January 2014
| Business World Magazine | 35
W
homever coined the phrase “plan your work, work your plan”
would have loved Swift Current.
And while the southwestern Saskatchewan city is dwarfed by
familiar Canadian names like Toronto and Vancouver – and by more nearby
regional neighbors in Winnipeg and Calgary – it’s quickly developing a repu-
tation as a place with all the needed elements for high quality of life and high
success in business.
Its population grew 3.7 percent in a recent five-year stretch, and the locals
are poised for more.
“It truly is a great city to live in and it hasn’t happened by chance,” says Jer-
rod Schafer, the city’s mayor since 2009 after serving two terms as a council
member. “There’s been a lot of good planning, and, as a result, we’re going to
continue to see some good growth.”
That growth, in the estimation of Marty Salberg, the city’s director of busi-
ness development, will be the result of a perfect storm of factors that make
Swift Current attractive – including a desirable location within both the prov-
ince and the region on the Trans Canada Highway, and an economy fueled by a
cross-section of industries.
