Richard has 35 years of private sector experience acquired from four industries: commercial real estate, construction and development, food manufacturing and agri-value supply chain services. He spent the past 18 years as the provincial managing director for Canada’s two, and only, full-service commercial real estate firms, Colliers and Avison Young before he moved on to private consulting in 2024.
Prior to real estate, he was involved in three other industries. In food manufacturing, he led the design and start-up of the first ever gluten-free oat milling facility as the Chief Operating Officer of FarmPure Foods. In construction, development and agri-value supply chains, he served as the head of the asset management team at Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (Viterra/Bunge) for over a decade.
Richard currently delivers advisory services to the real estate industry and provides investment and mentorship advice to entrepreneurs. In addition, he manages a real estate portfolio in western Canada that he’s assembled through private equity syndication. He recently co-authored and launched a book titled “March Forth”, a call to action for Saskatchewan and Canadian business and policy leaders to change the way they deal with economic disruption, trade instability, and declining competitiveness.
Saskatchewan’s Planning and Development Act, 2007 (PDA) governs land use, zoning, and subdivision regulations for over 750 municipalities — from resort villages and small towns to major cities. A single piece of legislation applies to all of them. Our premise is that the PDA has become increasingly outdated, process heavy, and misaligned with Saskatchewan’s economic and social realities. The cost of this misalignment is measurable: approvals take longer and longer, developers work around regulations rather than with them, and councils spend more time focusing on zoning rather than planning. The end result is a loss of opportunity, frustration and exhaustion amongst stakeholder groups, and wasted resources. It’s time for a fundamental rethink. This interactive workshop invites Saskatchewan planners and associated professionals to engage directly in shaping an agenda to create an entirely new PDA — not a patch or an amendment, but a clean-sheet approach grounded in evidence, designed for the 21st century and built for efficiency.
