BARRHEAD - The County of Barrhead has decided not to renew its membership in GROWTH Alberta.
On May 3, following an in-camera session, councillors passed a motion not to renew their membership, which expired at the end of April.
GROWTH Alberta, founded in 2001, is one of nine Regional Economic Development Alliances (REDA) in the province. Their purpose is to create economic growth through marketing.
At one time, GROWTH's membership roster was in the teens, but in recent years that number has dwindled. Presently, it has three members: Woodlands County, Swan Hills and Mayerthorpe.
The county's membership contribution was $9,000 annually.
Although councillors decided not to remain a part of GROWTH, they voted to allow Coun. Walter Preugschas, council's current GROWTH representative, to continue contribute to the organization's WILD Alberta tourism brand efforts.
Currently, the WILD brand is characterized mainly by an annual tourism brochure, with the latest version scheduled to be published by the Victoria Day long weekend and distributed in select Edmonton region locations. It will also be available at yet-to-be determined locations locally and online via its WILD Alberta website (www.wildalberta.com), populated mostly with podcasts and short featurettes on participating tourism operators.
For going on two years, GROWTH has been focusing on re-launching its WILD brand, which was dormant for over two years as a separate but connected entity — a study they commissioned in 2017 and 2018 recommended.
After the meeting, reeve Doug Drozd said it was a tough decision as the municipality has been an active member of the organization for many years. In preparation for the decision, councillors instructed administration staff to collect the meeting minutes and financial documents from GROWTH that would help council gauge the benefits the municipality received from its membership.
"We wanted to go through (the information) because we suspected that GROWTH was a bit rudderless, not going in any one direction," he said. "Although we always did value the concept they were trying to get to through their tourism initiative ... we thought it is better to back away from GROWTH and support it through the WILD initiative until the REDA side can get itself together in some form that we can find value in."
In the meanwhile, Drozd said they would continue to look for ways to grow economic development, by looking for other partnerships, including that with the Town of Barrhead.
"It makes good sense to brand Barrhead together," he said.
Preugschas said he was disappointed in council's decision, saying he believed the GROWTH's "WILD" brand was starting to get traction. He noted the website, after initially experiencing some technical issues, was being filled with more content from interested tourism operators.
He also noted that WILD recently hosted two networking sessions, one in Fort Assiniboine in February and another a month later in Westlock.
"They were really successful, well-attended, and the operators who participated are all really keen in working together and learning about each other's operations so they can refer visitors of their attraction to other places and activities in the region," Preugschas said.
Presently, on the WILD side of GROWTH's operation, Lac Ste. Anne County, Onoway and Alexander First Nation are official members. Preugschas said many other communities and operators have expressed their support but, as of yet, have not contributed financially.
While GROWTH has been bleeding members for several years, it really started getting into difficulties in the spring of 2020 when its provincial grant funding expired and a lengthy delay in getting its next funding allocation occurred due to a government review of the REDA program. This forced the organization to run entirely on membership funds, and as a result, GROWTH temporarily suspended operations in October of that year.
When they eventually inked a new three-year contract with the province it was for $50,000 annually, half of its previous funding.
During their temporary closure, long-time executive director Troy Grainger left the organization, and the vacancy was filled only recently.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
