Alberta SouthWest celebrates a year of outstanding regional achievement

AlbertaSW Board of Directors 2013
C. Davis photos

AlbertaSW press release

On the evening of Wednesday, June 5 at the Bayshore Inn, Waterton Park, the Alberta SouthWest Regional Economic Development Alliance (AlbertaSW) held its Annual General Meeting. Over 100 attendees gathered from across southwest Alberta, representing municipal and provincial government, education, media, tourism industry and local business.

Jaci Zalesak

The AlbertaSW AGM opened with welcoming remarks from partner organizations:
Ifan Thomas, Superintendent, Waterton Lakes National Park
Wynn McLean, VP Community Relations, Travel Alberta
JoAnn Kirkland, Executive Director, Destination Competitiveness Branch, Alberta Tourism Parks and Recreation
Peter Leclaire, VP Academic and Chief Learning Officer, Lethbridge College
Jaci Zalesak, Director of Client Relations, Chinook Country Tourist Association

Bjorn Berg

MD of Pincher Creek No. 9 Reeve Bjorn Berg said grace and all enjoyed an outstanding buffet dinner.

Shawn Patience

Fort Macleod Mayor and AlbertaSW Chair Shawn Patience presided over the AGM. After introducing special guests in attendance, he remarked: "This is really a member-driven, partnership-driven organization. We're successful because we have such tremendous partners."

The “Country Connections” group of projects is nearing successful implementation. With support from Alberta Municipal Affairs, the AlbertaSW region has implemented some highly collaborative and innovative projects.

Guest speakers reported on the implementation and results of four of the project components:

Rick Bulich

GyPSy Tour Guide: have your own personal guide in your vehicle
Rick Bulich, General Manager of GyPSy Tour Guide described the new GPS-guided tours of the region that are now available. Visitors and residents can rent a GyPSy Guide unit that is uploaded with over 50,000 words of professionally produced audio stories and information about the region, covering over1400km of roads and highways in the region. The information is also available as a smart phone app from the App Store and Google Play.

After extensive work in the tourism industry Rick and two partners founded a new company in 2005 to look at opportunities with GPS technology as a way to provide independent travellers to the Rockies with a guided tour experience. That led to GyPSy Guide which has the biggest GPS touring network in the world

Ingrid Been-Reuvekamp

Foreign Investment Attraction: new workers and new investment 
Ingrid Been-Reuvekamp, Immigration Consultant and AlbertaSW partner organization, talked about the successes of attracting foreign workers and new investment to the region. There are many opportunities in AlbertaSW and Ingrid is able to connect immigrants with this opportunities, potentially attracting new workers and business to the region.

After graduating with degrees in Agriculture, Ingrid began work as an Immigration Consultant in 1997, forming her own company Emigratiebureau.com in 2003. In 2011 Ingrid and her family immigrated to Brandon, MB  and in 2013opened Visa2Canada Immigration and Settlement Consultants. The Dutch office and the Canadian office will operate together.

Dylan Boyle

Crown of the Continent Geotourism: an international initiative 
Dylan Boyle, Crown of the Continent Geotourism Coordinator from Missoula MT presented an overview of the transboundary geotourism initiative. The Crown of the Continent Geotourism Initiative is a partnership of AlbertaSW, southeast BC and northwest Montana.

Dylan  lives in Missoula MT and is the Crown of the Continent Geotourism Coordinator. A  graduate of the University of Montana, he also spent two years with Montana Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research and is the author of some foundational documents on geotourism. . He has recently formed Geotravel Consulting, LLC, specializing in community education on responsible and authentic travel

Bob Dyrda

SouthWest Connect: regional website and Wi-Fi network
AlbertaSW Communications Coordinator, Bob Dyrda reported on collaborative website content development and community information sharing as well as the 19 Wi-Fi hot-spots and signage installed throughout the AlbertaSW region. These provide not only internet access to residents and visitors as well as information about things to do in the region. The user is taken to a landing page with information about the community and the region. This service has attracted 12,000 users to date, even as installation and signage are still in progress.

Bob has extensive experience in entrepreneurship and tourism business development, running his own businesses in Canada and in tropical locations. He returned to Canada and worked as Tourism Manager for Tourism Kimberley before moving to Alberta. Bob has Bachelor of Commerce degree in Entrepreneurial Management and runs his own business, ABC Brochure Distribution and also works on developing new entrepreneurship ventures.

AGM Business
Following the guest speakers, Chair Shawn Patience continued with the business items of the AlbertaSW AGM.

AlbertaSW Secretary/Treasurer Mayor David Moore, Mayor of Claresholm and Secretary Treasurer of AlbertaSW 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 elected official to the Board. Each community has one vote.

AlbertaSW Board of Directors 2013:

Mr. Shawn Patience, Mayor, Town of Fort Macleod, Chair
Dr. Brian "Barney" Reeves, Mayor, ID#4 Waterton Park, Vice-Chair
Mr. David Moore, Mayor, Town of Claresholm, Secretary/Treasurer
Mr. Ernie Olsen, Mayor, Town of Pincher Creek
Mr. Phil Wakelin, Councillor, Municipal District of Willow Creek #26
Dr. Bjorn Berg, Reeve, Municipal District of Pincher Creek #9
Dr. Bruce Decoux, Mayor, Municipality of Crowsnest Pass
Mr. Ben Goetz, Mayor, Village of Glenwood
Mr. Walter Gripping, Deputy Mayor, Town of Granum
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 Kittlaus, Councillor, Village of Cowley

Mayor Patience also expressed appreciation for the work of the Executive Director Bev Thornton and Communications Coordinator Bob Dyrda.

"The future is indeed bright for this organization," Patience concluded, "The reality is that we are all small communities… and through collaboration we can do things that we could not do on our own. That means sustainable communities; that means a stronger future for our entire region, and I'm very much looking forward to it."

Pincher Creek Mayor Ernie Olsen, Economic Dev. Wendy Kalkan, CAO Laurie Wilgosh

The Crowsnest Pass table

Pincher Creek and District Chamber of Commerce
President Sharon Roberts and Administrator Lieve Parisis

Bertha and Terry Yagos, Helen and Clarence Cyr, Clara Yagos

Bjorn and Debbie Berg, Betty and Rod Cyr

AlbertaSW Executive Director Bev Thornton

About AlbertaSW     
AlbertaSW has had a banner year, winning the 2012 Economic Development Association of Canada (EDAC) EDAC Cup for outstanding marketing initiatives. AlbertaSW had received four other national marketing awards, and the Cup recognized the “best of the best”. At the recent Economic Developers Alberta (EDA) Conference, AlbertaSW received two top awards: The Regional Business License Program received the prestigious Alex Metcalf Project Award, and Bev Thornton, AlbertaSW Executive Director, was named “Economic Developer of the Year” for Alberta.

AlbertaSW actively promotes business and industry development in three key areas: tourism and geotourism, 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.

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 at www.albertasouthwest.com