Westlock County administration will begin examining the feasibility of creating a paid economic development officer/volunteer coordinator position jointly with the Town of Westlock.
Coun. Don Savage brought forward a notice of motion at the Nov. 26 meeting, which normally means the motion itself will be debated at a future meeting.
Instead, councillors chose to vote on the motion right away, thereby directing administration to being looking into the merits of establishing a “joint Regional Economic Development Officer/Community Volunteer Collaboration Program” with the town.
“I would like to see it start happening, get the ball rolling,” he said.
“I would suggest we make the motion to direct administration.”
He explained that the intent would be to create a paid position to have a permanent staff member who would promote the town and county at trade shows around the province and beyond, as well as help to organize volunteer efforts within the community.
With respect to having someone attend trade fairs, he pointed to the success the county saw with sending a delegation to a trade show in Fort McMurray several years ago.
County administrator Edward LeBlanc said the trade show in question, which took place in 2006 or 2007, was successful in garnering interest in the Westlock area.
“There was a lot of interest in terms of real estate, housing prices, community lifestyle of Westlock in comparison to Fort McMurray,” he said. “I thought it was really worthwhile.”
He added that following the trade show, Fort McMurray-area realtors reported to him that there was an increased interested in the Westlock area.
The economic development officer would perform a function similar to what GROWTH Alberta currently does, but would be focused exclusively on Westlock and the surrounding county.
With respect to volunteer coordination, Savage pointed to the recent example of the Alberta 55 Plus Summer Games, in which 450 volunteers from the town and the county got involved.
Despite that large number, there are several volunteer organizations in the area that are struggling to find enough volunteers to maintain their operations.
“We have societies that are failing here,” Savage said,. “It’s just the same people doing the same work all the time.”
Councillors agreed in principal with the idea, but some expressed reservations about hiring a new employee for the position.
“I think by itself it’s a good idea, but to pay somebody to do it, I don’t agree with that,” Coun. Mel Kroetsch said.
As for the possibility of collaborating with the town, Savage said representatives from Municipal Affairs have pushed for more collaboration among municipalities in a region.
“The big word in government now is collaboration — two municipalities working together,” he said.
“They really lean heavily on the fact they want municipalities to start collaborating, and certainly they’ll look at these municipalities in a different light.”
Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger said last week that while he had heard the county would discuss the proposal, he wasn’t aware of what exactly was discussed and that it would be premature to comment on it.
“Normally that would be something we would discuss at our joint services committee, which is coming next week,” he said.
“It would be more appropriate to discuss it with council before I comment on it, I think.”
