MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - County council has approved $10,000 in funding to participate in the Town of Olds’ Business Retention, Expansion and Workforce Development (BREWD) program.
The matter was discussed by council and staff during the April 26 meeting, held in person and online.
“The Town of Olds is pursuing the development of an economic development strategy focused on BREWD,” said Chris Atchison, the county’s director of legislative service.
“Prior to initiating development of this strategy, the town has requested Mountain View County’s participation in the project as the project scope will extend outside of the town’s municipal boundaries in an effort to involve businesses located within the Olds catchment area, specifically Netook Crossing Business Park (east of Olds) and the Olds-Didsbury Airport.”
The business park at Highway 22 and Highway 27 will also be part of the catchment area, council heard.
Collaborating with the county may give the town better success in applying for grant funding, he said.
“It is administration’s position that although the project will primarily serve the town’s purposes to develop an economic development strategy, there may be benefit to the county by identifying county businesses within this catchment area, determining their needs and objectives and opening up further conversations between businesses and the county,” he said.
According to information provided to the county by the Town of Olds, objectives of the BREWD program will include “enhanced cooperation and consensus among businesses, government, and economic development organizations”, “provide support/information to address immediate individual business issues and opportunities” and “encourage, support, and facilitate human resource planning and labour market adjustments for the area.”
Coun. Peggy Johnson asked how the success of the venture will be measured.
“How are we going to know that we accomplished what we set out to do, and what is the estimate of the timeline to recapture our $10,000 investment?” said Johnson.
Atchison replied, “Our success is going to be based on our receiving input from our businesses on what is important to them. We can certainly take that information into our economic development strategy and objectives. That’s how I am going to measure success.
“As far as recapturing the costs, I unfortunately don’t have an answer to that. I don’t know how it will provide a direct return on investment.”
Chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes said the project may lead to new grant application opportunities for the county down the road.
Coun. Jennifer Lutz said, “I think it’s a good investment and I will be supporting it.”
Coun. Greg Harris said, “We need to start doing more for our businesses and this a good partnership to be able to provide something for our businesses in this area. Hopefully it will be a model that others could look at.”
Reeve Angela Aalbers said participating the initiative is worthwhile for the county.
“This is a great opportunity,” said Aalbers.
Council will expect to see a final report on the project, she said.
Council carried a motion to approve the $10,000 contribution, with the funding coming from the tax rate stabilization reserve.
