Rural Albertans will be asked to help create a rural economic development action plan over the next six weeks, said Alberta agriculture minister Verlyn Olson.
Five government MLAs will travel to eight rural Alberta communities in March and April looking for ideas about how to maintain and enhance the economy of rural Alberta.
“We want to ensure we have the right government programs and services in place and they’re working together to maximize benefits for our communities,” Olson said during a conference call.
“We want to maintain and enhance conditions to ensure that economy grows and will be beneficial to all Albertans.”
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About 500 people will be invited to the discussions, which will focus on five themes: industry and business development; financial and capital access; workforce development;, regional co-ordination and rural economic infrastructure capacity.
“We don’t want unfocused meandering around the province.”
Olson said the provincial government wants to ensure communities have the resources they need to help establish new value-added industries.
Alberta premier Alison Redford joined the conference call to encourage participation in the discussion.
“This is an incredibly important discussion that we need to have that will lead to very specific action in the next two years that is going to allow us to keep opening new markets, to invest in families and communities and ensure we continue to grow,” she said.
“It’s about ongoing economic development through the province focusing on rural Alberta where we have such tremendous amount of opportunity.”
Olson said the information gathered during the discussions will form the basis of a report to help guide government decisions.
“We want to ensure we have the right government programs and services in place and they’re working together to maximize benefits for our communities,” he said.
“It will help us focus on a clear set of shared priorities with our community partners.”
Olson said he acknowledges other studies have also focused on rural Alberta, but he hopes this will help identify everything from “quick fixes” to long-term visions.
“We want to hear some visioning for long-term and legacy projects that will make a difference a couple generations down the road,” he said.
“I am all in favour of wish lists.”
Olson said an example of a quick fix may be AFSC increasing its lending limit to farmers.
Olson said opposition MLAs would not be part of the committee.
