Kenney names Hat as ‘hub’ prospect for digital wave

By COLLIN GALLANT on March 18, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Rural Alberta – and specifically Medicine Hat and Lethbridge – have a place in the digital economy, Premier Jason Kenney told a conference of county leaders on Wednesday, citing southern Alberta’s two mid-sized centres as potential “hubs” of interest to expanding digital companies.

The comments came near the end of speech to the Rural Municipalities of Alberta spring conference, where he touted his government’s commitment to infrastructure projects to diversify the economy. That includes highway construction on ag corridors, for example, but also the expansion of rural internet service, he said.

“Often we think of digital and tech sectors as being big city industries but they are not,” said Kenney.

“We recognize that the future of rural economic development will in part depend on getting digital connectivity to rural communities.”

Last week, India tech giant Infosys announced it would create a Canadian operations hub in Calgary, taking advantage of vacant office space and available white-collar workforce following downturn and job losses in the energy sector.

He said the province would “accelerate conductivity” across Alberta through talks with companies and federal programs to bring higher-speed internet service for businesses and rural communities.

That includes a move to 5G service levels and making so called “final mile” investments to add faster services to smaller, remote communities.

Such a move would be “a game changer.”

After the Infosys announcement “I got a call from the president of another global tech company asking about the possibility of creating hundreds and potentially thousands of new positions to create centres of excellence in digital engineering in communities like Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, which would have huge spin-offs for their surrounding communities,” said Kenney.

“I’m bullish about Alberta’s potential to hit that critical mass in the digital economy and for rural Alberta to participate in it.”

Cypress County council has sent letters of support to the province to take advantage of federal funding to expand service.

Federal government final mile program

Kenney also referenced a focus of digital infrastructure by the Canada Infrastructure Banks, which recently finalized a deal with the Alberta government and irrigation districts to finance an $815-million expansion and rehabilitation program.

That deal was touted in Kenney’s general comments, as well as flood spillway construction near Taber, and Highway 3 twinning from Taber to Burdett.

“Alberta has launched a recovery plan to build and diversify and create thousands of jobs, a big part of that is an investment in infrastructure, and rural Alberta benefits disproportionately from that because most provincial infrastructure is outside cities,” he said.

Kenney also said his government’s $1.3-billion investment in the now-cancelled Keystone XL pipeline “created thousands of jobs in eastern Alberta and created a small economic boom in communities like Oyen.”

He said the government is “deeply disappointed” in the revoking of the permit by new U.S. President Joe Biden, Kenney spoke with Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte this week and will later discuss the matter with U.S. Senate leaders on the energy committee.

“There continues to be strong support for the project across the United States and that project’s not done,” he said.