Alberta Premier Jim Prentice made Cochrane his first stop on Oct. 28 — the morning after his victorious sweep of the Alberta Progressive Conservative (PC) byelections that earned the party seats in all four ridings of the provincial legislature, including his own Calgary-Foothills riding, the evening before.
Prentice, accompanied by the Alberta Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Verlyn Olson, addressed a room of media and stakeholders at the MacKay’s Ice Cream factory — announcing the launch of the Rural Economic Development Plan.
Mayor Ivan Brooker, Cochrane Councillor Tara McFadden, Councillor Gaynor Levisky and Banff-Cochrane MLA Ron Casey were also in attendance.
“This will help everyone in rural Alberta expand their businesses,” said Casey, praising the provincial task force for their hard work in developing the plan.
The selection of MacKay’s Ice Cream as the location for the announcement was not at random — as business owners, Mark and Meghan (MacKay) Tayfel, were acknowledged by Prentice as a rural business success story.
Marked as the blueprint for future rural economic success, the plan outlines strategies and actions to grow Alberta’s rural economy to ensure that Alberta is the best climate for North America for small businesses.
The plan echoes last week’s announcement by Prentice of the new ‘Small Business Strategy’ designed to make life easier for entrepreneurs by putting clarified information for small business owners on one website; learn more at smallbusiness.alberta.ca.
Prentice said the plan would “foster an environment for entrepreneurs to do the best they can” — highlighting small feed lot owners, new farmers and family farms as a few who would benefit from the initiative.
One of the first steps to implement the plan includes the government doubling funding for the Agriculture Opportunity Fund.
There will also be changes to the Feeder Association Loan Guarantee Program (came into effect this past summer). It will double the maximum individual loan limit to $1 million (allowing cattle feeders to access more capital in higher-price market).
“We thought hosting this event would be a good way to showcase what we are doing,” said Mark, citing Alberta Agriculture as a source of consulting assistance for the growing ice cream business.
“It’s about promoting small businesses and providing more resources for small businesses and helping grow Alberta’s agriculture (industry) and rural businesses.”
Rural Alberta is considered, an important economic driver and a critical component of Alberta’s Economic Development Framework, with a provincial economic footprint estimated at $77 billion.
The plan focuses on five keys areas: industry and business development (to assist rural businesses with growth opportunities in all markets, increase tourism and culture-based businesses in rural communities); finance and capital access (to improve access to capital for rural entrepreneurs); attraction, retention and entrepreneurial development (to implement policies and programs that attract and retain families, immigrants, skilled workers, graduates and First Nations to rural communities); rural business infrastructure capacity (to increase capacity industry, enhance innovation and technology infrastructure to ensure rural businesses remain competitive and to create alignment with Water for Life Action Plan); and regional and cross-regional collaboration (to enable improved collaboration between regions in Alberta for improved service delivery).
