Calgary entrepreuneur creates meals for the backcountry | CTV News - CTV News Calgary

Erin Creegan-Dougherty had 12 minutes to pitch her business to a panel of judges at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) Canadian national event in Halifax. She was one of eight student finalists chosen from thousands of applicants. Creegan-Dougherty finished third winning $15,000.
"It makes all the difference in the world so for me," she said. "(The prize money) really allowed me to be able to purchase the equipment that’s necessary to be able to expand my business to have a full time operation and as most people know, when you’re starting business, capital is always the hard thing so it allowed me to push past a lot of those barriers that I had."
Peter Thomas is a tenured Canadian entrepreneur and a founding member of the Emeritus Entrepreneurs Organization. He started the Thomas GSEA Foundation by donating $1.5 million to the program where the prize money came from for Creegan-Dougherty and the other top five finishers.
"I believe the young entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the body of the economy," said Thomas. "I really do feel that the growth and that’s one of the reasons I still support it, is because I feel with the growth of these young entrepreneurs into our society and to our economic system, that’s what replenishes and reinvents all the new things that we need to make our society evolve."
The 27-year-old Mount Royal University student is in her final year of international business with a minor in history. Her passion for cooking was passed down over generations of family. She’s adapted recipes and made up new ones for her business.
"So a backcountry food can be dehydrated, freeze dried or prepared foods," she said. "Something that’s ready for someone to grab and go camping or hiking or really for any outdoor enthusiast."
It all started around 2019 when she worked for a backcountry outfitter who was having difficulty meeting all his clients’ specialty food needs.
"He had a bunch of clients that were coming in that were keto and gluten-free and had all these other restrictions," she said. "He couldn’t find anything so it was really one of those things that I was like, oh I can make that for you."
Maskwa Backcountry Foods began as a seasonal, small summertime business, but six months ago it turned into a full-time venture with new and returning clients.
"There’s nothing that stopping anyone who’s not necessarily going deep into the backcountry and just wants to sit around the fire and try something new from our product," said Creegan-Dougherty. "We always say even though we are backcountry food, we’re something that everyone can like at the same time and that’s sort of the goal of it."
Creegan-Dougherty is Metis and Maskwa means bear in the Cree language. Her nickname growing up was little bear and in northern BC she worked by the Mighty Maskwa River, so she decided to use the name for her company.
Kym Penner is a family friend who helps Creegan-Dougherty any way she can.
"I’ve gone gluten-free and so Erin will create things in my kitchen and make me taste them good or bad," she said.
Penner has helped prepare meals for some of the company’s big clients and is happy to support and help the young entrepreneur.
"I do see (the business) going places," Penner said. "I think there’s a niche there, I mean more and more people are having dietary restrictions and we want to eat decently, we want to eat good food, just because we’re on dietary restriction doesn’t mean we shouldn’t."
Creegan-Dougherty hopes one day to see her food products sold at majorly backcountry stores and grocery stores one day.
Learn more about Maskwa Backcountry Foods here.
For the second time in less than a month, a resident of Ashcroft, B.C., died while waiting for health care after having a heart attack mere metres from a local ambulance station.

A diving accident at 14-years-old left Brian Parker paralyzed from the chest down. Now at age 49, he's without the person who was caring for him full-time until just last week, after his 68-year-old mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Canada's average resale home price fell 4.5% from a year ago in July and was down 5.4% on the month as buyers continued to sit on the sidelines amid rising borrowing costs.

A large rally planned in Vancouver to protest the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. may block traffic Monday morning.

British drug regulators have become the first in the world to authorize an updated version of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine that aims to protect against the original virus and the omicron variant.

Canadian MPs and veteran groups are urging ministers to do more to help thousands of Afghans who assisted Canadian Forces, but remain trapped in Afghanistan a year after the Taliban seized Kabul.

The top executive at Pfizer, a leading producer of COVID-19 vaccines, has tested positive for the virus and says he is experiencing very mild symptoms.

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will visit the U.K. next month for the first time since they returned for Queen Elizabeth II 's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Padma Lakshmi is supporting her ex-husband Salman Rushdie in his recovery. The 'Top Chef' star tweeted Sunday that she is 'relieved' Rushdie is 'pulling through after Friday's nightmare' in which he was stabbed multiple times while on stage in New York.

