Lloydminster and area businesses are benefiting thanks to a new bursary from the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce.
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Cheques for the inaugural Young Entrepreneur Bursary Program were presented on Nov. 26. Three area businesses, Northern Lights Trucking, Kiana Walker Professional Counselling and One Eleven Wellness, were at the Lloyd Ex to accept the $5K bursary.
The event began with a presentation by Jackie Tomayer, Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce president, and included remarks from Lloydminster Deputy Mayor Jim Taylor.
For Northern Lights Trucking, funding will help with additional training for staff.
“It’s an honour to receive it,” said Danielle Schneider, co-owner, Northern Lights Trucking. “It definitely helps us by allowing us to invest more into our safety practises and ensuring we’re being safe around the community and be able to offer more training to our staff.”
Jillian McKinnon-Kryzanowski, chiropractor and owner, One Eleven Wellness, said the money will help with renovations.
“I’m a brand-new business. I just started in 2024 and we’ve had huge reno costs, so this will be really helpful,” she said. “I want to get my team a really great outfit. We’re kind of still renovating some rooms in our space, so I’ll be using it that way, too.”
Funding will help Kiana Walker Professional Counselling obtain more resources for herself and her clients, along with additional training.
“It will allow me to get different kinds of toys, emotional regulation stuff, different resources,” said Walker, founder of Kiana Walker Professional Counselling. “It also allows me to expand my education so I can take different courses for different avenues for kids I get to work with.”
The criteria for how the funding could be used for the businesses allowed them to be more flexible with where the money goes.
“The criteria to use the money is, they could use it anywhere from operations to tech, to training, to buying supplies. It’s a very open grant to get them started on their business,” said Teri-Lynn MacKie, executive director of the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce.
In order to apply, the businesses had to be based in Lloydminster and were chosen by a committee through the Saskatchewan chamber. According to MacKie, the funding is thanks to advocacy work by the provincial chamber.
“The Saskatchewan chamber advocated to get the funding for the young entrepreneurs,” she said.
This is the first of the three-year bursary program. The Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce will promote the application on its website when the next round of funding becomes available.
“The more people that apply in our area, the more bursaries we could receive,” said MacKie.
A full list of bursary recipients is available on the Sask chamber’s website.
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