Eger said City Administration consulted with the Yorkton Business Improvement District (YBID), the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) and the Economic Development Committee, (EDC), in preparing changes. Program changes were then discussed in detail at the February 11, 2021 EDC meeting. A range of options were considered, with members commenting that: There are many business owners who live outside the City and still contribute their time and money to local teams, events and fundraisers, and we should be supportive of their importance and value to the community; The amount of funding to any successful applicant needs to be large enough that there is real benefit and incentive to invest. Given available funding limits, we should not open the Program too much or incentives will be spread too thin to achieve desired results;
This year s YBID board will be Councillor Ken Chyz, Phoebe Buckle, Sean Craib-Petkau, Doug Hull, Sandy Kerr, Dave Nussbaumer, Gale Pelletier, Andrew Rae, Lauretta Ritchie-McInnes, Damon Syrota and Bruce Thurston. Donna Brothwell, executive director of YBID, said that like most businesses, they also had to adapt and take different approaches to be successful over the past year. One of the big examples of that philosophy was the Santa Claus Day reverse parade, which had stationary floats which cars moved through. It was a big success, she said, and kept the Christmas tradition moving in the city. “It’s about finding ways to do things through COVID.”