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Photo by Curtis Galbraith
By Curtis Galbraith
Local Business

Local businesses to give input on economic development strategy

Dec 3, 2019 | 2:21 PM

Businesses in several Peace Region communities will be asked to take part in a phone survey on business retention and expansion.

This is part of a Regional Economic Development Strategy being put together by the city, Sexsmith, Wembley, Beaverlodge, and Hythe.

City senior economic development officer Rebecca Leigh says the people putting together this plan want to connect with businesses in all of these municipalities.

“To get a good sense of some of the challenges they are facing or what’s really working well and what’s maybe not working well and how we can help support the different businesses. I think an important piece of this will be that really local perspective, so making sure that we’re drilling into exactly what the businesses in Beaverlodge are experiencing or what their need are and, similarly, with each of the other municipalities.”

She adds it is too early to say if there will be big differences between these communities.

“We’re just making sure that we are open to interpreting any of those differences and ensuring that we’re able to capture any nuances. I don’t have a good sense yet of where things will land but we definitely want to make sure we’re not missing anything by sort of grouping everything in together.”

Leigh says businesses will be asked several questions.

“Specifically to do with their municipality, their processes, where they interact with the town or the city, things that they’re experiencing in their individual markets, and then, it will also speak a little bit to regional economic strengths or challenges.”

The survey is being done by MDP Insight and will take about 15 minutes to complete. It will run through December 20. Results will be made public in the New Year

by Curtis Galbraith