Canada's average resale home price fell 4.5% from a year ago in July and was down 5.4% on the month as buyers continued to sit on the sidelines amid rising borrowing costs.

For the second time in less than a month, a resident of Ashcroft, B.C., died while waiting for health care after having a heart attack mere metres from a local ambulance station.

British drug regulators have become the first in the world to authorize an updated version of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine that aims to protect against the original virus and the omicron variant.

A B.C. trucker was sentenced to spend years in prison after being caught smuggling methamphetamine over the border.

For the second time in less than a month, a resident of Ashcroft, B.C., died while waiting for health care after having a heart attack mere metres from a local ambulance station.

A large rally planned in Vancouver to protest the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. may block traffic Monday morning.

A person has died after police say a vehicle crashed and caught fire in Dartmouth Monday morning.

A group of Nova Scotians is being sent to fight wildfires burning in central Newfoundland.

The daughters of a 60-year-old Vancouver Island man who was found dead in his home in 2019 are suing the Correctional Service of Canada, claiming negligent prison officials allowed two men to escape from a minimum-security penitentiary and murder their father.

An hours-long standoff between heavily armed police and the occupants of a home in Campbell River has ended with six arrests, Mounties say. Frontline officers responded to the home in the 600 block of Alpine Road around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, after receiving multiple reports of shots being fired.

The U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies are responding to a sunken vessel leaking fuel in Haro Strait, between Vancouver Island and San Juan Island.

A Toronto family’s heart-wrenching journey to find a cure for their son’s ultra-rare disease has reached a new milestone.

A famous frontman was the recipient of an act of kindness while trying to rent a bike in Toronto Monday.

About 60 per cent of Toronto’s non-profit childcare centres have opted into the federal government’s $10 a day program ahead of a Sept. 1 deadline but the uptake among for-profit centres has lagged behind.

Quebec health authorities are launching another COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign.

With one week to go before the start of the new school year, the CSQ is concerned that some CEGEPs will be unable to offer certain services and even some courses due to a lack of staff.

Quebec's public finances are in order as the Oct. 3 election approaches, but nothing should be taken for granted due to prevailing economic uncertainty, according to the auditor general.

Addressing municipal leaders in Ottawa this morning, on the first full day of events at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario Conference, Premier Doug Ford said the 'strong mayor' powers he initially said would be granted to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa will be expanded to other municipalities.

Lisa LaFlamme is leaving CTV News. The network announced today that the Chief Anchor and Senior Editor is departing after more than 30 years with the company.

Gananoque, Ont. police are on the lookout after they say a Camp Day donation box was stolen from a local Tim Hortons.

With only a few weeks before classes begin, multiple students have been displaced after flames ripped through a house Sunday morning. Occupants were home at the time and were alerted by a quick-thinking bylaw officer.

Police have shut down roads surrounding the intersection of Perth Road 140 and Line 91 just outside Palmerston, Ont. after what they’re calling a “serious collision.”

A family that recently moved from Waterloo Region is remembering the life of their nine-year-old boy after the search for him came to a tragic end.

The search for a 74-year-old woman lost in the forest northeast of Smeaton has come to a tragic end.

Creighton RCMP are searching for a woman reported missing from the campground she was staying at Sunday.

Evidence of COVID-19 in Saskatoon's wastewater has increased by 43 per cent and is considered large, according to University of Saskatchewan researchers.

Everett Freeman, 9, went camping with his family on Huckleberry Island in Georgian Bay, and went missing around 3 p.m. on Friday.

CTV News has learned one person has been taken to hospital after an early morning fire at a camp west of Sudbury.

A 36-year-old North Bay man is facing charges after allegedly setting fire to an unoccupied tent in the backyard of a home and stealing property, police say.

Former Liberal member of Parliament Anita Neville has been named Manitoba's next lieutenant-governor.

Government officials toured the ongoing construction happening on the South Perimeter Highway at St. Mary's Monday morning.

City crews in Brandon have found a water main break that was causing low-pressure problems for a large part of the city. However, a portion of the city is now under a boil water advisory until the problem is completely fixed.

Saskatchewan residents 18 years and older are eligible to receive a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

A novice driver was caught travelling well over the speed limit late Sunday evening.

The search for a 74-year-old woman lost in the forest northeast of Smeaton has come to a tragic end.