Prairie Sky Co-op had a strong 2021 after numbers were down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

At the annual general meeting for the co-operative, held Thursday night, those in attendance heard that the sales for Prairie Sky Co-op, across all divisions, were up by 20.7 percent in 2021 to $85,962,163. This increase was primarily on sales in the petroleum division, which were up by $11,046,261 since the previous year, and made up 54.9 percent of the sales in 2021. 

"It was very good,” said outgoing president Brett Ferguson. “We had a very successful year. As Rebecca (Filteau) said, we had sales up in all of our business lines.” 

The increase in sales also saw the board able to allocate a larger amount to patrons compared to 2021. This year, the patronage allocation will be $2,394,077, an increase of 46.4 percent from the previous allocation.  

During the meeting, it was also relayed that the planning stages of renovation work planned for the Weyburn food store are now underway. Timelines for the renovations, however, were not covered during the meeting.  

Board president Brett Ferguson will be stepping down from his position on the board of the Prairie Sky Co-op, as he has been elected to the Board of Directors for Federated Co-op Limited.  

“It’s been a really exciting time,” Ferguson said of the move to the FCL board. “We just got to hire a new CEO there.” The new CEO of FCL is Heather Ryan, who has been with the organization since 2013, and a member of the senior leadership team since 2015. 

No other changes were made to the Board of Directors, with Ferguson stepping down. Of the four seats that were up for election, three candidates were elected by acclamation, with Jim Linnell, Brent Hansen and Nick Coroluick running for re-election. The other board members include 1st Vice-President Stella Swertz and directors Al York, Leanna Anderson, Ken Kot and Melanie Sorenson.  

The meeting closed with a question-and-answer session, and while no questions were asked of the board, there were some comments offered. Those comments voiced gratitude to the staff at the Prairie Sky Co-op for working through the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the staff has gone above and beyond over the past two years.