Christopher Knoch, a senior economic advisory consultant with Deloitte, presents the Investment Attraction Strategy to Cypress County council members on Tuesday afternoon.-News Photo Anna Smith
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
After months of study and engagement, Cypress County has received some direction on its next economic moves.
The county received funding at the beginning of the year to pursue an investment attraction strategy, for which it partnered with Deloitte, which then presented its report back to council Tuesday.
The presented 10-year strategy identified a series of strengths and weaknesses for the region, based on research and feedback from staff and extant businesses within the county, said Christopher Knoch, senior economic advisory consultant, allowing for the county to both capitalize on short-term opportunities and build iteratively on longer-term goals.
“We began this project back in May, and it’s honestly been a bit of a whirlwind to complete a project of this size in this short timeframe,” said Knoch. “But I think it’s a testament to the efficiency of the team that we had the chance to work with.”
The report found the county was experiencing strong growth as far as the number of jobs in the region, at roughly 22 per cent, with a strong majority in agriculture. It was noted the concentration of jobs in agriculture was five times the provincial average. There is also a “fairly high degree of employment concentration in areas such as public administration.”
Strong points included a responsive staff to address business concerns, effective business retention and expansion programs, as well as clear land-use bylaws, which are attractive to investors. Conversely, potential deterrents identified were limited space for commercial and industrial use, challenges accessing property inventory and certain utility constraints.
The region was marked as having a strong emergent potential for aerospace and defence, agri-tourism and environmental services, while maintaining strong priorities in agriculture, resource extraction and transportation.
“There are always workforce challenges related to attraction or retention. One of them mentioned here is access to affordable housing; sometimes not just affordable housing, but also the right mix of housing stock can be a challenge,” said Knoch.
Greater access to amenities or complementary businesses was also noted.
Council passed two motions; to approve the investment strategy as presented and endorse its implementation, and to direct administration to develop a phased implementation plan.
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