still has not collapsed like the Eastern cod stocks, although some concern has been raised recently about the plummeting bio-diversity on the prairies, and its implications for the future of the farming sector.

In the rural areas, industry is sparse and most businesses are in the supply and service sector for the agricultural producers. Although this makes western Manitoba fairly stable, shifts in the crops and raw food prices due to weather and shifting world markets have a huge impact on rural businesses. Centralization of rural population to larger centers, particularly Brandon, has made it much harder for local enterprises in the more remote areas to sustain themselves. Some towns north west of Brandon have lost 60% of their population in thirty years, and the ones to the southeast have lost 40-50%. As one rural support worker commented, "I still work out of my home, and rarely am away more than one day at a time. However, I cover many more miles than I did formerly to do the same work".[]

Business development and retention is difficult in small centers, and it takes great ingenuity to make them successful in today's global marketplace.

Further Resources

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