Sundre town councillors have been given an update on a proposed new economic development strategy for the municipality.
In a presentation to the governance committee (which is made up of all council members) last week, economic development officer Linda Wallace went through the seven-page plan outlining the strategy.
The strategy, which has been prepared at the request of council, outlines economic development measures that could help the town's growth over the short and long terms.
“This document looks at the immediate steps necessary to getting Sundre back on the road to growth and development,” said Wallace. “Strong statements of brand - who we are, who we want to be, what sets us apart from other communities - stand at the top of successful economic development efforts, as this is what drives our long-term strategy.
“For now, though, the overriding mantra for all of our strategic and action planning needs to be the old adage ‘Don't try to sell what you can't deliver'. This is a kiss-of-death mistake for communities to make, and it should be the point we start from. It's very difficult to win someone back once you've lost them by over-promising - and that is true for a tourist, a potential resident or a potential new business.”
The proposed strategy is divided into a number of so-called streams: foundation-building, building from within, and attracting new investment.
The foundation-building section, which Wallace explained has to do with ‘community readiness', sets out to answer the following:
• Do we have the answers we need, ready at hand, when we have an opportunity to interact with a potential new resident, tourist or business?
• Do we have the ‘Quality of Place' to attract those three groups?
• Do we have the strength and capacity in our infrastructure to support new growth?
• Do our bylaws and land use plans contribute to the strength of our existing business sector and facilitate future growth?
The foundation building section is itself divided into three subsections: profile and promotional materials; land availability, infrastructure issues and bylaws; and quality of place.
The profile and promotional materials subsection calls for an update of the town's online profile.
“In partnership with Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP), the site will be updated and enhanced . . . as it is the primary tool used by investors, site selectors or site developers. If we don't have data readily accessible on our website, we eliminate ourselves from consideration,” she said.
The subsection also calls for the development of a business attraction package, including information sheets that include specific types of data that investors are interested in.
“This must go beyond the quality of life information and get to the ‘meat' of what investors need to know, including such things as demographics, building and development permit statistics, employment information, and economic indicators, she said.
The package would also include a land inventory and business directory.
The land availability subsection states, in part: “Though the desire to build and attract new business and industry is clear, we have no serviced land for industry to develop on. There is a small amount of serviced land in private hands.
“We have to determine how Sundre will address this gap, and council has indicated that it wants to explore development of a business park. Whether we take on the role of developer, or we make specific effort to entice others to do that, we need to make that decision and take steps to ensure this happens.”
Among other things, the subsection calls for a review of current bylaws that impact the business sector, “find that balance between upholding our desire for orderly and progressive development, and yet not hindering that development.”
The Quality of Place subsection calls for, among other things, the “continuation of work done in 2008 to examine the Highway 27 corridor. We need to define an aesthetic that presents the image we want to portray and determine what we will do, not what we could do.
“Since we cannot rebuild our downtown, we need to determine what we can do to define our downtown and ‘package' it in a manner that works for residents and delivers on how we want to sell ourselves as a community.”
The Building from Within section calls for the town to follow up on municipal issues arising from the 2011 visitation-survey process, support of the Sundre and District Chamber of Commerce in “any projects they take on, as arising from that process”, and continue to strengthen the town's engagement with the Central Alberta Access Prosperity regional economic development organization.
The Attracting New Investment section says, in part, that the town has “work to do in determining what opportunities truly exist in Sundre, what kinds of business/industry we want to go after, and what is our statement to them about competitive advantage.”
Specific steps proposed include making strategic visits to parent companies of businesses that already exist here for consideration of expansion or supply-chain opportunities, and having a similar strategy for companies operating in the region but having no current presence in Sundre.
Council would have to pass a motion to accept the strategy as official town policy, said Mayor Annette Clews.
Council has forwarded the strategy to budget deliberations.
