WESTLOCK – There has been an increased interest by investors in Westlock County and administration is working with consultants to determine potential development locations, Chief Administrative Officer Tony Kulbisky told council during their December budget discussions.
Once the consultants determine potential development areas in the county, administration will bring the reports to council.
“We have had a lot of, I wouldn’t say tire kickers, but people who have expressed interest in actually wanting to invest in our region,” said Kulbisky. “That’s promising. That means the word is getting out there that the Westlock County region is actually open for business and exploring every opportunity that is coming our way. Some of it is small scale. Some of it is medium scale. We want to land the larger scale ones and those opportunities still exist.”
One challenge, however, is the lack of availability of serviced land suitable for large-scale developments, said Kulbisky. To address this, he said the county is working with industry leaders, complements of grant funding to identify where those developments should be. He said they are looking at the main highway corridors and rail line in terms of development sites.
In addition to attracting new businesses, Kulbisky emphasized the importance of supporting existing businesses.
“You can’t focus all your efforts on attracting new business into your region you have to also look at your current businesses and try to help them expand if at all possible and retain what you have. So we have spent a lot of work and time identifying who those major players are and we have identified agriculture as our top priority. We need to have conversations with those producers to make sure we are bringing in economic development that is going to support that industry.”
Coun. Jared Stitsen said the county should start putting aside funds in reserves for future development projects.
“We should be putting money into this. Things can come up with this at any point. We see some developer come and we need X amount of cash to get things rolling and we are going to be sitting here twiddling our thumbs and they might bypass us because we’re not ready.”
Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson asked if council had provided any direction in this area while he was on leave.
Reeve Christine Wiese said council hasn’t had any planning discussions but they will once the necessary reports are available.
The reports from the consultants are expected to be presented to council in early 2025, with further discussions on investment opportunities to follow.
