DIDSBURY - The multi-stakeholder Didsbury Economic Advisory Committee (DEDAC) has provided input on updating the Didsbury marketing plan.
The committee has been working with the plan, first approved by council in 2012, to determine the relevance of the document with current market conditions and to make recommendations.
The outcome of the review is an updated marketing plan that aligns with the municipal development plan.
The committee is recommending number of additions and changes to the plan’s section on Didsbury’s strengths, opportunities, challenges and threats.
Those include highlighting the town’s ball diamonds, walking pathways and skatepark, acknowledging the town’s movie and film industry involvement in recent years, highlighting benefits of the town compared with neighbouring communities, and having a list of commercial properties posted online.
Goals in the marketing plan need to be specifically defined and reviewed regularly “to see if progress is being made,” the committee said.
“Example of tangible and achievable long-term goals including number of new residential buildings completed per year, residential properties sold per year, number of business licences per year with trends, and average renewal rate of business licences.”
Regarding updating the plan, the committee said the plan should “include steps for tracking and committee/town need to follow up on a regular basis to check in on goal completion, as well as putting it on the record what was done, what worked and what didn’t.
“The plan should be numbers and structured according to steps and priorities. Small wins to celebrate in the short-term, and long-term plans and activities for long-term wins.”
Council accepted the committee’s report as information and forwarded the comments to the economic development department.
Audited financial statements accepted
Meanwhile, council has received and accepted the municipality’s 2020 financial statements. The move also came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
In 2020, the financial assets of the town were $10,976,978, up from $9.,486,971 in 2019, while liabilities also increased from $2,256,116 to $3,100,203.
Revenue in 2020 was $11,327,911, down slightly from $11,695,567 in 2019, while expenditures were $10,661,446, compared with $10,722,697 in 2019.
Accounts receivable were $1,429,484, down from $1,603,174 in 2019.
The town’s long-long-term debt was $3,790,458 in 2020, down from $4,354,769 the previous year.
Council accepted the financial statements for information.
Both the marketing plan and the audited financial statements are available one the town’s website.
