OLDS — Coun. Wanda Blatz is disappointed that Olds isn’t a partner in the Mountain View Regional Film Office, created to lure film and TV crews as well as related tourism in the county.
Blatz voiced that concern during council’s May 8 meeting. Mayor Judy Dahl and chief administrative officer Brent Williams were sympathetic to that feeling but suggested there’s a chance Olds may be included later.
Creation of the office was announced earlier this spring.
The issue came up as council reviewed a summation in its correspondence of a Mountain View Area Partnership (MAP) meeting which included an explanation of the regional film office and its goals.
“I see that it’s a regional film office, but I notice that it’s only the towns of Didsbury, Sundre and Mountain View County,” Blatz said.
“I noted that the Town of Olds nor the Town of Carstairs was included in this and I found that kind of disappointing I guess, to say the least.”
Blatz admitted she didn’t know all the ins and outs of why Olds was not included.
However, “I would think in light of all the economic development strategies we’re trying to put forth that we would want to be included in this type of a collaboration,” she said.
Dahl said there’s a chance Olds will be invited to join the group “through some work that I’ve been doing,” adding she’d like to explain all that to council at a later time.
Williams said the Town of Olds wasn’t aware of the regional film office announcement until it was made.
“I don’t know the current status, but we didn’t receive the invitation, so we don’t want to intrude," he said.
“I didn’t attend the last MAP meeting but there could be opportunity if that’s council’s wish, but council has to find time to discuss that (at a future meeting),” he said.
The MAP summation did say that “eventually the (regional film office) aspires to increase capacity and grow its membership.”
In a related matter, Blatz was pleased that correspondence also included a letter from Mountain View County stating that the county’s council had approved providing $10,000 toward funding Olds' Business Retention, Expansion and Workforce Development program.
“I look forward to continuing to collaborate on economic development opportunities that support businesses located within our communities,” Mountain View County director of legislative, community and agricultural services Christofer Atchison wrote.
Blatz described that announcement as “great news.”
“Thank you to our regional partners in Mountain View County for their support and collaboration on economic development,” she added.
