Big Lakes County recently received $59,190 in provincial funding for its Economic Development Authority.
The money, coming from Alberta’s Community & Regional Economic Support (CARES) program, is set to go towards the Big Lakes Diversification and Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) Support Initiative.
Economic Development Officer Lisa Baroldi says it’s a pilot project that started last year.
“We identified five different sectors that are pretty critical to Big Lakes County,” Baroldi told the Trending 55 Newsroom. “They included Agriculture, Forestry, Energy, Transportation and Logistics, as well as Tourism. We ran the pilot in agriculture to start. And what we did is that we said, we want to start with information, because information is power.”
For each sector, the EDA gathers the information through research and tours as a first step to produce sector profiles. According to a news release, it then identifies opportunities for diversification and growth together with local companies and industry experts.
“They’re part of really innovative tours, or what we call, mobile workshops,” Baroldi continued. “It’s where we bring together experts from outside, and match them with experts from inside of the County. And then, we do one of these mobile workshops where we stop by various companies within the county, and we talk about what the challenges and the opportunities are in each sector.”
The Agricultural Tour took place held on October 18, 2016, and it was followed by a session in May 2017 when local business owners met with officials from Alberta Agriculture & Forestry (AF). More on the Agriculture sector in Big Lakes County can be found at https://www.docdroid.net/KVagZfy/blc0004-sectorprofiles-agriculture-1.pdf.html.
After conducting their tourism tour on Tuesday, June 27, 2017, the county is set to concentrate on the Energy sector next.
“This sector’s had some setbacks over the last couple of years,” said Baroldi. “We’re looking at bringing together some of the local companies buying up some of the assets in the area. And we really want to work with them to make sure that as a county, we’re supporting the work they’re doing, and to make sure they have all the information they need on how to be connected to the local-area governments.”
The energy tour is expected to take place on September 26, 2017.
“There’s a lot happening in the Town of High Prairie and in Big Lakes County,” Baroldi continued. “We want to make sure we’re attracting people here to build businesses, live here, get jobs here, and things like the new hospital improve trails to the hamlets in the county. These are all vital to a thriving economy.”
– Posted by BET
