WESTLOCK - Two of the three Westlock-area municipalities have received a $1-per-capita funding pitch from the newly-reformed WILD Alberta destination marketing organization (DMO), with both taking a wait-and-see approach.
Following a nearly 30-minute presentation at the March 14 Town of Westlock council meeting from WILD Alberta committee chair Walter Preugschas, WILD Alberta general manager Marvin Polis and committee member Shawn Fagan, who also manages the Westlock Golf Course, councillors asked administration to complete an analysis on budget impacts for further deliberations related to becoming a member of the group. At the March 17 Westlock County governance and priorities meeting, councillors received a similar presentation and accepted it as information with reeve Christine Wiese saying, “There’s definitely a need for what you’re doing here.” Meanwhile, Village of Clyde assistant CAO Jaye Parrent said via e-mail April 7 that they’ve yet to be approached by the organization.
Preugschas, who’s also a County of Barrhead councillor, said following meetings last summer they decided to relaunch WILD Alberta as a separate entity from GROWTH Alberta, with Polis noting it will be a “destination marketing organization” and have a “razor-sharp focus on tourism, only tourism and nothing but tourism” and be the “umbrella brand for the region northwest of Edmonton.”
Preugschas said tourism is an $8 billion business in Alberta and with the province is looking to increase that to $20 billion by 2030, they’re supporting a lot of tourist initiatives “particularly off-the-beaten-path-type of tourism initiatives.”
All three Westlock-area municipalities are currently not members of GROWTH Alberta, with the town being the last one to pull out effective Jan. 1, 2022 — the town paid $1.60 per capita, or about $8,000 annually. The Grizzly Regional Economic Alliance Society was a one-time alliance of 11 communities, two school boards and four supporting agencies based in Barrhead that was established in 2001 and incorporated as a not-for-profit society in September 2002 to “provide economic development support and promotion for its member communities.”
“So, I think we’re well situated to the northwest of the greater Edmonton area which has a population of 1.4 million. I think the timing for forming an association of this nature is good right now,” said Preugschas.
The organization is in the process of applying for a $150,000 federal Tourism Recovery Fund grant which will help fund two full-time staff who are working on a newly-crafted website that’ll feature videos and podcasts — social-media marketing and a magazine are also planned.
In addition to those dollars, the organization will use the municipal per capita funding, combined with provincial and federal grants and paid operator memberships, to keep its doors open with a tentative launch for the new website slated for the third quarter of 2022. As of mid-March, Preugschas said the Town of Swan Hills, Woodlands County, Town of Mayerthorpe, Lac Ste. Anne County and Alexander First Nation have agreed to join — he hopes to approach and sign up at least 12 area municipalities.
“They’re trying to include everyone in the initiative so that’s good,” Fagan told town councillors. “The initiative hasn’t been rushed or thrown together, it’s been slow and steady.”
“What we have here that GROWTH didn’t have is involvement from the tourism operations,” added Polis. “So, the scope is narrower than GROWTH but the participants are potentially broader than GROWTH. That’s our starting point.”
