Chamber president expects a year of change

This will be a year of change in the community -- but in a good way -- according to Olds & and District Chamber of Commerce president Ben Stone.

"I think probably one of my highlights for the entire year is just hearing from businesses that things are starting to improve," he says.

"Now that's not every business, but hearing from a few that they're starting to see things pick up again is very encouraging, and I think that that's a sign of things picking up for the town as a whole as far as the businesses are concerned."

Stone notes there's lots of talk in town that at least one more marijuana production plant or related facility is planned for the area (for a total of three). A canola crushing plant envisioned by a group from India is also under consideration.

Stone has heard that if those projects and others in the works do happen, that could create anywhere from 500 to 2,000 jobs, thereby further spurring an Olds economy which he says is already showing signs of recovery from the downturn that began in 2014.

"Now whether or not that will come to fruition remains to be seen until those couple of years into the future, but I think that's very encouraging. And I think that makes a lot of sense if you look at Olds from a business perspective," Stone says.

"We do have a very business-friendly council as well as a town as far as tax and environment, as well as our Internet and just our infrastructure as a whole. It makes a lot of sense to see all of this development coming to Olds," he adds.

"If those do come to exist in Olds, then we're going to see a substantial increase in demand for goods – all sorts of goods – whether that's consumer staples, consumer discretionary – everything is going to see a big uptick and the town's really going to benefit from that."

Stone says those extra employees will need some place to live and that could spur the local housing market.

During 2018, the chamber plans to continue working with representatives of the Uptowne Olds committee on ways they can cooperate with each other. One example may be advertising each other's events.

He says the chamber will also be encouraging businesses to make use of its website and encouraging Olds businesses in general to have more of an online presence.

"That's something that definitely needs work, but I think that people are willing to make that change," he says.

On the negative side, Stone fears that increases in the carbon tax and the minimum wage imposed by the provincial government could hurt the Olds and area economy.

He fears tax changes announced by the federal government could also negatively affect local business people and entrepreneurs, thereby possibly slowing economic recovery.

However, Stone notes the feds appear to have backed off on those proposals and he anticipates they may not be implemented in their final form until much later – possibly the following year.

During the past year, the chamber obtained its own headquarters, after being operated out of homes for the past couple of decades. It's sharing space with the Olds Institute at the corner of 51st Avenue and 51st Street.

Stone says that move, along with changes to administrative staff and the partnership with OI, enable the chamber to serve businesses and the town more efficiently and effectively.

"When you talk about successes, that's obviously a significant success for the chamber, is to have a storefront location where business owners and entrepreneurs can stop in and they have access to just about anything," he says.

"If the chamber isn't equipped to answer their questions, we can refer them to various organizations that are very equipped to provide them with the answers they're looking for – whether they're looking to start up a business, grow their business, sell their business, become more efficient in their business, we definitely have all the resources to help people with that.

"That's definitely a focus for the chamber: increase the level of cooperation between all the various organizations that exist in the town of Olds."

Stone says there'll be a lot more changes to come, so the chamber, local businesses and town residents should expect that and be ready to adapt.

"The main message is that right now, there's a lot of change," he says. "You can look at change as a challenge or you can look at it as an opportunity, and I think we're looking at it as an opportunity.

"I think that's probably the best mindset for approaching 2018 is that we are going to see a significant amount of change and it's going to continue beyond 2018.

"We can either resist that or we can embrace it, and I think the chamber's wholeheartedly embracing that."