CFEI celebrates 40th years of economic assistance in rural communities
Community Futures East Interlake (CFEI) is celebrating 40 years of helping the rural communities in its catchment area develop strong economies and thriving businesses.
CFEI board chair Steve Lupky, who is also the chair of Community Futures Manitoba and the chair of Community Futures Pan West, presented CFEI chair of the investment review committee Evelyn Stocki with a Community Futures’ Excellence in Volunteerism Award. The award is given by the Manitoba Community Futures organization and is based on the direction and oversight that volunteers carry out at the local level
The non-profit community-based economic development organization marked its 40th anniversary on April 30, said CFEI general manager Tammy Dziadek, who’s been with the organization since 1994.
And she said the they’ll be going strong in the future, especially as U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariff war starts to make its impact felt in Manitoba and across Canada. During the 2008 financial crisis, CFEI’s lending program was much needed. Dziadek is expecting that its loan program will be become a “bit busier” as Interlakers move through another major period of economic uncertainty.
“We’ll be here to help our entrepreneurs and businesses, especially in the next little while to help them navigate the challenges with the tariffs. There is some work to do there. And we’ve been doing a lot of work with the non-profit sector around governance and understanding bylaws. There’s huge need for that as a lot of our non-profits are struggling. We’ve been finding there’s a lot of need for counselling services because there’s a bit of a gap,” said Dziadek, who took on CFEI’s general manager role in 2004. “We also want to do more lending. There are programs out there you can potentially get financing for, but nobody with boots on the ground helping entrepreneurs navigate business matters.”
CFEI is a grassroots-driven organization with a volunteer board of directors made up of Interlake municipal leaders and other community members. It supports entrepreneurs in its catchment area with business development advice, services, grants and loans.
CFEI falls under Community Futures Manitoba Inc., which was formed in 1991 as an association of Community Futures organizations. Community Futures was initiated by the Government of Canada and is administered by Prairies Economic Development Canada. It operates across rural and northern Canada.
In Manitoba, the Community Futures program started out as a pilot program called the Local Employment Assistance and Development program before it morphed into the North East Interlake Business Development Corporation then eventually became CFEI while expanding its reach to communities across the Interlake.
The pilot project at the time aimed to address a need in some communities for economic development, said Dziadek, and it eventually “took on a life of its own” after proving how valuable it was.
CFEI’s catchment area now includes Peguis, Fisher River and Jackhead First Nations in the north, the RM of Rosser in the south and the municipalities of Fisher, Bifrost-Riverton, Arborg, Armstrong, Gimli, Winnipeg Beach, Dunnottar, Rockwood, Stonewall and Teulon in between.
CFEI’s delivers a number of programs and services that help entrepreneurs with business-plan development, market analysis, bookkeeping, cash-flow projections and accessing financing, to name a few. It provides business training, seminars, business training modules and referrals to other business-related professional services. It also serves as a “financing option” for qualifying clients who are unable to obtain a sufficient loan through traditional lenders.
In addition to focusing on assisting entrepreneurs, economic development is “really big” for CFEI, which works with the Economic Developers Association of Manitoba. It can “pivot” between the two when the need arises.
The federal government provided funding to CFEI to get its loan program started.
“We were originally given $1 million 40 years ago. We got another $475,000 in 1996,” said Dziadek. “We’ve turned that around about 11 times now; we’ve got a loan pool of over $11 million. That money goes into the community and it comes back.”
One of CFEI’s many success stories is the Lakeview Resort in Gimli. The hotel leases the land on which it sits and that money is re-distributed through CFEI to its communities.
The Lakeview was spearheaded by the North-East Interlake Community Futures Development Committee Inc. (NEICOM). NEICOM, which holds the title to the land, had initiated a regional tourism development strategy that focused on tourism opportunities. Its study showed Gimli as the region’s “anchor” for tourism development. The Lakeview opened in June 1991 and has since provided about 75 full-time and part-time jobs, as well as contributing to downtown revitalization and drawing thousands of tourists year round.
“We’ve had a lot of success stories over the years with our clients. The Gimli hotel project was a big one. Somebody saw a need for tourism and they built the hotel. Because of the hotel – the rent money we get from the lease – we have funds that we can give back as grants to the community. The whole region benefits by having access to that grant money,” said Dziadek. “It’s full circle where you can see all the great work that’s happened over the years.”
Some of CFEI’s past grant recipients of the Build Interlake Growth (BIG) program include Settlers, Rails & Trails in Argyle, Something Beautiful Café in Stonewall, the Gimli Glider Exhibit, a mud bog facility in Armstrong, and a pergola in Bifrost-Riverton. BIG projects create employment and help attract new residents to the east Interlake region.
In 2024, CFEI provided $17,500 in BIG grants.
In addition to grants, CFEI delivers funding programs for the federal government. During the COVID pandemic in 2020, the federal government initiated the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF) to provide funding assistance to businesses needing help from the pandemic’s impact. In 2023 CFEI was managing over 171 RRRF loans and more than 100 RRRF clients, according to its annual general meeting report.
“The Regional Relief and Recovery Fund was huge for our office. Our office had the most loans in Manitoba. And we’ve had a pay back rate that’s been phenomenal. About 96 per cent of those loans have now been paid back,” said Dziadek. “I’m going to give our board a lot of credit for getting that federal money out to people that needed it and as quickly as possible. It really helped region.”
CFEI manages the Business Builder program, which offers free assistance to entrepreneurs with disabilities, and the Build a Better Business program, which helps new and potential business owners learn how to run a business. CFEI developed 10 modules whose topics range from business start-ups and financing to branding and taxes.
“I’m really proud the 10-module tool we created. We have videos and workbooks to give people a good understanding of how to run a business,” said Dziadek. “Build a Better Business is getting used across Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan liked it so much, they changed it up for their regulations. It’s also being used in part of the Business Builder program.”
In addition to business, economic development and loans, Dziadek said she has delivered strategic planning training to groups such as the Stonewall Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Arborg, the South Interlake Library and the Interlake Women’s Resource Centre, to name a few.
What make CFEI so successful is its grassroots nature and volunteer board, said Dziadek.
“Our program is really volunteer-driven and the staff can’t do it without our volunteers; they’re amazing,” said Dziadek. “I think that’s what makes the difference about our program: we’re grassroots-driven and our program is whatever the needs of the community are.”
For more information about CFEI’s business and economic development services, grants and loans, call (204) 378-5106 or toll free 1-800-378-5106 or visit CFEI at 62 Second Ave. in Gimli.
