Kevin Hanson – Division 1
Quick Bits
I have not heard any further news from the Province via our Administration about the Highway 8 cleanup project. Tendering was to be this spring, and the Provincial Budget is in the midst of being approved, so hopefully some further news comes to light after the budget is passed. Now that Policy C-350 was recently approved by Council, on February 27, we will decide on bringing forward $50K held over from the 2023 Economic Development Initiatives budget. This funding would be immediately available to both Bragg Creek and Langdon Chambers of Commerce in support of their recent grant applications. Further funding of 75K is included in the 2024 budget, for 2024 grant applications.
Tourism Alberta presents at BC Chamber and Council’s PPC Committee
Cameron Spence, Destination Development Manager, Foothills and Canadian Rockies, Travel Alberta, was at the February 21st Bragg Creek Chamber of Commerce meeting. Both myself and Arron Latimer, RVC’s Economic Development Manager were in attendance. It was a good chance for local business owners to hear first-hand the Provincial strategy to develop specific zones in Alberta tailored for more high value / experiential focussed destination tourism and looking for ways to spread visitation more evenly across the seasons. In addition to the information presented, there was also a good Q&A dialog between Cameron and Chamber members.
Back on January 17th, Cameron had also presented to all of Council, where he was joined by Dayna Smockum, Specialist, Corporate Communications and Engagement, Travel Alberta. They presented quite an aggressive strategy to help diversify the economy and outlined how the Province is specifically making investments to help grow this opportunity they have identified. They are patterning some of the planning efforts and best practices from other global successes in countries like Iceland and Ireland. This includes important concepts like regenerative tourism and having strong buy-in from the local areas.
Cameron described their fast-track effort as building the plane, while you are flying it. Bragg Creek is in an interesting position in that it is in the Foothills Tourism Development zone. He has said that it ultimately may end up having a regional destination management organization. This of course would be a complex initiative that would see Bragg Creek, Diamond Valley, Okotoks, High River, Nanton, and Longview collectively execute the region’s destination development and promotion with the goal of growing the visitor the area through 2035.
Cameron’s full presentation to Council is available on the Rocky View County Website – just look for Public Presentation Committee under the Meetings&Hearing tab. In the entry for the January 17th meeting, you can find the agenda as either HTML or PDF format for downloading.
Bragg Creek Seniors
The official January 31st opening of Rocky View Foundation’s new hotel conversion – Abrio Place – in Airdrie was unfortunately postponed in the days just before the event, based on Alberta Health Services advice. A new date has not been selected, but will likely be some time closer to the June-July time frame, once the cold and flue season is over with. The foundation continues to move forward with both Cochrane and Bragg Creek projects, and a steering committee for Bragg Creek has been struck and has had one meeting so far, with another scheduled for March 4th. Agenda items included reviewing applications for community representation, and review of proposals for updating the Housing Needs Assessment (step one of moving forward on land use redesignation for the site).
Contact: KRHanson@RockyView.ca or call 403.463.1166.
