Alberta SouthWest celebrates a year of growth, change, and innovation

press release

The Alberta SouthWest Regional Economic Development Alliance (AlbertaSW) held its Annual General Meeting the evening of Wednesday, June 6 in the Fort Macleod Community Hall. Over one hundred people gathered from communities across all of southwestern Alberta, representing municipal and provincial government, education, media, tourism industry and local business.

AlbertaSW actively promotes business and industry development in three key areas: tourism and geotourism development, energy and alternative energy and agriculture and value added agriculture. Projects are designed to support and retain business in the region, looking at ways to attract new investment and creating synergistic relationships to further the growth of the region.

AlbertaSW Board of Directors

AlbertaSW has had a banner year, winning the 2012 Summit International Bronze Award in the Community Website category, and three 2012 Economic Developers of Alberta Awards of Excellence for Regional Marketing Campaign, for Creative Innovations (Man on the Street interviews and video), and Use of Social Media in a Marketing Campaign.


The Country Connections group of projects will be unveiled over the upcoming weeks. A Wi-Fi pilot project implemented in Fort Macleod in summer 2011 has proven to be very successful in the year since it was initiated, so the next step is to install Wi-Fi hot-spots throughout the AlbertaSW region, providing not only internet access but also increased information about things to do in the region. The intent is to encourage visitors to stay longer and do more things in the region.

Also, a GPS-guided tour of the region will become available this summer. AlbertaSW looks forward to providing more detail about these new initiatives over the upcoming months.

Mayor Ernie Olsen of Pincher Creek
and Mayor Shawn Patience of Fort Macleod

Fort Macleod Mayor and AlbertaSW Chair Shawn Patience presided over the AGM. Crowsnest Pass Councillor Jerry Lonsbury said grace before attendees sat down to a delicious supper catered by Fort Macleod's Luigi's Restaurant. After dinner, Patience again took to the podium. After introducing special guests in attendance, he got down to the business of the day. "This is really a member-driven, partnership-driven organization," he said. "I think we're successful because we have such tremendous partners."

Retiring Lethbridge College President and CEO Dr. Tracy Edwards was the first guest speaker of the evening. "Today was a big day at the College," she said, explaining that earlier in the day Peter Leclaire had been named Interim President. Leclaire was also in attendance. "Peter's been with the College 20 years," she said, “and he's done just about every job there is. He's very qualified for this role, and I know he will do a good job for you."

"Lethbridge College … we are your College in southern Alberta," continued Edwards. "Our stewardship region runs from the B.C. border over to the edge of 40 Mile County, and from Montana up to Nanton. We serve your communities."

"We need a skilled and talented workforce to be successful, and it's the mandate of Lethbridge College to serve this region well."

University of Lethbridge President
Dr. Mike Mahon

University of Lethbridge President Dr. Mike Mahon was next to address the crowd. Mahon is also the Chair of the Sustainable and Regional Development Committee of the Alberta Economic Development Authority (AEDA).

"We only exist because the community in Lethbridge and southern Alberta came together and said 'We need a University'," he explained. "We owe a huge debt to the community that came together to create the University in the first place, and so we remain committed to ensuring that we create opportunities for young people in southern Alberta." Mahon spoke with a glowing pride of the University's recent expansion into the Nanton area, and of its ongoing commitment to the rest of southern Alberta.

Mahon concluded with a few words about AEDA. He said the AEDA Board had decided, "It's probably time for AEDA to reconnect with the economic development groups around the province and explore how AEDA can help to support the activities that are taking place in the various regions”. He went on to say, “We need to look at how we can support economic development strategies from a regional perspective."

Travel Alberta Industry Relations Director Marty Eberth explained the new Cooperative Marketing Program (formerly known as TDR funding) which is restructured as of April 1, 2012. "The criteria for cooperative marketing remains relatively unchanged," she said, before explaining a couple of exceptions to that. "Now we only need to have two partners to come together to form a consortium. Another thing that's new for southern Alberta is that in-kind contributions are now eligible."

Eberth also unveiled Travel Alberta's stunning new advertising video, which has already received over one million views on YouTube. Excerpts will be featured in upcoming Travel Alberta marketing campaigns.

Following the guest speakers, Chair Shawn Patience continued with the official agenda of the AlbertaSW AGM.

AlbertaSW Secretary/Treasurer Phil Wakelin presented the annual financial report.

Mayor patience also acknowledged the hard work of the AlbertaSW Board of Directors. Each of the 15 municipalities in AlbertaSW appoints one representative, the Mayor, Reeve or Designate to the Board; each community has one vote.

AlbertaSW Board of Directors 2012:

Mr. Shawn Patience, Mayor, Town of Fort Macleod, Chair
Dr. Brian "Barney" Reeves, Mayor, ID#4 Waterton Park, Vice-Chair
Mr. Phil Wakelin, Councillor, Municipal District of Willow Creek #26, Secretary/Treasurer
Dr. Bjorn Berg, Councillor, Municipal District of Pincher Creek #9
Dr. Bruce Decoux, Mayor, Municipality of Crowsnest Pass
Mr. Benjamin Goetz, Mayor, Village of Glenwood
Mr. David Moore, Mayor, Town of Claresholm
Mr. Walter Gripping, Councillor, Town of Granum
Mr. Ernie Olsen, Mayor, Town of Pincher Creek
Mr. Dennis Gillespie, Councillor, Town of Stavely
Mr. Dick Fenton, Councillor, Town of Nanton
Mr. Bob Campbell, Councillor, Village of Hill Spring
Mr. Shane Hansen, Councillor, Cardston County
Mr. Ron Davis, Councillor, Municipal District of Ranchland #66
Mrs. Mary Kitlaus, Councillor, Village of Cowley

AlbertaSW Executive Director
Bev Thornton

Introducing Executive Director Ms. Bev Thornton to the crowd, Patience said, "For those of you who don't know Bev well, she really is the heartbeat of AlbertaSW, and is one of the reasons that we do extremely well."

"The future is indeed bright for this organization," Patience concluded, "and it's bright because we have a lot of people that buy into it, believe in it. The reality is this: we are all small communities...if we can make better use of the resources that we have and that are available, if we can partner with other communities to make ourselves bigger, to do things that we could not do on our own, that lends to increased sustainability in communities in our region. That means stronger communities; that means a stronger future for our entire region, and I'm very much looking forward to it."


About AlbertaSW
   
Alberta SouthWest Regional Alliance (AlbertaSW) is a Regional Economic Development Alliance (REDA) of 15 communities working together to support economic development. The region has a population of about 33,000 is located in the southwest corner of Alberta, bordering on British Columbia and Montana. The communities identify shared economic development goals and collaborate to create the right environment in which balanced growth can occur, increasing prosperity for all communities.

What defines AlbertaSW is the character and authenticity of its rural communities and pride in living here. The communities and businesses want to see each other succeed, and support each other because when one community thrives, there is the potential for every community to benefit. This collaboration is key to the success of the AlbertaSW region.
The award-winning AlbertaSW website offers a wealth of valuable information and resources www.albertasouthwest.com